On the heels of his third Super Bowl championship and in the thick of unstoppable fanfare over his relationship, Travis Kelce is apparently moving into a different kind of spotlight. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end has confirmed he’s attached to the upcoming television series “Grotesquerie,” from “American Horror Story” creator Ryan Murphy. According to Deadline, the venture will mark Kelce’s acting debut.
Kelce acknowledged his involvement in the series in a Tuesday video shared on social media by Niecy Nash, who will star in “Grotesquerie” after earning an Emmy Award for her performance in Murphy’s 2022 Netflix show about Jeffrey Dahmer.
“Guys, guess who I am working with on ‘Grostequerie’?” Nash asked viewers at the start of the video.
As her camera panned across the room, a joyful-looking Kelce suddenly entered the frame. Nash more formally welcomed Kelce to “Grotesquerie” in the caption of her post, writing, “This is what happens when WINNERS link up‼️”
For his part, the NFL player said that he would be “jumping into new territory with Niecy” and “steppin’ into a new world with one of the legends” when he reposted the video to his own Instagram page.
The news of Kelce’s foray into scripted TV trailed rumors that lit up online earlier this year, after an unnamed source told People that he was interested in turning his attention toward acting. But by then, he had already taken some strides from the football field to Hollywood.
Kelce appeared on “Saturday Night Live” last fall in a surprise cameo spot alongside his girlfriend, Taylor Swift, and earlier that year hosted an episode of the sketch comedy show. As host, he delivered the trademark “SNL” opening monologue to widespread praise and went on to appear in a few of the sketches themselves.
On the business side of the industry, he took was an executive producer in the independent film “My Dead Friend Zoe,” which premiered in April at Austin’s South by Southwest film festival.
“Grotesquerie” is set to premiere this fall on FX. Though only breadcrumbs have been revealed so far as to what the series will actually shape up to be, Murphy’s production house billed it as “a horror drama” in an initial series announcement in February, which included a brief and chilling voiceover clip from Nash that spoke to its position in that genre. Cast in “Grotesquerie” alongside Nash — and, seemingly, now Kelce — are Courtney B. Vance and Lesley Manville.