Grace Semler Baldridge (born November 12, 1990), known by the stage name Semler, is an American host and alt-Christian singer-songwriter.

Work

Music

Baldridge writes and records music as Semler''.'' The name was chosen because of both the name's links to their maternal family history and they prefer their music to be experienced from a gender-neutral viewpoint. In February 2021, they released an EP, ''Preacher's Kid'', about being a queer Christian, which they recorded at home and promoted themselves. Shortly after release, it reached the top of the

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Christian chart, supplanting

Lauren Daigle Lauren Ashley Daigle ( ; born September 9, 1991) is an American contemporary Christian music singer and songwriter. After being signed to the label Centricity Music, she released her debut album, ''How Can It Be (album), How Can It Be,'' in 2015 ...

's ''

Look Up Child ''Look Up Child'' is the third studio album by American contemporary Christian music singer and songwriter Lauren Daigle. It was released on September 7, 2018, through Centricity Music. The album received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Chr ...

''.

Michel Martin Michel McQueen Martin is an American journalist and correspondent for National Public Radio and WNET. After ten years in print journalism, Martin has become best known for her radio and television news broadcasting on national topics. Background ...

interviewed Baldridge about ''Preacher's Kid'' for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

in March 2021, discussing their faith and music and playing the single "Jesus from Texas". The album earned support from several figures in the Christian music industry, including

Kevin Max Kevin Max Smith (born August 17, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, and poet. He is best known for being a member of the Christian pop group dc Talk. As a solo artist following the band going on hiatus, he has recorded 12 full-length st ...

, Trey Pearson,

Derek Webb Derek Walsh Webb (born May 27, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter of independent and Christian music who first entered the music industry as a member of the band Caedmon's Call, and later embarked on a successful solo career. As a member of ...

, and

Josh Lovelace Josh Lovelace is a singer, songwriter and musician best known as the keyboardist for the rock band Needtobreathe. In 2017, he made his solo debut with his family-album ''Young Folk''. In 2024, he released his first non-children's solo record ''S ...

. Their second EP, titled ''Late Bloomer'', was released on October 22, 2021. Like its predecessor, it reached first place on the

Christian charts, once again displacing Lauren Daigle's ''Look Up Child''. Their third EP, titled ''Stages of a Breakdown'', was released on April 13, 2022. They toured with

Katie Pruitt Katherine Nicole Pruitt (born March 4, 1994) is an American singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. Her debut album, ''Expectations'', was released in 2020 by Rounder Records. Her second album, ''Mantras'', was released in 2024. Earl ...

in 2021, and

Relient K Relient K () is an American Rock music, rock band formed in 1998 in Canton, Ohio by Matt Thiessen, Matt Hoopes, and Brian Pittman during their third year in high school and time at Malone University in Canton. The band is named after guitarist ...

in 2022. Their debut album, titled ''Revival In My Mind'', was released on February 21, 2025.

Media Presenting

Baldridge has been a regular guest host of ''

The Young Turks ''The Young Turks'' (''TYT'') is an American progressive and left-wing populist sociopolitical news and commentary program live streamed on social media platforms YouTube and Twitch, and additionally selected television channels. ''TYT'' se ...

'', and co-hosted the former TYT Network show ''Pop Trigger''. They created and hosted the TYT-associated

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

series ''Murder with Friends'', which was nominated for Best Non-Fiction Series in the

7th Streamy Awards The 7th Annual Streamy Awards was the seventh installment of the Streamy Awards honoring the best in American streaming television series and their creators. The awards were broadcast live from Twitter on September 26, 2017 from The Beverly Hilton ...

in 2017. In 2020, Baldridge hosted a documentary series entitled ''State of Grace'', which covered being LGBTQ and Christian, produced by

Refinery29 Refinery29 (R29) is an American multinational digital media and entertainment website focused on young women. It is owned by Sundial Media Group. History Justin Stefano, Philippe von Borries, Piera Gelardi, and Christene Barberich co-founded Ref ...

. The first episode, "The Life Threatening Dangers Of Gay Conversion Therapy", was nominated at the

31st GLAAD Media Awards The 31st GLAAD Media Awards is the 2020 annual presentation of the GLAAD Media Awards, presented by GLAAD honoring the 2019 media season and held on July 30, 2020. The awards honor films, television shows, musicians and works of journalism that ...

for the Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia award.

Personal life

Baldridge's father is a priest in the Episcopal Church. They spent their early life in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

but their family moved to

Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo (; ; ) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in Wallonia, located in the province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium, which in 2011 had a population of 29,706 and an area of . Waterloo lies a short distance south of Brussels, and immedia ...

when they were in

third grade Third grade (also 3rd Grade or Grade 3) is the third year of formal or compulsory education. It is the third year of primary school. Children in third grade are usually 8–9 years old. Examples of the American syllabus In mathematics, student ...

. They returned to the US to attend

Elon University Elon University is a private university in Elon, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1889 as Elon College, the university is organized into six schools, most of which offer bachelor's degrees and several of which offer master's degrees or ...

. Baldridge is

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

. They met their future wife, Elizabeth Capel, during their time at Elon University. The two married in August 2018 in an Episcopalian ceremony, and the couple's wedding was featured in an episode of the

series ''World Wide Wed''. Their

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

post giving

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

advice to themselves as teenagers attracted national attention. As of 2021, Baldridge and Capel live in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California. Baldridge is

genderqueer Non-binary or genderqueer gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gender that is differ ...

and

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

, and has stated that "all

pronouns In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not con ...

are totally fine".

Discography

Albums

* ''Six Feet Under All the Same'' (2018) * ''Revival In My Mind'' (2025)

EPs

* ''Preacher's Kid'' (2021) * ''Late Bloomer'' (2021) * ''Stages of a Breakdown'' (2022) * ''Night Aches'' (2023)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Semler 1990 births 21st-century American Episcopalians 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American singer-songwriters American Internet celebrities American multi-instrumentalists Christian music songwriters Christians from Delaware Elon University alumni LGBTQ Anglicans American LGBTQ singers American LGBTQ songwriters Living people Songwriters from Delaware The Young Turks people American singer-songwriters American non-binary musicians Non-binary singers Non-binary songwriters