Pose

Centered on the ballroom scene of 1980s New York, FX’s Pose follows a rivalry between the established House of Abundance and the upstart House of Evangelista. Co-created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals, Pose offers television its largest cast of transgender actors in series regular roles, including Mj Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore, Hailie Sahar, and Angelica Ross, and also sees LGBTQ producers and writers working behind the camera. Telling the tale of trans and gay people of color, Pose is honest in showing their ostracization, relegation to society’s fringes, and the terror of the AIDS epidemic under which they live. Yet, as fabulously as its characters pose and slay, the show also shines and vibrates with life and glorious joy in its ball scenes presided over by Billy Porter’s Pray Tell. The ongoing competition, complete with its delicious melodrama, serves as backdrop for the foreground of LGBTQ community and family creation, family lives, and family loves, thereby doing as much important representational work and storytelling in its quieter moments as on the ballroom floor. For creating a show that is as soulful as it is delightful, we honor Pose with a Peabody Award.