In 2005, Noah's Arc made history as the first scripted television series to center on a group of Black gay men. I'll never forget sneaking off to watch the Logo show as a Black gay kid who was craving any semblance of myself represented in media.
Although I was, admittedly, too young for some of the storylines at the time, Noah's Arc was the first time I felt seen on screen. The characters showed me the possibility of what I could be as a Black gay person.
As fate would have it, I had a chance to interview the titular character, Noah, played by Darryl Stephens, for Black History Month. We discussed his favorite scene from the beloved show, his favorite fan encounter, and why he felt he couldn't be openly queer in Hollywood back then. Check out our full-circle conversation ahead.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What do you remember the first time you heard of Noah’s Arc?
Darryl Stephens: There was a lot of excitement for Noah's Arc. Patrik-Ian Polk, the show's creator, had done [the movie] Punks, and I think most of us who were [auditioning] were aware of and had great respect for it. Punks was a project where we finally got to see folks who looked like us having full lives on screen.
Before Noah's Arc was picked up by Logo and went into a series, Patrik was shooting it independently in his apartment. It was initially going to be an independently financed, guerilla project that went straight to either DVD or video-on-demand. I don't remember there being a very clear moment of "Here's the script." It was more like, "Okay, we're going to try this." It was all very by the seat of our pants. Patrik likes to say it was funded with the lint at the bottom of his pocket.
What excited you most about being a part of the show?
We were excited about it because it was Black and queer. We're all doing it because we loved the idea of bringing these characters to life for the audience that we had in mind. Quite honestly, we didn't expect that it would go to a cable network and that we would see it all over the world eventually.
My biggest focus was figuring out who Noah was. I'd never seen a character like him on screen. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to be playing him. If you look at earlier iterations of Noah, [I played] boyish and sex kitten versions of him. By the time we shot the pilot before Logo picked us up, I figured out who he was. But for a long time, I was wondering, "Who is this guy?"
Is there a scene that you're most proud of?
The moment in the first episode when Noah is on the phone with his friends. Ironically, he's sitting in [his love interest] closet, talking to his friends about what he had just experienced with this straight guy, [Wade], that he had been hanging out with. A tear fell out of my eye [while filming]. I thought, "Oh, this is a real emotional moment." Just that confession, and that feeling of young love washing over this young, queer, Black feminine man who was embarking on a romantic relationship for the first time.
Seeing what that looks like was a huge moment for television. We didn't get to see us falling in love in that way. Particularly the sensitive, femme-presenting boy. [Outside of] the brilliant Michael K. Williams on The Wire, [Noah's Arc] was the first time I got to see a Black gay man's experience falling in love on screen, and that was very special.
What did you learn about yourself playing Noah?
I broke out in hives during a scene in the first episode where Wade and Noah are about to have a threesome. I had welts on my face because I was so stressed out about what I was tasked with, in terms of making a show that had gone to series for Logo. I was stressed out and a little overwhelmed with the idea of being the lead on the show. I'd only done a couple of things at that point. It wasn't like I was a seasoned acting professional, I was just getting my feet wet.
I realized the reality that I was the lead of the show and I [felt the pressure of], "If I don't pull it together and do what I need to do, none of this works." I learned that the best way to learn is to jump in. And then I was like, "Oh, I can do this now". The first time I learned that was when I did the first season of Noah's Arc.
Although Noah's Arc is beloved now, that wasn't always the case.
It makes sense that the initial responses to the show were negative in the context of what was happening culturally. I think Entertainment Weekly gave us a D-minus review. You have to remember that, in 2005, straight acting was the norm [for some queer people]. Noah's Arc challenged that directly. I think, at the time, a lot of Black gay men thought, "You can't air our dirty laundry. We're not ready for that yet." It was very harsh. We were not getting accolades for it until much later.
When did you notice a shift in how the show was received?
After the episode about fem-phobia where Wade was afraid to bring Noah around his straight friends because Noah is so [feminine]. Noah says something like, "Well, if you want me to dress like a thug, I can be a thug. What do you want from me?" I think that forced the folks who are watching and ready to criticize us for being who we were to stop and say, "Maybe we are being a little too harsh," and "Maybe we should take a look at what we are being judgmental about, and what that says about how we feel about ourselves."
I heard the show is getting a reboot. What can you tell us?
I can tell you we wrapped shooting in October 2022. The reboot was going to launch last year and then the strike pushed [it] back. That's all I can tell you. Hopefully, it'll launch this year.
Did you ever feel pressure to hide your sexuality for the sake of your acting career?
I've written a book where I talk about how, as a young actor, [I was] influenced by the people [I hired to] handle [my] career. I had an agent at the time who was also gay, and he said, "We're putting you up for soaps. If you're [openly] gay, you're not gonna [get booked for roles]." When Noah's Arc launched, Patrik sat all the actors down and said, "None of us are gonna talk about our sexuality in public."
