Jai Rodriguez

Best known for his role as the “Culture Vulture” in the Emmy Award-winning show Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, Jai has been helping to shape American culture—and the cultural representation of the LGBTQ community—for nearly two decades.

 Emmy Award-winning actor Jai Rodriguez’s career began at age 18, when he was cast as Angel in the critically acclaimed Broadway musical Rent. His debut was followed by productions of The Producers and Spinning Into Butter, and he created and performed the title role of Zanna in the off-Broadway sensation Zanna, Don’t!—and headlined another off-Broadway hit, Sex Tips For Straight Women From A Gay Man.

Jai made history as the “Culture Vulture” in the original Queer Eye “Fab Five.” The show, which lasted from 2003 through 2007, had an enormous impact on American television and on cultural representation of the LGBTQ community in America. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy earned Rodriguez both a Primetime Emmy Award and a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Program, as well nominations from the PGA, People’s Choice and Teen Choice awards.

 Jai has hosted and played roles in dozens of popular television series, including the ABC hit comedy Malibu Country, Detroit 1-8-7, How I Met Your Mother, Are You There Chelsea?, Bones, and Harry’s Law, a show in which he played a transgender woman. He also starred in several seasons of the Australian series The Horizon—the most watched LGBTQ web series in the world. In 2020, Jai starred in the HBO Max series Equal portraying the legendary San Francisco drag legend José Sarria, an LGBTQ history maker who was the first openly gay candidate to run for public office in the United States in 1961. Additional roles include recurring appearances in TV series such as Doll Face, The Rookie, Uncoupled, Bosch: Legacy, and Eastsiders.

Most recently, Jai Rodriguez is a guest star on the Fox breakout TV series Fantasy Island. Fans can also see him on the big screen in the first major Hollywood LGBTQ+ romantic comedy, Bros, from Universal Pictures.