Star of acclaimed TV-show-within-a-TV-show UnREAL and All Stars 3 heartthrob, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman is one of queer Hollywood’s hottest young trailblazers

Words Tim Heap Images Greg Vaughan Styling Joseph Kocharian

Jeffrey wears top and bracelet, Jeffrey’s own

If you’re looking at Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and remembering his star turn as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3, where he played the role of a handsome eligible bachelor and fielded off Milk’s hysterical advances, you’ll know that he has more than a dash of charisma, uniquess, nerve and talent.

But if that’s all you remember him for, you’re missing out: since 2014, the Canadianborn actor and model has starred in Lifetime’s deliciously dark drama series UnREAL, a show centred around a Bachelor-inspired reality dating competition called Everlasting. Jeffrey plays Jay, one of the producers whose job it is to create drama between contestants, by any means necessary.

While Jay’s colleagues — most notably showrunner and queen bitch Quinn and damaged but determined Rachel — are willing to do whatever it takes to bring in the viewers, Jay’s a little less willing to loosen his morals; a career-limiting move in an industry as ruthless as reality television.

Away from the screen, the 33-year-old star is busy fostering young black and LGBT+ acting talent in the hopes that it will lead to greater representation across the board, a sentiment echoed in his podcast series Conversations with Others, which stars guests such as Empire’s Jussie Smollett and trans activist Janet Mock.

In his private life, Jeffrey is two steps of separation from the Kardashian-Jenner clan: his boyfriend is Andrew Fitzsimons, the Irish hairstylist whose clients include Kim, Kylie, Khloe and Kourtney.

After meeting Jeffrey in sun-drenched Los Angeles for our shoot, Attitude caught up with him to dig into UnREAL and to talk about diversity in Hollywood.

The first two seasons of UnREAL go to some pretty dark and twisted places at times. Do you ever read the scripts and think, “Oh my God”?

For me, the darker the storyline the better. I love peeling back the veil of illusion around the glitz and glam and the superficiality of reality television and showing how the sausage is made. A lot of the storylines are based on the experience of the creator of the show, Sara Gertrude Shapiro, who did what Jay and Rachel do — she was the field producer on The Bachelor for nine seasons.