Antoni Porowski Biography

Antoni was born on March 14, 1984, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a Polish couple who had migrated to Canada.

His father is a physician. He has two elder sisters. He loves dogs. The family would have two miniature dachshunds at any given time.

At 12, Antoni Porowski moved along with his family to Glade Springs, West Virginia, U.S.

He spoke Polish at home. He learned French and English in school and by watching TV at home. He shuttled between Montreal and Glade Springs until he graduated high school.

Following this, Antoni Porowski moved to Montreal to attend a pre-university program at the 'Marianopolis College.' He later graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology from the 'Concordia University,' Montreal.

Inspired by his grandmother's culinary techniques, Antoni became a self-taught chef.

He attended the 'Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre' in New York City, U.S., to learn acting and eventually graduated in 2011.

When Antoni Porowski was in Montreal, Antoni would work in restaurants. While auditioning for roles, he would often have to face rejection, presumably due to his Polish ancestry. He thus worked at restaurants to earn a living. He started as a busboy with a Polish restaurant owned by a family.

Over time, he became a waiter and a wine steward. He rose through the ranks to take up a management role at 'BondST,' a sushi restaurant on Bond Street in New York.

He worked as a personal chef of Ted Allen, an American author, TV personality, and food and wine connoisseur. Allen had lent his expertise to the original TV series 'Queer Eye.'

In 2018, Antoni, along with his partners, re-designed the neighborhood diner 'The Village Den' and reopened it as a fast-casual restaurant serving nutritious food that was free of red meat, gluten, and soy.

In the spring of 2019, he released his cookbook 'Antoni in the Kitchen,' which was published by 'Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.'

In 2008, Antoni Porowski appeared as 'Eric' in the short film 'The Diary.' Two years later, he appeared as a lacrosse player in an episode of the sitcom 'Blue Mountain State,' titled 'LAX.'

He played a stranger in the short film 'The Apartment' in 2011. The following year, he portrayed the lead character’s father in 'Elliot Loves.’

He played the character 'Louis' in the short movie 'Withdrawl.' The following year, Antoni Porowski played a lead officer in an episode of the American crime-drama series 'The Blacklist,' titled 'Monarch Douglas Bank’ (No. 112).

In 2015, Antoni Porowski essayed the role of 'Adam Bandrowski' in the short film 'To My Father.' He appeared as 'Christian' in the 2016 movie 'Daddy's Boy.'

He witnessed unprecedented fame in 2018, when he appeared as a food and wine expert in the 'Netflix' original series 'Queer Eye,' a reboot of the original show of the same name. That year, he appeared in two movies: as 'Antoni' in 'The Pretenders' and as 'Jacob' in 'Horror Time.' He was also featured in the music video of the song 'This Is Me (The Reimagined Remix)' performed by artists Keala Settle, Kesha, and Missy Elliott.

He appeared in the first episode of the fifth season of 'Lip Sync Battle,' was seen as a guest in season 3 of the animated sitcom 'Big Mouth,' and was also featured in Taylor Swift’s music video 'You Need to Calm Down.'

‘Queer Eye's fifth season premiered on June 5, 2020, and has been renewed for a sixth season.

He is working on an upcoming 'Netflix' movie titled 'Girls and Boys.' The movie is loosely based on his real life, especially his sexuality and dating experiences.

Along with his co-actors of 'Queer Eye,' Antoni received the 'Emmy Award' for “Outstanding Structured Reality Program” on September 10, 2018.

He was nominated for the 'People's Choice Award’ for “The Reality TV Star of 2018” for his performance in 'Queer Eye.'

He won the 'Eater's 2018 #Brand of the Year' title. He, along with his cast, famously called “Fab Five,” was featured by 'Entertainment Weekly' on the 'Entertainers of the Year' list in 2018. He also appeared on the cover page of the same magazine. Some of the other magazines that featured him on the front page are 'Gay Times,' 'Attitude,’ and 'Out.’

In 2019, he was voted as the “Sexiest Reality Star” by the readers of 'People' magazine.

In Antoni's words, his sexuality is "a little more fluid along the spectrum."

He dated Joey Krietemeyer for more than 7 years, until they separated in October 2018.

Two months after the break-up, he declared on 'Instagram' that he had begun dating Trace Lehnhoff. However, they broke up after a year.

In a season-3 episode of 'Queer Eye,' titled 'Lost Boy,' released on March 15, 2019, he confessed that he had faced addiction problems earlier in life.

In the fourth season of 'Queer Eye,' Antoni confessed that his relationship with his mother had been estranged.

In October 2019, he revealed on 'Instagram' that he had been dating Kevin Harrington.