Beau Howard

Beau Nathan Howard (born May 14, 2002) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, actor, music video director, philanthropist, activist, and businessman. He is most well-known for his androgynous fashion, diverse discography, and LGBT activism.

After moving from Louisville, Kentucky to Chicago, Illinois in 2022, Howard began to pursue a music career with the help of "his boyfriend's friends." His debut EP, Motel Room, was released on December 9, 2022, preceded by the singles "Runaway," "Sinner's Hymn," and "Mars." The EP earned Howard a cult following, and caught the attention of "several record labels." Howard signed with Tomorrow Records in early 2023. His debut album, Masculinity, was released on November 17, 2023, receiving critical acclaim and financial success alongside the singles "Blur" and "The Devil." The album turned Howard into an "overnight sensation" and earned him several award nominations.

His second full-length album, Femininity: The Truth Behind the Façade, was released on April 18, 2025 and is his most succcessful album, both critically and financially. Billboard labeled it the number one album of 2025, and The Rolling Stone had it in its list of top 10 albums of 2025. Two of the album's singles made it to number one, "Standard" and "Watermelon Lip Balm," "Live Your Life" reached number two, and "Old Soul" made it to number three.

Baptism was released on June 4, 2027, preceded by the single "Sinful Words." It earned critical and financial success, but was also met with backlash due to its religious imagery, theming, and "blasphemous lyrics." His fourth album, Filthy!, released on October 26, 2029. All of the album's singles, "Fed Up!," "My Body," "Sin," and "Social Degeneracy," all made it to number one on the charts.

Howard announced a hiatus from music after the Filthy World Tour! concluded in January 2032, citing both physical and mental health issues. He began to focus on acting during this time, making an appearance as Noah Murphy in the Netflix original series Twisted, also writing the theme song "Twisted For You," performed by xxxxxxx. He starred in the movie Love in Lavender in 2033, and earned an Oscar, Golden Globe, and SAG Award nomination for his performance.

His music hiatus ended in 2035, when he surprise-dropped the album St. Peter's Gate on November 30, 2035. Despite the little promotion, the album reached number one on the charts. This is also the only album of his to not receive its own tour. His sixth and latest album, The American Dream, was released on July 12, 2037. It achieved critical and financial success, but it was also the album to face the most controversy, due to its political lyrics.

1986-2021: Early life
Beau Nathan Howard was born on May 14, 2002 at Owensboro Mercy Hospital, Owensboro, KY to a middle class catholic family. His mother was a elementary school teacher and librarian, his father was a healthcare manager. He has one older brother. He grew up in a small rural town outside of Owensboro.

Howard has always loved music, and always dreamed of being a performer and moving to the city. Despite this, he didn't actually begin to perform until he was 11 and took orchestra class at his middle school, playing the violin. He ended up giving up the violin, citing parental-caused stress, and chose to focus on choir and theatre as he moved into high school.

He enrolled at the University of Louisville in 2020, majoring in communication.

Howard began identifying as transgender when he was 12, but kept it as a secret until he was 20. He admits that he didn't show any obvious signs of gender dysphoria as a child, unlike other transgender celebrities.

2022-2023: Career Beginnings and Motel Room
Howard's parents were told he was transgender (along with several other personal details about his sex life and drug use) in Summer 2022 by a source that remains unknown (according to Howard, the most likely suspect is a family friend). Howard states he was facing being forced to go back into the closet, losing the majority of his freedom, and stated his parents were even discussing the possibility of conversion therapy. Terrified, he chose to completely disconnect from his parents and live independently.

He moved in with his boyfriend, and the two eventually chose to move to Chicago, Howard dropped out of college because he could no longer afford it. While in Chicago, Howard severely struggled to pay his half of the rent, and admitted he was "almost entirely reliant on him." He almost fell into sex work, when his boyfriend mentioned he knew people who worked in music.

Howard met up with David Walker, the founder of local indie record label Citrus Breath, and described it as "an instant click--as if it were meant to be." He never formally auditioned for his label, instead Walker just trained him to be the perfect performer, including giving him voice, piano, and guitar lessons. In Walker's own words:"Beau was never my client, student, or employee. He was my friend, I took a real likening to him and he was my close friend's little 20-year-old, bright-eye boyfriend. He needed money and loved music, I was glad to help. People love to give my credit for starting his career, but that little guy would've made it big no matter what. He's a genius when it comes to marketing himself and conceptualizing albums...it's insane."Howard's first ever songs uploaded online were covers of "Devil Town" by Cavetown, "Oh My God" by Adele, and "John Wayne" by Lady Gaga. Howard's first original song wasn't posted until he had felt his voice had lowered enough thanks to testosterone (which he had started soon after moving to Chicago), and it was "Catholic School Drop Out," uploaded September 2, 2022.

