Emil Wilbekin’s Native Son Announces Annual Year-End Native Son 101 List For 2025 - Spotlighting The Change Agents and Mavericks Who Have Made A Positive Global Impact Across Industries!
Native Son has released its 2025 Native Son 101 List, spotlighting Black queer men whose work and leadership helped shape the cultural, political, and creative landscape over the past year. The annual list, now in its sixth year, has become a widely recognized barometer of influence—documenting not just success, but impact.
Curated by Native Son founder Emil Wilbekin, the list arrives during a moment of heightened pressure on LGBTQ+ communities nationwide. As protections are rolled back and equity initiatives face increased resistance, this year’s honorees reflect a collective refusal to retreat—using visibility, artistry, policy, and media to move culture forward.
The Class of 2025 spans entertainment, journalism, fashion, public policy, literature, and business. Honorees include acclaimed actor Colman Domingo, whose recent work continues to command critical attention; genre-defining producer Kaytranada; Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; Emmy-winning actor Tramell Tillman; and costume designer Paul Tazewell, whose work has shaped some of the most visually iconic productions of the past decade.
Media figures such as Don Lemon and emerging voices like Destin Conrad and Ahmad Greene-Hayes further underscore the list’s multigenerational reach.
Political and civic leadership also features prominently, with figures such as New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé and policy strategist Preston Mitchum recognized for their role in advancing housing reform, LGBTQ+ protections, and civil rights advocacy.
The list also celebrates cultural architects behind the scenes—stylists, image-makers, directors, and storytellers whose creative labor has quietly defined the year’s aesthetic and narrative direction.
Among the 2025 honorees are Gaye Magazine Founder Dominic Gaye and Editor-in-Chief/CEO K. Keith, recognized for their leadership in Black LGBTQ+ media and their ongoing commitment to publishing stories that document culture with depth, accountability, and care.
Through Gaye Magazine, the duo has helped expand visibility for Black queer creatives while building an independent platform rooted in community-driven journalism.
In a joint statement, the Gaye Magazine leadership shared their appreciation for the recognition:
“Being acknowledged by Native Son and Emil Wilbekin—someone whose work has consistently honored Black queer legacy and leadership—is incredibly meaningful to us. We are deeply grateful to be included among individuals whose work continues to push culture forward. This recognition reinforces our responsibility to keep educating, entertaining, and empowering with intention, integrity, and love for our community. Thank you for seeing us!”
Since its launch in 2020, the Native Son 101 List has functioned as both recognition and record—capturing Black queer excellence across industries and preserving it within a growing cultural archive. Published annually on Native Son’s platform, the list continues to affirm the enduring influence of Black queer leadership, even in moments of political and social resistance.
The 2025 Native Son 101 List is accompanied by original illustrations from artist Adrian Armstrong, adding a visual dimension to the project’s mission of celebration and preservation.
Please see below for the complete categories and honoree names for the 2025 Native Son 101 List. The full list and gallery can be found here.
Brandon Blackwood – Founder, Creative Director and CEO, Brandon Blackwood (now celebrating its 10th Anniversary)
Campbell Addy – Fashion Photographer (Vogue, British Vogue, Vogue China, Dazed); SCAD exhibition; Photographer, Colman Domingo’s TIME cover
Carlos Nazario – Fashion Editor/Stylist (T Magazine, M Magazine, Michael Kors, Willy Chavarria); Style Director at Large at Harper’s Bazaar; Styling, Super Fine: Tailoring Black Style book
Charles Harbison – Fashion Designer and Creative Director; Creator, Harbison Studio; (Jennifer Hudson, Nicole Ari Parker, Kelly Rowland, Mindy Kaling, Jonathan Van Ness)
