Bilal Hasna dishes on doing drag for ‘Layla,’ queer intimacy, & dancing to the ‘Glee’ soundtrack
moment this March—the kind of moment that tells us this is honest to goodness capital-s Star in the making. And it couldn’t be happening to a better, sweeter, more talented guy.A few weeks back, the second season of the incredibly charming superhero comedy Extraordinary dropped on Hulu, featuring Hasna’s return as the lovable Kash—his first proper recurring role on a television series.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.This coming week, he can be seen in Netflix‘s highly anticipated sci-fi adaptation 3 Body Problem, based on Alexander Woo’s acclaimed novel of the same name and created by Game Of Thrones masterminds David Benioff and D.
B. Weiss. So, if that’s an indication, this show’s going to be huge.And then, before March is up, his dark, queer comedy series Dead Hot (co-starring Rye Lane‘s BAFTA-nominated Vivian Oparah) will make its American streaming debut on Tubi (March 29).
Count it: That’s one, two, three different television seasons in one single month.But Hasna can’t stop there: His feature film debut, Layla, just kicked off the latest edition of the BFI Flare LGBTQIA+ Film Festival in London, leaving audiences gooped and gaged.
The film—from artist Amrou Al-Kadhi, a.k.a. Glamrou—sees the actor playing the titular Layla, a non-binary British-Palestinian drag queen who si surprised to find themself falling for Max, a more cis-normative gay with a fancy advertising career.Layla actually made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, where Hasna was hailed by many (including yours truly) as one of the fest’s breakthrough performers.