Right after he uploaded his first ever song, Howard began to tease his debut EP. He has talked about how everyone judged him for this decision, but he responded with the "insanely cocky" phrase that he wasn't a "singles artist", he was an "albums artist."

He released three singles before the release of Motel Room, and to "everyone's shock," two had garnered a decent amount of attention on social media. "Runaway," blew up on TikTok, and "Mars" blew up everywhere as a "trans anthem." Thanks to Howard's social media presence, Motel Room was a decent success when it released on December 9, 2022, gathering not only the attention of the public but also record labels.

Walker offered a spot on his own label, but Howard turned it down, stating the two had a "falling out." He performed at several small venues in the Chicago area, along with performing at the Louisville Pride Festival and other festivals in Louisville.

Several labels approached Howard, but he declined all of them until he was approached by Andrew Archer, the CEO of Tomorrow Records, himself at one of his performances. Howard was "flattered" that the CEO himself spoke to him in person instead of an intern sending him an email, and signed to Tomorrow Records shortly after meeting him in March 2023.

2023-2024: Breakthrough with Masculinity
Production for Howard's debut album began immediately after he was signed to the label and moved to New York City. Howard has stated he had already wrote the majority of the lyrics for the album before signing with Tomorrow Records. Andrew Archer agreed to take on the project, nicknamed "What Transgender Pop Sounds Like" at the time, alongside transgender producer Gladys Rivers.

The sound of the album changed several times, originally taking a house-like, ballroom form. The final sound of the album was inspired by late 2000s/early 2010s dance pop that Howard grew up with, also taking inspiration from 80s synthpop, 70s disco, and ballroom music. Many people in the production team worried that the sound was so different than what was on the radio that there would be no way the album would be successful. Howard, Rivers, and Archer responded with "Don't worry. They're ready for this."

The final album name was finalized and promotion began in Summer 2023, only a few months after production had begun. The first single, "x," was released shortly afterwards,

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Residence
In 2024, Howard bought his first condo in New York City, close to both Tomorrow Records' New York branch and the LGBT neighborhoods. In 2026, he bought a house in West Hollywood, mostly for work purposes, but to also "be closer to all of the hollywood action." In 2028, he bought his main residence, a large house in Louisville, KY. He has also stated he bought his parents a new house in his hometown Owensboro, KY.

Sexuality, gender, and relationships
At the start of his career, Beau Howard was dating the actor Daniel Finn. It was revealed, after years of rumors, that Howard had cheated on Finn with David Walker, and it was this fling that inspired Walker to fund Howard's career without any payment. The two remained dating until 2024. Howard briefly dated the rapper xxxxx afterwards, but Howard described the relationship as "not that serious." In 2025, he began dating the singer-songwriter Hector Abascal, but the two broke up after a public feud in late 2026. Howard began dating singer-songwriter and actor James Kovitz in 2027, and the two continued to date until his death in 2030. Howard hasn't been open about his relationship since.

Howard describes his sexuality as gay, but has stated that he could also be considered bisexual since he doesn't care about sex, only gender. He has also stated that he would be open dating non-binary individuals as long as "they would be comfortable." In response to controversy of someone assigned female at birth identifying as a gay male, Howard has made it clear he doesn't believe gay men have to be attracted to him or date him.

Howard has identified as a transgender male the entirety of his public career, and goes by He/Him/His pronouns.

Mental health and substance abuse
Howard struggled with ARFID for most of his life, stating that his parents didn't see his "extreme pickiness" as anything other than impoliteness, he never received treatment for the disorder until he was an adult. He has also struggled with anxiety and depression since he was a teenager. At age 20, he was diagnosed with HPD and autism. After moving away from his parents, Howard described how he would often turn to drugs and alcohol to help him cope with his life. By early 2023, he was "already entering the stages of early alcoholism."

Due to concern from friends and his at-the-time boyfriend, Daniel Finn, he intentionally cut his alcohol consumption, replacing his habit with marijuana and delta 8. But soon after signing with Tomorrow Records, Howard returned to alcohol, often combining it with cannabis. During the production of Masculinity, he was drinking and smoking more than he had ever before, describing that the album's rushed deadline was "almost unbearable." It was during this time Howard was introduced to cocaine for the first time.