Edward Buchanan – Fashion Designer; Former First-Ever Design Director, Bottega Veneta; Artistic Director, Sansovino6
Eric J. McNeal – Stylist (Vogue and WSJ covers; Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal, Spike Lee)
Jameel Mohammed – Jewelry Designer and Multimedia artist; Founder/Creative Director at KHIRY; Design Fellow, Tiffany and Co.; CFDA 2025 Jewelry Design Award winner
Jason Bolden – Creative Director, Interior Designer and Celebrity Stylist (Cynthia Erivo, Nicole Kidman, Michael B. Jordan, Yara Shahidi); Co-owner of LA bar “Damn I Miss Paris”
Joseph McRae – Creative Director/Fashion Designer; Cast Member, Project Runway
Keith Parris – New York City Beauty Influencer known as the “Icy Amputee Warrior”
Yashua Simmons – Stylist (Usher, Giveon, Cynthia Erivo, Tina Knowles)
MEDIA & JOURNALISM
Asad Syrkett – Head of Editorial Content, Architectural Digest Italy
Charles Blow – TV Political Commentator (CNN, MSNBC); Inaugural; Inaugural Langston
Hughes Fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University, Creator, Blow the Stack on Substack; “Late To The Party: Coming Out Later in Life” (Hulu)
Damon Arnold – National Edward R. Murrow Recipient and Emmy Award-Winning Journalist and Reporter, KMOV-TV News 4
Dominic Gaye & K. Keith – Co-Founders, Gaye Magazine
Don Lemon – Journalist, Anchor and Author; Host, The Don Lemon Show
Darien Sutton – ABC News Medical Correspondent
Edward Enninful – Founder and CEO, EE72
Jonathan Capehart & Eugene Daniels – Co-hosts, MSNBC’s The Weekend
Kevin Ortega-Rojas – Creator, Here’s Why with Kevin, Ortega- Rojas
Scott Evans – Host, Access Hollywood; Creator, House Guests
Tyreak Told You – Comic Commentator; IG and TikTok Influencer
FILM & TELEVISION
Anthony M. Hemingway – Golden Globe, Emmy and NAACP Award winning Producer/Director; Executive Producer and Director – Hulu’s All’s Fair; CBS’ Boston Blue; and Netflix’s Forever
Brian Badie – Emmy Award-winning hairstylist (The Penguin; Him, Law & Order: SVU)
Carlos King – Founder & CEO, Kingdom Reign Entertainment; Creator, Love & Marriage, Belle Collective; Host, Reality with the King Podcast
Colman Domingo – Two-time Oscar nominated actor (Wicked: For Good, Four Seasons); 2025 Native Son Award Honoree; Co-Chair of the Met Gala Super Fine: Tailoring Black Style
Daniel Kyri – Music Artist (EP, Childish Games); Actor (NBC’s Chicago Fire, Hamlet – audio) Deondray Gossfield & Quincy LeNear Gossfield – Directors and Co-Eps, The Chi; Creators (Amazon Prime’s Emmy nominated series, The Chadwick Journals, The DL Chronicles)
Dewayne Perkins – Emmy-nominated Writer, Producer, Actor and Comedian ( Apple TV+’s The Studio, One of Them Days, Peacock’s The Blackening)
Jeremy Pope – Actor and Singer (FX’s The Beauty; GOD IS GOOD film); Vogue World: Hollywood
Jussie Smollett – Actor, Writer, Director (The Lost Holliday) Recording Artist (BREAK OUT album)
Justice Smith – Actor (Now You See Me; Now You Don’t; The American Society of Magical Negroes, I Saw the TV Glow)
Justin Simien – Independent Spirit Award-Winning Filmmaker and Actor; Director and Creator, Hollywood Black; Founder, Culture Machine
Karamo Brown – Emmy-winning Actor, Author, Television Personality, Culture Expert and Host (Queer Eye, Karamo Show)
Layton Williams – 2025 Laurence Olivier Award-winning Actor (Titanique)
Obio Jones & Jermelle Simmons – Influencer Obio Jones and Actor Jermelle Simmons; Featured in People, Essence; Appeared on The Upshaws
Paul Tazewell – Oscar & Tony Award-winning Costume Designer (Wicked, Death Becomes Her)
Steven G. Norfleet – Actor (Tyler Perry’s Beauty In Black)
Tramell Tillman – Emmy Award-winning Actor (Severance, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning)
Wynn Thomas – First Black Production Designer in Hollywood; Academy Honorary Award Recipient
Tiyale Hayes – Senior VP for Brand Strategy and Marketing, BET Networks
THEATER & DANCE
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins – 2025 Pulitzer & Tony Award-winning playwright, Purpose
Davóne Tines – Opera Singer (Performances – The Run Amoc Festival at Lincoln Center; Little Island, Vail Dance Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. MOCA Geffen, Hudson Opera House, The Frick Collection, Detroit Opera)
