“Boy Culture” and “Noah’s Arc” star Darryl Stephens on becoming a dad and nearly quitting acting

I’ve long been a fan of Darryl Stephens because of his immense talent and his kind soul.

So what a treat it was to be at Outfest last week for a night of programming that featured Darryl in Noah’s Arc: The Rona Chronicles and in two episodes of the Boy Culture series which is the continuation of the feature film he starred in 15 years ago.

Darryl was the guest on The Advocate’s LGBTQ&A podcast and gave such a good interview. Here are some highlights:

On becoming a dad: I think that it’s one of the greatest gifts of life to wake up taking care of somebody every day. I don’t know if this is all gay men, but as an actor, we can be so focused on our bodies, on our faces, on our careers, on the cars we’re driving, on the throw pillows on our couch. The shit that really does not matter suddenly falls away. And I will be completely honest, I’ve not been to the gym in a year and a half. Suddenly, it becomes about something real, something that’s not about your own ego. It’s about someone’s wellbeing, someone else’s happiness, someone else’s health and adorable outfit and smile and her teeth coming in and stuff like that. Everything shifts. And I am so grateful for that shift. I think it’s changed who I am in the best way.

On almost quitting acting: “Quite honestly, right before I got B Positive, the show I’m on now on CBS, I decided, “OK, I’m going to be a dad now. I’m going to do something else. If I can’t do anything but remind people of the show Noah’s Arc from 2005, then maybe I’ll do something else.” And we shot the reunion in the summer like two months before I booked B Positive, so it was very much like, OK, Noah’s Arc, it keeps coming back. There were talks about reunions and reboots. Every couple of years somebody was like, “Let’s do a reboot. Let’s do a reunion show.” And then nothing would materialize. It was only during the COVID pandemic stay-your-ass-at-home order that that could actually be pulled off because we were all sitting at home doing nothing. And then I feel like that was the final chapter. I feel like that reunion was really it.

s actors, I will say this, when you don’t work frequently, it starts to feel like, “Oh, maybe I’m just not supposed to do this. Maybe I’m not as good as I think I am.” And then interestingly enough, when we decided to have the kid, work picked up. The year and a half leading up to her being born, obviously we had the discussion two years before. Gay men have to plan these things.

“But a year and a half before, I booked Twenties, I booked Good Trouble, I was on Lovecraft Country. Suddenly, I was booking things and I was like, “These are shows I actually want people to watch and think people will see. This is amazing, like suddenly I’m working.” And then the Noah’s Arc reunion happened and that had a big grand reception. It just felt like, “OK, well maybe that was a little bit of a rash decision to take your hands off or maybe that was exactly the right decision. Take the pressure off yourself.”