After the album was completed and released, Howard promised to reduce his alcohol and cannabis consumption, and has talked about how being on tour actually helped him avoid drugs, believing that "no one pays to see a bumbling, drunk and/or high idiot try to sing and dance." While his day-to-day consumption was greatly reduced, completely eliminated at times, his consumption at parties was at an all-time high. He has described how he would be on as many as 3 drugs in addition to alcohol at every party he went to, often blacking out. In particular, he has mentioned that at the after party of the 2025 Grammy's that he took so many drugs that he passed out, causing many to worry that he had overdosed.

Howard began working with addiction professionals after Behind the Façade: Femininity World Tour concluded, and was able to get his alcohol and drug use under control, and stopped using cocaine and other hard drugs completely. However, he began to use cocaine once again after Baptism: The Confirmation Tour ended in 2028, but "only at parties and he would always limit himself." But as time continued, he began to fall on old habits. He admitted he was often high while performing during The Filthy World Tour! Following the death of James Kovitz, his drug use worsened.

Howard "finally" achieved "California sober" status in 2035, he said he was also working towards complete sobriety. However, various sources have reported that as of 2040, he has coninuted to abuse alcohol, and that his alcohol abuse is worse than it was at the start of his career.

2033 drug overdose
The public began to take notice of Howard's drug issues in May 2032, when photos emerged of Howard snorting lines of cocaine in a public restroom. There were also multiple instances of Howard acting erratically in 2032, appearing under the influenced at several of his public appearances and interviews. By 2033, he had a reputation of being a druggie. An anonymous source from the set of Love in Lavender described how Howard would never be high or drunk while filming, but towards the end of the day he would begin to get irritable and desperate for filming to end, showing signs of withdraw. The source also stated several members of the cast and crew would see him do lines of cocaine the moment filming ended.

Howard continued to make public appearances while intoxicated, but he never garnered the public's sympathy until the 2034 Oscar's. He was so visibly high during the show, he didn't even acknowledge his name was called for his nomination until his manager got his attention. Multiple people commented how the public was watching someone's downward spiral, including other celebrities.

On March 13th, 2034, Howard was rushed to the hospital after emergency services were called to his Louisville home due to a cocaine overdose. Investigation revealed he had been given cocaine laced with fentanyl. He was reported to be alive, stable, and recovering later in the day, discounting false reports the singer had passed away. Howard suffered a heart attack, stroke and multiple seizures due to the overdose. Howard was hospitalized for two weeks following the overdose, and was then admitted to an in-patient rehab facility.

Howard's overdose received widespread media coverage, leading to great amount of misinformation being spread about the incident. Early reports stated that the singer had died, with multiple news sites publishing obituaries. Other reports suggested he overdosed on pure fentanyl, or heroin laced with fentanyl. Later false reports stated the singer suffered brain damage and will likely be unable to tour again.

Howard's first public statement about the overdose came in December 2034, where he tweeted the following:"Finally have access to my phone again. Folks at Rehab said I earned it. Thank you all so much for all the love and support, it means a whole lot to me. I'm doing well, I've been making steady progress in rehab. Doctors also say I narrowly avoided severe permanent brain damage. I've only been granted phone access for a limited time every day, and some nurse has to stand over my shoulder, so don't expect too many posts until I'm out. Even after then, I don't think I'm cut out for social media bullshit anymore. I need some rest. Love you all, Beau"

In November 2035, Howard made his first public appearance after his overdose on The X Show. The singer described how he had "managed to run out of cocaine," and didn't realize until he was experiencing withdrawal symptoms. "My dealer was out of town," he explained, "but I was so desperate for a fix that I called up a former dealer of mine--one that made me extremely uncomfortable in the past." He explained that this dealer often required sexual acts "for the good stuff." The dealer arrived at his house only two hours before the authorities were called, took advantage of Howard, gave him the laced cocaine, and left. "That's the last I remember."

Abuse trauma
Howard has publicly admitted he is a victim of physical and sexual abuse. After Daniel Finn's death, he publicly revealed the actor once brutally beat him, leaving him covered in bruises. "After the punches stopped, I heard his belt come undone..." Howard also revealed that Finn raped him right after beating him. Following the incident, he experienced a shutdown due to the trauma. Finn took him to the hospital, despite knowing it could very well end in his arrest. Howard was cleared of any concussions or any other physical injuries besides bruising. The singer declined to press charges and stayed with Finn after the attack, a decision he calls "the dumbest of his life."

Multiple of Howard's previous cocaine dealers have also taken advantage of him, either before or after he paid for drugs. Most infamously, the dealer that gave him the laced cocaine that led to his 2034 overdose had raped him right before his overdose.

Anonymous sources have also claimed that Andrew Archer raped Howard soon after he was signed to Tomorrow Records, but Howard has never confirmed these rumors.