[I think it was] because of what [he'd] seen with shows like Queer as Folk, in terms of how much press and attention the straight actors were getting for being [quote unquote] brave enough to play gay characters. There was always that fear of if they find out [I'll] never work [again]. What's interesting is that once I came out, I was getting tons of work, and it was all good work.
What prompted you to be public about it?
Working in Hollywood, not talking about [my sexuality], and then not working, I thought, "Why am I not talking about it? If I'm not working anyway." As far as I could see, being open about it can only help. Q. Allan Brocka, who directed the film I did called Boy Culture in 2006, said to me, "If you ever wanted to come out publicly, I will do everything I can to make sure to navigate that in a way that is good for your career."
Once Noah's Arc wrapped that same year, I was approached to be part of Out magazine's Out 100 list. I leaped at the opportunity. That's when I embraced the opportunity to talk about it in ways that felt unfettered and uncontrolled. I'd been living [out loud in] my daily life for years, though.
"Noah's fearlessness was important for Black queer folks to see."
Noah’s Arc was the first scripted television series to center on a group of Black gay men. What does it mean to be part of queer TV history?
There was a point when I felt like, "Maybe I'm done with acting." Because I felt I had accomplished what I needed to do in the first couple of years. Young folks are still finding the show. That's a huge thing to process mentally and emotionally, that I was involved in something that wasn't just the first of its kind but touched people so deeply. It's still surreal to me that our little show was the first to do this one thing. It's because of the love of those characters and the ways that we epitomized a queer friend group. Patrik knew what he was doing. Noah's Arc was a good TV.
What has been your favorite or most memorable fan encounter?
I was in New York, around New Year's Eve 2005, when this young person saw me and started screaming and running in circles around me. They introduced themselves as Chocolate. They said, "Oh my god. You are the first time I've ever seen myself on TV. Oh my god, it's you!" That was probably the first I've been recognized in that way. Chocolate convinced me that Noah the character was more important than I realized. Noah's fearlessness was important for Black queer folks to see.
"There's power in owning who you are."
You've appeared in several other projects since Noah's Arc. Do you feel progress has been made in terms of Black queer representation?
Outside of Pose, I still haven't seen much representation of Black queer friend groups. But I've seen a lot more queer characters, for sure. Shonda Rhimes' shows are moving the needle forward. Her shows have queer characters integrated into larger stories so that audiences, who are maybe not necessarily looking for queer characters, are introduced to us. Suddenly, there's Sara Ramirez's character, Callie, on Grey's Anatomy, just living her life. There's been a benefit to expanding our reach. I do think that helps the world to see that [queer people] could be married and it would not hurt anyone's marriage or a person can identify with the gender that they feel [most comfortable with] and it doesn't have any effect on your life. It's not your business.
You're producing your own queer stories now.
I'm very proud of the project that [my team and I] just produced called One For The Team. We're calling it a short film but it's a pilot about a Mexican American trans boy who has to try out on the boys team at his new high school to receive a college scholarship. We were very intentional about hiring queer folks and people of color for the crew of this project. The [cinematographer] is Black. We had Black and brown people helping to create the sets. That's the way to shift the industry: by hiring folks and creating stories that reflect the world you want to see. In telling this particular story, we felt it was important. All of these things are doable if you're intentional about it.
"I want us to be as free as we can be."
Who is your Black queer icon?
Bayard Rustin. There's something about the way history erased Bayard's contribution [to the Civil Rights movement] that makes him especially important to me. Also, Colman Domingo gave a brilliant performance in [the Netflix] film [about his life]. Marsha P. Johnson is another one, and [singer-songwriter] Meshell Ndegeocello. She's badass.
What does Black History Month mean to you?
It's always been the shortest month of the year dedicated to talking about the folks whom white gatekeepers have allowed us to talk about. It's [mainly] been presented through [the white] gaze of who's peaceful or who didn't cause a ruckus or disturbance. Or who they've been able to recontextualize as peaceful, and not too much of a threat.
What you're doing by recontextualizing Black History Month to acknowledge Black queer folks has reminded me that we have been instrumental to most of the change. Black queer women started the Black Lives Matter movement. We can now shift to [acknowledge] the people who upset the status quo, and the people who came to shake shit up. Because that's also important for us. That's the Black history that makes a difference.
What do you want your contributions to Black history to be?
I hope that my contribution is that I left a generation of Black queer folks more comfortable in their skin than they were before. There's power in owning who you are. I hope my legacy is that queer folks, Black, brown, and everybody else, feel seen by the work that I've done and that it inspires them to be their full selves. Ultimately, I want us to be as free as we can be.
Thanks for chatting with us, Darryl! Be sure to keep up with Darryl Stephens here.
You can read more Black, Out & Proud interviews here.
Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled Patrik-Ian Polk's name. The post has since been corrected to reflect the accurate spelling.