Interview with Director, Writer, Publisher, Actor, Author Stanley Bennett Clay

Stanley Bennett Clay received 2 NAACP Theatre Awards and 2 Drama-logue Awards for writing and directing the stage play “Ritual.” The film version, starring Clarence Williams III and Denise Nicholas, marks Clay’s film writing/directorial debut and was voted The Jury Award at the 2000 Pan African Film Festival. Clay produced on stage the GLAAD, L.A. Weekly, L.A. Times and NAACP Award-winning musical “Children of the Night” and the world premiere of James Graham Bronson’s “Willie & Esther.” That production received 2 L.A. Weekly Awards as Best Play and Best Ensemble Performance. Clay wrote, directed, and composed “Street Nativity” (commissioned by the National Council of Negro Women for the Black Family Reunion Festival), wrote/directed the play “Lovers,” (Theatre of Arts) directed west coast premieres of “Jonin’” at The Harmon Theatre (Drama-logue Award/Direction) and “The First Breeze of Summer” (Theatre of Arts). He is the author of three novels, “Diva” (Holloway House), “In Search Of Pretty Young Men” and “Looker,” (Simon & Schuster/Atria Books). “Search” won the 2004 N.Y. Hotep Society Book Award for Best Gay Novel. Former Editor-In-Chief of Black Beat magazine and American Correspondent for London’s Blues and Soul magazine, Clay published and edited SBC magazine for 10 years (1991-2001), at the time the most widely distributed periodical for the black LGBT community. A Los Angeles-based actor, he starred, guest-starred, and/or has been featured in over 200 TV episodes, films and commercials, including “Good Times,” “Cannonball,” “Minstrel Man,” “Man Friday” and “Cheers.” His received the NAACP Best Actor Image Award for his stage performance in the Inner City Cultural Center’s production of “Anna Lucasta” and was nominated for the same award (and won another Drama-logue Award) for his performance in the Lafayette Players West’s production of “Zooman and the Sign.” Other stage performances include “Or” by Felton Perry (One Flight Up), “So