Iman Jordan – Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter (Harry Belafonte Social Change Award); Founder, The ArtWell Coalition; Art Director, Winston Studios
Justen Ross – MC, Poet, Actor, Playwright, Ballroom Artist
Justen Leroy – Multidisciplinary Performance and Sound Artist and Curator, Soundsystem (Collaboration with Corey Stokes)
Kaytranada – Grammy Award-Winning DJ and Producer(Ain’t No Damn Way album); Kaytranada and Justice Tour
Khalid – R&B Singer-Songwriter (After the Sun Goes Down album); Billboard Disruptor Award Recipient; Gay Times cover
POLITICS, ACTIVISM & SOCIAL JUSTICE
Carl Baloney Jr. – President & CEO, AIDS United
Chi Ossé – Member, New York City Council, District 36; Architect of the 2025 FARE Act; Political Candidate for Congress
Darwin Thompson – Corporate Social Responsibility Director, Gilead Sciences
DaShawn Usher – VP, Community & Media, GLAAD; Founder and Executive Director, MOBI
Dewayne R. Queen – Director of the City of Atlanta’s Division of LGBTQ Affairs in the Mayor’s Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; Chairman, The Translife Awards
Travis Gayles – CEO, Howard Brown Health
Malcolm Kenyatta & Dr. Matt Kenyatta – Malcolm Kenyatta: Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC); Dr. Matt Kenyatta: Director and Curator of Temple Contemporary (Pyramid Club 1937–2035)
Preston Mitchum – Award-winning Attorney, Advocate and named the Washington Blade’s “Most Committed Activist”; Senior Fellow, rePROs; Wedding Featured in People
Venton Jones & Gregory Scott Jr. – Texas Representative Venton Jones and partner Gregory Scott Jr.; Couple Engaged on Texas Capitol Floor
LITERATURE & BOOKS
Alejandro Heredia – Author, LOCA
Corey Damien Jenkins – Interior designer; Author, Design Reimagined; FGI Career Achievement in Design Award
Darnell Lamont Walker – Death Doula; Author, Never Can Say Goodbye: The Life of a Death Doula and the Art of a Peaceful End; Playwright (Bumpy Johnson: A Short Play About the Legendary Crime Boss); Emmy nominated Screenwriter (HBO Max’s The Pitt).
Doug Jones – Author, The Fantasy of Future Things
Leo Moore – Author, The Men’s Preventive Health Guide: What To Check, When To Check It, And Why It Matters
George M. Johnson – Activist; Co-Author, There’s Always Next Year
Rob Franklin – Author, Great Black Hope
VISUAL ARTS & PHOTOGRAPHY
Derrick Adams – Visual artist; Exhibitions at Gagosian, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery; Movado and Marc Jacobs collaborations; Derrick Adams book (Phaidon)
Eric N. Mack – Visual artist working; Exhibitions at Wexner Center for the Arts n American Academy of Arts & Letters
George McCalman – Artist, Designer, Creative Director; Founder, McCalman.Co Studio
Jarvis Boyland – British visual artist
Jonathan Carver Moore – Art Curator and Gallery Owner, Jonathan Carver Moore Gallery
Joshua Obawole Allen – Award-winning Multidisciplinary Artist; Cover of Dazed Spring 2025; Residency programs in Brooklyn & Toronto
Justin French – Photographer and Director (Covers for The Cut, Elle, Cultured; A$AP Rocky, Venus Williams, Keke Palmer)
Nick Cave – Sculptor, Painter, Dancer, Performance Artist and Professor
Thaddeus Coates – Model, Illustrator and Toy Designer (Toys: TOASTY, Plush Toys for Cava)
BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Chris Glass – Global Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Soho House
Darrell Spencer – Founder and CEO, Crowned Skin
Gregory Gourdet – James Beard Award-Winning Chef; Restaurateur, Maison Passerelle in Printemps NYC
Tiyale Hayes – SVP for Brand Strategy & Marketing, BET
ACADEMICS & EDUCATION
Ahmad Greene-Hayes – Associate Professor of African American Religious Studies, Harvard Divinity School; Author, Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion-Making in Jim Crow New Orleans
Kahlil Greene – The “Gen Z Historian”; 2x Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning Edu-tainer; Time100 Creators; Forbes 30 Under 30
SPORTS
Joao Lucas Reis da Silva – Brazilian pro men’s tennis player
James LeGette – Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader
Laron “Laronbest” Gigger – Pro Skater; Dancer, Choreographer, Model and Roller Skate Performer and Influencer
Kyle Smith – Fashion Editor, NFL
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