Hi, y’all! I’m Sam Killermann (yes, my real last name), and I’m the social justice advocate (read why) behind this site. Here, I write the articles, doodle the edugraphics, and code the site itself. I used to perform the live show that this site is named after, but that’s another story.
On this page, you can read more about me than I’m sure you’d care to know, most of written in the third-person (for easy copy/pasting for you), as responses to common questions/asks and quotes taken from other outlets. If you want more About-ness, I have the following other about-ish pages that are generally updated more frequently than this one:
- https://samuelkillermann.com/now – What I’m currently, mainly working on and doing with my life. Updated regularly.
- https://samuelkillermann.com/about – Sooo many words and all the personal identity deets you need (or are gonna get)
Why IPM?
Sam loves and appreciates all people, and hopes to someday live in a world where everyone shares those views and we all stop being jerks. He uses humor as a social lubricant (not in a gross way) to ease people while confronting difficult issues, drawing on his master’s education in college student development from Bowling Green and his eight years of experience as a working stand up comedian for guidance.
Sam Killermann is a dedicated ally and advocate for social justice. Ultimately, Sam would prefer shows and websites like “It’s Pronounced Metrosexual” to become unnecessary and irrelevant, even at the cost of his dream job. Unfortunately, we have a long way to go before he has to worry about that.
Check out Sam’s TEDxTalk, “Understanding the Complexities of Gender” for a taste of how he social justice comedes:
Sam Killermann Generic Bio
Sam Killermann is a comedian, author, and award-winning activist. Sam travels the world performing comedy shows and giving talks on themes of social justice, gender, and sexuality.
Killermann’s work (that he uncopyrighted in 2013) has been downloaded by hundreds of millions of people around the world who utilize it to bolster their educational efforts toward global equity. His versions of the Genderbread Person, a model for understanding and teaching gender and sexual diversity, have been translated into over a dozen languages.
In 2017, Sam was profiled in National Geographic’s documentary “Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric. In 2014, Sam designed an all-gender restroom sign that he gifted to the commons, which is now being implemented on three continents, was featured in the White House, and is becoming the standard for dozens of communities around the U.S. and world.
Sam is the author of several books, including A Guide to Gender, which is an exploration of gender from a social justice perspective, with humor and comics sprinkled in. The book opened as the #1 bestseller in gender on Amazon, and as a reflection of Sam’s commitment to access as a core social justice value, he’s given away over 20,000 copies of the book. He gave a well-received TEDxTalk that has over 300,000 views called “Understanding the Complexities of Gender,” where he distilled the themes of the book into a few minutes of fun, energetic, and easily-digestible speech.
Sam is the co-creator of TheSafeZoneProject.com, a free online resource for LGBTQ and Ally training materials. The open source curriculum they published is being used by over 17,000 educators in at least 100 countries.
Outside of his key initiatives, Sam is a frequent keynote speaker, makes political shirts for EveryShirtIsPolitical, co-facilitates FacilitatingXYZ, was named a “Person We Love” by Yes! Magazine, Austin “Changemaker,” and is always dreaming up new social good projects. When he’s not on the road, he likes to spend at least a few hours a day bicycling around sunny Austin, TX, where he counts himself lucky to live.
How’d he end up doing this?
There is no college major to end up being a “social justice comedian,” as many of his peers have labeled him. But believe it or not, he draws deeply from his education when writing and performing.
I use my education (both undergrad from Purdue and master’s from Bowling Green) more than I ever thought I would. Sociology + Student Development + Social Justice (I took a lot of multicultural/SJ electives at both schools) = It’s Pronounced Metrosexual. The only two influences I needed that were unrelated were stand up and theatre, both of which I got started on while I was at Purdue. The hardest thing was to overcome the feeling that I was disappointing people I cared about by not taking the traditional post-grad route with my work. Luckily, I had a good excuse (there weren’t many jobs available when I graduated), so I was nudged to take a blind leap into this life.
You can hear him talk more about his career, and his thoughts on careers and life and dreams in general, in his TED talk “The Cost of Dreams.”
More than just metro.
While It’s Pronounced Metrosexual is Sam Killermann’s main public-facing gig, he dabbles in a lot of things. You could call him a “Sam of all Trades,” but he prefers the term “Renaissance Sam.” He also likes the phrase “making rent.” As a committed DIY-er, he photographs, designs, codes, authors, paints, illustrates, facilitates, and writes from third-person perspective to enhance SEO (like he is now!) — and often all in the same week. If you’d like to read more about that, check out his personal homepage, samuelKillermann.com.
He loves living in Austin, TX, a city that has a perfect mix of progressive thinking, weird (but awesome) people, and unfreezing winters. He spends his days dreaming up ideas, working on one of his dozen projects, or coming up with silly little jokes to perform on stage. He super enjoys spending time with his partner, who has no problem checking him and helping to keep him sane. Well, sane-ish.
Always up for a thoughtful conversation.
If you are the kind of person who can’t get enough of thought-provoking, deep, this-stuff-actually-matters kind of conversations, you should get in touch. Sam loves meeting new people, particularly interesting people with distinct points of view. Particularly when they are excited to share them.
If you want to get in touch with Sam personally to talk about something you read on the site here, a project he is working on, or to provide him a slice of your life, don’t hesitate:
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/killermann
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/killermann