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Niecy Nash-Betts
The Advocate's sister publication honors Nash-Betts for her talent and activism.
Out, a sister publication to The Advocate, has chosen Niecy Nash-Betts as the Out100 Icon of the Year.
The Out100 issue spotlights the most influential LGBTQ+ people of the year, and Nash-Betts is honored for her show business career, her visibility as a Black queer woman, and her advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights. She married singer, actor, and producer Jessica Betts in 2020 after having been in relationships only with men previously, and Nash-Betts announced her new union by sharing her and Jessica’s wedding photos with the world.
Related: Niecy Nash-Betts and Jessica Betts: Representing Queer Love On and Off the Screen
Nash-Betts says she has been told, “When it comes to Black-on-Black love in the queer community, that we are on a very short list of being someone you could look to for representation in that way.”
“It’s very, very powerful, we’ve learned. Because any time we go to an event that is especially for queer people, someone always comes up and brings it up,” she says. “First of all, I love being Black. I love being a woman. And now I’m a Black queer woman in a relationship with another Black queer woman, and it matters.”
And if anyone tries to take equal marriage rights away, Nash-Betts will resist. “Stepping on somebody’s ability to love whoever they want to love is wild,” she says. “It’s wild behavior. And so let me tell you, I would definitely be on the front lines [to fight for marriage equality].”
“Why does it bother you so much? You know what I mean?” she asks of marriage equality opponents. “You just want to lord over people and have somebody to tell what to do. Then have your own baby. Go get a dog. Go get something you could tell what to do.”
The public has known Nash-Betts from her television career for over two decades. In the 2000s, she starred as the hilarious Deputy Raineesha Williams in Reno 911! and earned four Daytime Emmy nominations and one win as host of the home renovation show Clean House. In the 2010s, Nash-Betts garnered more notice and accolades for The Soul Man, Claws, Scream Queens, and Getting On, for which she was nominated for her first two Primetime Emmys.
Related: Niecy Nash, Jessica Betts, and the Great Queer Love Story of 2021
A turn from doing mostly comedy came with a dramatic role in 2019’s When They See Us, directed by Ava DuVernay. The series told the story of the Central Park Five, Black and Latino teenagers who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. Nash-Betts played Deloris Wise, the mother of one of the teens. In 2022, she appeared in another drama series, portraying Glenda Cleveland, a neighbor of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Her next project is All’s Fair, a legal drama from Ryan Murphy. Nash-Betts stars alongside Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson, Teyana Taylor, Naomi Watts, and Kim Kardashian as a group of high-powered lawyers who leave their male-dominated practice to start their own divorce firm.
Nash-Betts encourages others to come out and live their truth. “Every single person who comes out of the closet, who comes out of hiding, it helps shift society towards more acceptance and love,” she says. “And when you think about a closet, it’s dark. You know what I mean? It’s junk in there. Come from up out of there.”
This year’s Out100 celebration event will take place November 21 at nya studios WEST in Hollywood, bringing together honorees, allies, and supporters.
Out's Nov/Dec 2025 Out100' ssue hits newsstands October 28. Support queer media and subscribe — or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting October 16.
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