Best known for creating the role of Darius, the hapless Cats chorus boy in Paul Rudnick’s Jeffrey, Bryan Batt seems to have found another dream role in Salvatore Romano, the closeted art director on AMC’s critically acclaimed 1960s-era drama series Mad Men. Ironically, the actor has spent nearly the entirety of his 20-year professional career out of the closet. “Right after I filmed Jeffrey, a very renowned TV producer told me that he didn’t believe an out gay man could work or be a credible leading man to American audiences,” Batt remembers. “I wanted to work and be happy in my life, so I couldn’t and wouldn’t live a lie.”
Currently Batt is tricoastal, maintaining homes in New York, Los Angeles, and his hometown, New Orleans, where he runs Hazelnut, an interior design shop, with his partner of 19 years, Tom Cianfichi. Earlier this year, the Louisiana chapter of the Human Rights Campaign honored him for his tireless work organizing, hosting, and performing at dozens of disaster relief fund-raisers and his work with the NO/AIDS Task Force.