Travis Kelce shot to superstardom in more than one way in recent years, ranging from football thanks to three Super Bowl wins with the Kansas City Chiefs to his extremely high-profile relationship with Taylor Swift. Now, the tight end is tackling a new kind of project: scripted television. Kelce has joined the cast of Ryan Murphy’s upcoming horror series Grotesquerie for later in the 2024 TV schedule, and I have questions after the reveal.
As usual for Ryan Murphy projects, details about Grotesquerie are fairly scarce, but cast member Niecy Nash posted a behind-the-scenes video that revealed Travis Kelce on set, and he had a short but sweet message in the footage. Take a look:
After Niecy Nash made the reveal, Kelce confirmed that he’s “jumping into new territory” with Grotesquerie, and he seemingly couldn’t be more excited about working with the Rookie: Feds alum for his foray into scripted TV drama. He reposted the video on his Instagram Story, with this caption:
Steppin into a new world with one of the legends!
Grotesquerie of course won’t be Travis Kelce’s first small screen gig other than playing football on national television, as he hosted Saturday Night Live back in March 2023 and then returned for a cameo alongside Taylor Swift last fall. (He’s also attached to host Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? for Amazon Prime subscribers.) But appearing in sketch comedy is a far cry from performing from a script, and the rest of the Grotesquerie cast have a long list of credits to their names already.
According to Deadline, Niecy Nash and Travis Kelce are joined by Courtney B. Vance and Lesley Manville for the new Ryan Murphy horror show. All in all, one of my biggest questions in the wake of the news is whether Kelce is actually a full cast member like the veteran actors, or just appearing as a guest star or to make a cameo of some sort.
After all, he just signed a historic multi-million dollar contract extension with the Kansas City Chiefs, so it’s not like he’s out of a day job yet, and the expected fall premiere date for Grotesquerie likely means that show’s season overlapping with the NFL season. Of course, the show will presumably be entirely filmed well before Kelce has to trade in his dapper suits for his football gear, so there may not be any timing conflict. But are there any implications for the NFL based on the Grotesquerie news?
And honestly, I’m definitely wondering if Travis Kelce can act. His co-stars are well-established in showbiz, including Emmy wins for Niecy Nash and Courtney B. Vance as well as an Academy Award nomination for Lesley Manville. Super Bowl wins don’t necessarily translate to scripted gravitas, so it should be interesting to see what Kelce has in store for viewers with Grotesquerie.