Travis Kelce Lands First Major Acting Role in a Forthcoming Ryan Murphy Horror Series

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published 8 May 2024

Travis Kelce has been diversifying his professional portfolio as of late—the Kansas City Chiefs tight end is now hosting a reboot of the popular game show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? for Amazon Prime Video (his version will be called Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?), is producing documentaries (like one about Jean-Michel Basquiat called King Pleasure), co-hosting a podcast, “New Heights,” with his brother Jason, and, now, has taken on his first major acting role—in a Ryan Murphy-produced horror series, to boot.

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The Hollywood Reporter confirms Kelce’s casting in Grotesquerie, a forthcoming show co-starring Niecy Nash-Betts and Courtney B. Vance on FX. Nash-Betts confirmed Kelce’s involvement in the show in an Instagram video posted yesterday, although details remain scant and no details have been revealed about what role Kelce specifically will be playing. We do, however, have this teaser Murphy dropped back in February, featuring Nash-Betts’ voice “sounding very disturbed about a crime scene,” The Hollywood Reporter writes.

In Nash-Betts’ clip on social media, Kelce appears in a white shirt, wearing a big smile and revealing he’s “jumping into new territory.” Thankfully, he’s in good hands—Murphy is no stranger to the horror genre, having created the American Horror Story franchise. A former reality star (hello Catching Kelce!), Kelce continues to dip his toe into scripted projects, like hosting Saturday Night Live or producing the indie film My Dead Friend Zoe, which premiered at SXSW in March. But this does, indeed, mark new territory for one-half of the most famous couple in the world (Kelce dates some singer-songwriter you may have heard of named Taylor Swift).

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce — Swift also has acting experience, like in the films "Valentine's Day," "The Giver," and "Cats."

Kelce showed his excitement by reposting Nash-Betts’ video via his Instagram Story and adding the caption “Steppin into a new world with one of the legends!” tagging Nash-Betts in the process.

According to Deadline, Grotesquerie is slated for a fall premiere—just in time for Kelce to return to the field as (yet again) a defending Super Bowl champion with the Chiefs.

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“I like to have exciting things going on,” Kelce told People. “And sure enough, I’m out here in the entertainment world trying to dabble into that before I get back locked in on football and knowing that that’s going to be my focus until I’m done playing.” He added, “But to dabble around in the entertainment space is something that I’m really interested in.”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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