Prolific writer, director and producer Greg Berlanti spoke of his personal journey and lifelong love of television when receiving the 2024 Governors Award at the Emmy Awards . “I wanted to be a part of television even before I knew how that was possible,” the 52-year-old showrunner, one of the youngest individual recipients of the award, said in his emotional speech. “So many Gen X kids in the 70s and 80s, the one color TV our family could afford was on around the clock in our house, and I watched and loved all of it.
” Berlanti used that childhood experience as inspiration for his company Berlanti Production’s logo. “There wasn’t a lot of gay characters on television back then, and I was a closeted gay kid, and it’s hard to describe how lonely that was at the time,” Berlanti continued. “There was no Internet to connect with other queer kids, no LGBTQ plus advocacy groups in schools.
Back then, the only way to tell if another kid might be gay was if he also watched Dynasty, Dallas and could name all four of the Golden Girls.” Berleni then recalled the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s that, along with fear, brought the first images of openly gay men on television that he saw “holding hands with other men, marching and fighting for their lives.” “They gave me hope that I might one day have their courage to come out and share my truth with the world,” Berlanti said.
He spoke fondly of his mom who made business cards for him that said “Greg Berlanti, pupp.