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Philemon Chambers is speaking out about being the first queer Black actor to land an LGBTQ Christmas rom-com at Netflix.

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Chambers, 27, has appeared in a couple of small roles on TV series like Criminal Minds, and All Rise. He has been tapped to star in his first major role for the Netflix Christmas movie Single All the Way.

“Two weeks after I got better from COVID, that’s when the audition came,” the Compton, California native says. “And I remember having this conversation with myself of, ‘If I’m going to do it, and if I want this to be my career, then I’m going to do it to the best of my ability.’”

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, “the plot of the film follows all the familiar tropes of the genre — disenchanted big-city dweller falls in love in a small town — but had one major difference: The central love triangle is among three gay men,” the outlet writes.

 

 

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“I sent in my audition tape,” recalls Chambers. “Two days later, Jonathan Clay Harris, the casting director, reached out to me. And he was like, ‘Who are you? Where did you come from? I know everybody — and I do not know you.’”

Single All the Way debuts on Netflix on Dec. 2, and co-stars Hollywood vets like Michael UrieJennifer Coolidge, Barry Bostwick and Kathy Najimy.

“These iconic people that I have looked up to for such a long time, I am now getting to work alongside of,” Chambers says.

Per the report, “Chambers plays Nick, best friend to Peter (Urie), a children’s author and handyman who accompanies Peter from Los Angeles to his hometown of Bridgewater, New Hampshire, for the holidays. Nick is in love with Peter; but Peter is distracted by a local hunk (Luke Macfarlane),” THR writes.

“Netflix is breaking a lot of barriers with this,” Chambers says of the project. “This is exactly the kind of thing I needed to see when I was younger. In Hollywood, a lot of things have been portrayed as very stereotypical, or it’s the coming-out story. Or there’s some negative connotation behind it. And this was so refreshing. My character, Nick, has a successful career and is doing successful things.”

 

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