Max Emerson (born September 7, 1988) is an American actor, model, author, director and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

. He is known for his modelling and social media profile, particularly on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

. He has appeared on TV in small roles, including the

season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

finale Finale may refer to: Pieces of music * Finale (music), the last movement of a piece * ''Finale'' (Loggins and Messina album), 1977 * ''Finale'' (Pierrot album), 1999 * "Finale" (song), by Madeon * " Neo Universe/Finale", a single by L'Arc-en-C ...

Glee Glee may refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 3000 album) * ''Glee'' (Logan Lynn album) * Gle ...

Early life and education

Emerson was born in Vero Beach, Florida and studied for a BFA in performance and directing at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

, from which he graduated in 2009.

Career

Modeling

Emerson began modeling while he was a student, when he signed up with the

agency Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that s ...

Wilhelmina Models Wilhelmina International Inc. (NASDAQ: WHLM), formerly Wilhelmina Models, is a modeling and talent agency headquartered in New York City, New York. The company also has offices in Los Angeles, Miami and London. Founded in 1967 by Wilhelmina C ...

. He works with agencies including Wilhelmina (New York), LA Models, Established Models (London), Heffner Management (Seattle),

Next Management Jean-Luc Didier Henri Brunel (; 18 September 1946 – 19 February 2022) was a French model scout. He gained prominence by leading the international modelling agency Karin Models, and founded MC2 Model Management, with financing by Jeffrey Epstein ...

(Miami) and Factor Chosen (Chicago).

Filmmaking

He wrote, produced, co-directed and acted in two short films, ''DipSpit'' and ''Earwig'', which were shown for the first time at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on April 26, 2011. ''Earwig'' is a drama about a

closeted ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for LGBTQ people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior. This metaphor is associated and sometime ...

gay college student, while ''DipSpit'' is a comedy about two straight male models who get kicked out and move in with a gay college student. In October 2015, Emerson announced his intention to produce an independent film called "Hooked" for which he had written the story, telling the story of a homeless gay prostitute called Jack and addressing the problems faced by homeless

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

youth. He aimed to raise $150,000 for the project via

Indiegogo Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...

and give half of any profits made to charities benefiting LGBT people. The launch video for the Indiegogo campaign featured

Todrick Hall Todrick Hall (born April 4, 1985) is an American singer, rapper, choreographer, and YouTuber. He gained national attention on the ninth season of the televised singing competition ''American Idol''. Following this, he amassed a following on Yo ...

and musician Tom Goss. As part of it he released a single with Goss called "Not Enough". The campaign was supported by ''Out'' magazine. ''Hooked'' had its world premiere at NewFest: The New York LGBT Film Festival on June 26, 2017, and its European premiere at the 7th Homochron film festival in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

on October 20 the same year. The Los Angeles Times gave it a negative review.

Acting

As well as acting in ''Earwig'' and ''DipSpit'', Emerson has appeared in single episodes of the TV series

(the

finale '' The Untitled Rachel Berry Project''), '' Hit the Floor'', ''

The Real O'Neals ''The Real O'Neals'' is an American single-camera sitcom that aired on ABC from March 2, 2016, to March 14, 2017. The series, based on an idea by Dan Savage (who also served as an executive producer), was picked up to series on May 7, 2015. The ...

'' and ''

Eastsiders ''EastSiders'' is an American dark comedy web series created by Kit Williamson. It premiered on YouTube on December 14, 2012, and began streaming through Logo TV's website on April 23, 2013. Set in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Silver Lake, Los Ange ...

'', and of the web series ''Coffee House Chronicles'' and the movie made from it. From September 7 to 24, 2017, he starred as Mitchell in

Douglas Carter Beane Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has been nominated for five Tony Awards and won two Drama Desk Awards. His plays are essentially works with sophisticated, "drawing room" humor but just as often farce, par ...

's comedy play ''

The Little Dog Laughed ''The Little Dog Laughed'' is a 2006 American comedy play by Douglas Carter Beane. The four characters are an actor, Mitchell; his acerbic agent Diane; a hustler named Alex; and Alex's girlfriend Ellen. When Mitchell and Alex become involved in ...

'' at the

Red House Arts Center Syracuse ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13th-most populated municipality in the state o ...

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

. A local reviewer said each of the four actors in the play "brings a memorable, engaging performance", and that Emerson "delivers the role of a sweet, confused, and occasionally thoughtless young star with sensitivity and kindness".

Writing

Emerson wrote an autobiography, ''Hot Sissy – Life Before Flashbulbs'', describing his teenage years growing up in a "

redneck ''Redneck'' is a derogatory term mainly applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the southern United States.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, ''Dictionary of American ...

" area of Florida. ''Hot Sissy'' was released as an e-book and in a limited print run of 500 hardcover copies in December 2014. The limited editions were each signed and came with an original Polaroid picture.

Personal life

In June 2016, he publicly introduced his boyfriend, Andrés Camilo, an officer in the US Army, in a YouTube video. Emerson has an active social media presence and posts regularly on YouTube where his username is "TheMaxVicious". he has 1 million followers on

and 19,500 on Twitter. On YouTube and on social media, Emerson is known for his humour and for showing off his body. In May 2017, French comic TV presenter

Cyril Hanouna Cyril Valéry Isaac Hanouna (; ; born 23 September 1974) is a French radio and television presenter, writer, author, columnist, producer, singer and occasional actor and comedian of Tunisian origin. He hosts the French TV show '' Touche pas à mo ...

used one of Emerson's torso pictures to set up a

catfishing Catfishing refers to the creation of a fictitious online persona, or fake identity (typically on social networking platforms), with the intent of deception, usually to mislead a victim into an online romantic relationship or to commit finan ...

profile on a gay dating site, and tricked the men who responded to the profile into revealing sexual fantasies to him while he was live on his show ''

Touche pas à mon poste ! ' (TPMP), literally "Don't Touch My TV Set!", was a French live television talk show that ran from 2010 to 2025. First broadcast on France 4, it moved to D8 (which became C8) from 2012 until the network lost its license. It was produced by Pr ...

''. The segment triggered nearly 20,000 complaints to regulators and condemnation from LGBT groups. In April 2022, Emerson served as the Grand Marshal of the Miami Beach Gay Pride. In July 2023, Emerson and Camilo announced their engagement on Instagram. In January 2025, however, the two had announced that they had ended their relationship after 9 years.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Emerson, Max 1988 births 20th-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people American gay actors American gay writers American LGBTQ models Gay models LGBTQ people from Florida LGBTQ YouTubers Living people Male actors from Miami Male models from Florida People from Vero Beach, Florida