Biography

A native of Ohio, Terry Ray, at the age of 18 co-starred with Patricia Heaton as a singing Chinese cook masquerading as a Native American. After graduating in Theatre Arts from the University of Cincinnati & Conservatory, Terry was an acting intern at Playhouse on the Square and performed in several regional theaters before settling in Los Angeles. In over 130 plays he as appeared with stars such as Dixie Carter, Elaine Stritch and Matthew Perry.

A four day stint in 1987 on the game show Scrabble led to an unleashed Ray outing himself on national television. He received bags of fan mail. AfterElton has listed his appearance as number 3 on their top 10 list of Greatest Gay Moments in the History of Game Shows, right after Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly (who was Terry's cherished acting teacher), and movieline.com named Terry Ray as one of the 5 Weirdest Contestants in the history of game shows. (He was only one listed as weird in a good way).

Terry's first professional writing job was the stage performance "Hollywood Goes Classical" at the venerable Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (DCP) starring Mickey Rooney, Michael York, Dean Jones, Rhonda Fleming and several other classic film stars. He wrote and starred in two more shows at the DCP--one co-starring Amanda Bynes and the other Hilary Duff.

Terry co-wrote and starred in the short film Gaydar which appeared in over 120 film festivals around the world and won numerous awards, and was selected by the California Independent Film Festival as one of their top 20 short comedy films of all time. The film also inspired the popular Gaydar Gun toy, which Terry voices. For his short film, "Cost Of Living" (a comedy about life after global warming), he won the Boston International Film Festival's Best Male Actor award.

Terry Ray is the creator, writer and star of HERE! TV's first sitcom "From Here on OUT". The show also stars Juliet Mills, T.J. Hoban, Suzanne Whang and Julie Brown. Ray co-created/produced and wrote the new game show Modd Couples that airs on Hulu. He also co-wrote the TV movie "Love Unplugged" starring Mischa Barton, David Ogden Stiers and Markie Post. Ray co-wrote and starred in the digital series, "My Sister Is So Gay" alongside Loni Anderson (as his mother) Debra Wilson, Tilky Jones and Rae Dawn Chong.

He wrote and co-starred with Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from "Gilligan's Island") in a series of spoofs of Dawn's classic sitcom called "She's Still on That Freakin' Island". Ray's series "TV Therapy" has him playing a therapist. Each episode features a different classic TV character (once again played by the original actor) with all the issues they would have in the present day. Guest stars Dawn Wells, Erin Murphy, Kathy Garver, Butch Patrick, Wesley Eure, Kathy Coleman, Juliet Mills, Bob Bergen, Ted Lange, Marc Copage, Darby Hinton, Johnny Whitaker, Alexandra Paul, Larry Mathews and Jon Provost.

Terry Ray's first work as a playwright, "Electricity", premiered to rave reviews in Los Angeles and was held over for an 11 week run. It then began it's record breaking nearly 4-year run in Palm Springs and well as Columbus' Evolution Theatre and the Twin Cities where Lavender Magazine named "Electricity" as one of the 5 Best Out of Town Shows in Minneapolis for the 2018 year--alongside "Hamilton."

Ray is the co-founder and Managing Director of The Bent Theatre, one of only a small handful of LGBTQ+ theatre in Southern California. The Bent opened with the world premiere of Terry Ray's play "The Lincoln Debate", a historically accurate comedy about the 4 years that Lincoln shared a bed with Joshua Speed, the man history records as Lincoln's "best friend." The Bent has quickly grown into one of the most respected theaters in the Palm Springs area.

Terry Ray also teaches acting.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous