Travis Kelce Is an Actor Now, Apparently

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | May 8, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | May 8, 2024 |

Travis Kelce is determined to make himself into a very big deal. The Kansas City Chiefs player, former SNL host and future subject of a Taylor Swift break-up album has made no secret of his ambition to evolve into a Jack-of-all-trades A-List star outside of kicking a ball around (or running with it, I’m still not sure how that sport works.) Now, he’s going to be an actor.

As reported by Variety, Kelce has joined the cast of Grotesquerie, a new horror series from Ryan Murphy. Not much has been revealed about the series, but we do know its cast includes Niecy Nash-Betts, Courtney B. Vance and Lesley Manville. Nash shared the news on her Instagram page.

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It’s not all that surprising to me that Murphy, king of the stunt-cast, would make use of Kelce’s elevated profile for his next assembly line product. After all, the breakout star of the most recent season of American Horror Story is Kim Kardashian. Indeed, most of Murphy’s latter-day output seems more defined by their headline-ready casts and concepts than anything of heft. You can see the promotional cycle already, right?

It’s also not surprising that Kelce would make this choice. He was a decent SNL host but I don’t see him going full Terry Crews after he finishes playing American football. What he’s most interested in is having a multi-pronged media career that can last long after his retirement from the NFL. He’s following a well-trodden path, as athletes across the planet can attest to. There are commentary gigs, after-dinner speaker payments, endorsements, and much more to cash in on. It’s savvy to start paving the way for your future before you retire, especially in a sport with a notorious history of seeing its athletes go bankrupt once the big paydays stop rolling in.

Kelce is intriguing to me in this aspect because, even putting aside the Swift of it all, he’s clearly a calculating figure whose ambitions seem at odds with his folksy sports bro image. It takes a lot of brains to pull off being that wholesome to the masses. A New York Times profile from earlier this year delved into the well-oiled machine working to make not only him but his brother Jason and even their parents big stars. Remember, this is the dude who did a dating show.

Aside from being a thespian, he’s also signed on to Prime Video’s game show Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? This April, he signed a two-year extension contract with the Chiefs. The reported payday of $34.25 million makes him the highest-paid tight end in the NFL. All of this happened without the CEO of the Tortured Poets Department by his side, but let’s be honest, her presence did not hurt.

I think one of the reasons the T&T romance fascinates and exhausts so many is that they’re both clearly hugely ambitious workaholics who want to be liked by everyone and be visible at every possible moment. The New York Times reported that her attendance at his games and their public romance not only increased NFL viewership but bolstered merch and ticket sales. Fortune claimed that the Kelce-Swift relationship had added about $331 million to the overall value of the Chiefs franchise in six months. Does that go away if they break up? Probably a bit, but the afterglow would remain on Kelce, who was doing perfectly well as a player before his love life exploded. But it does drive home how much celebrity defines the sports world. People love a winner.

So, start those acting lessons now, Travis. I will not have you letting Lesley Manville and Niecy Nash-Betts down.