William Sledd recently made national headlines when he was plucked from amongst the racks at his local Gap store and signed by Bravo to bring his popular series of YouTube videos, “Ask A Gay Man,” to the network's online incarnation, OutZoneTV. Perez Hilton recently announced that he will be coming to TV in a series of one-hour specials starting in September, courtesy of VH1. But William and Perez are only two of an increasing number of gay men who have used the Internet to jumpstart their careers.

Notoriously underserved by the mainstream media, it seems that more and more gay men have decided that if the media isn't going to include us, we'll just have to include ourselves. The popularity of user-generated content sites like YouTube, Flickr, TypePad, and Blogspot has leveled the playing field for the gays and, armed with keyboards, webcams, digital cameras, and our own fabulous personalities, we've found that perhaps we're just what the mainstream media has been missing all along. And lo and behold, a new breed of Internet celebrity has been born.

AfterElton.com takes a closer look at some established stars of the Internet, as well as a few up-and-comers, to find out how they've managed to accomplish what they have, and where they plan to go from here. In talking to this filmmaker, photographer, pop band, vlogger, and blogging duo, it's obvious that there is no definitive template for success. Each of these men comes from a different background, and each has his own definition of “success”. But just as obviously, it takes drive, talent, and a little bit of chutzpah to achieve what each has accomplished at his respective stage of Internet celebrity.

Matthew Chilelli

Matthew Chilelli is a 22-year-old filmmaker from Maine who is currently relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry. A filmmaker for nearly 12 years, he began posting his work to YouTube two years ago. Since then, one of his videos has been the featured video on the YouTube homepage and his channel is closing in on 3,000 subscribers. You can check out his work at his website.

AfterElton.com: I've noticed that any video with gay content posted on YouTube, including some of yours, like “Gay Marriage, What's the Big Screaming Deal?” and “A Good Impression,” receives at least a few anti-gay comments. How have you dealt with that?
Matthew Chilelli: Well, I've found it really doesn't take much to set some people off. Even just advocating gay rights was enough to get a couple f-words my way. [Pauses] Really, I've never really had a problem with it. I've never really had many people sling hate-words my way, I guess. I went to Ithaca College, which is an extremely liberal college. So I've had the benefit of a history and an upbringing where it doesn't really faze me. And to see the comments on the videos themselves, you quickly realize it really is a small minority of people who are saying that. And you know, I can live with that and really, it would bug me more if they were saying things they could back up.

That's one of the things about YouTube, you can't really say a whole lot in the comments section. So if anyone ever says anything on those videos, and I do try to look at all the comments, that I think is worth discussing, or somewhat informed, I'm gonna try to contact that person and see where they're coming from and try to talk to them. But if it's just blatant hate-speech, I don't really make a big deal of it. But I don't delete those comments either. I think it's important for people to see all sides. I think it's important to know that those people are out there too.

AE: You mention on your website that you feel it's your duty to include well-adjusted gay characters, whose sexuality isn't as issue, in your films.
MC: I had the opportunity to intern at a production company in Los Angeles, and I did coverage for them. Production companies get a whole lot of scripts and things sent to them and the producers don't have time to read it all, so they have people read it for them and write what amounts to a brief book report about each script. Which means that I ended up reading a whole lot of scripts and not a whole lot of them included any gay characters.

But what struck me was that in a lot of the ones that did, it was always a negative portrayal. They were always this annoying character or some sort of minor antagonist. Even if they're the protagonist, there's always something wrong with them.

You look at any movie nowadays, it either can't end happily for them, or they have some sort of drug problem, or a social problem [of some sort]. And you know, I can understand where that comes from, because that's where the drama lies. But nowadays I think a lot of that is changing and I think it's a little false and it feels wrong to have every single gay character be crippled by some sort of social disease, regardless of how the author views sexuality. And it really bugged me that that was the case. Look at any other television show or film; if the protagonist is straight you can have a compelling story with an identifiable protagonist who isn't totally screwed up. But nobody really does that with gay characters.

AE: Absolutely. It seems in every gay film the lead is always defined by their sexuality; it's always something they have to deal with.
MC: Exactly, like that's why the movie was made. They're dealing with their family, and their family doesn't understand them, and they get kicked out … and I don't think that's true anymore. To an extent yeah, it still happens. But there are a lot of families nowadays that aren't traumatic. They might have a hard time dealing with it, but they certainly don't throw the kid out.

The reason I'm making such a big deal of this is because when I grew up I didn't have any exposure to homosexual characters outside of what was presented through the media, [in shows like] Will and Grace. That was my perception, and that can be very damaging. Not anything major against that show — it wasn't terrible — and a lot of people saw it as a big breakthrough. People were patting themselves on the back for having a “gay” show, but there was still a lot to fix.

But a lot of the characters on there, and not that there's anything wrong with this, were very effeminate. And that really reinforces that stereotype. From my perspective, having that as the only exposure I ever had [to homosexuality], I had a really tough time coming out because that's what I thought it meant, and I really didn't identify with that. And I think that that really sort of impeded my progress. Plus, it would be nice, even from a storytelling standpoint, to have a little variety and it would also be nice for the effect it would probably have on the people viewing it. So it's a win-win situation.

AE: Do you have a job lined up once you get out to LA?
MC: I'm just going to kind of see what happens. I've applied to a couple writing fellowships and see how it works out, I guess. And hopefully it doesn't get to the point where I have to sell my camera. Or I can just get work as someone who types up the credits so I can just make it look like I made the whole thing. I'll get fired, but everyone will think I did everything. ‘Wow, I don't know how you did it! I don't know how you ended up looking like Tom Cruise, but apparently you did it; it says right there in the credits! Way to go!'