Benito Skinner is just getting started

Benito Skinner is, understandably, feeling very excited today. ​“I’m doing Seth Myers tomorrow night! It’s my first late night show,” the comedian/​actor/​writer says excitedly. He’s calling in from New York, all glossy skin and beaming smile, on the cusp of releasing Overcompensating – a TV show he wrote, stars in, and which was produced by A24. More on that later.

Over the last few years, Benny, or @bennydrama7 as he’s known on Instagram, has achieved the stuff of comedy dreams. Starting off on social media, he rose to fame during the pandemic, when his character-led videos started going viral. In many of them, Benny’s in costume, impersonating celebrities such as Kourtney Kardashian or Lana Del Rey; in others, he invents characters that have since become fan favourites, like gum-chewing, wig-sporting chatterbox Jenni the TMI stylist.

Quickly developing a brash, instantly recognisable comedic style, it would’ve been easy to assume that a then 22-year-old Benny was as confident IRL as he seemed online. But in reality, he’d just come out to his family and the videos were making him a little nervous. ​“I did a Kim Kardashian Snapchat [skit] and I had a T‑shirt on as a wig because I couldn’t afford a real one. I was like, I don’t know if this is going too fast [for my family],” he says. ​“Am I freaking the people that I love out? What is my boyfriend’s family thinking?”

Still, an overwhelmingly positive reaction reassured him. Now 31, Benny looks back on this time with fondness. ​“I think you see someone starting to absolutely love their gay identity,” he smiles. ​“It’s me coming back to the kid that I was growing up – the kid who would blast Britney Spears and wear costumes.”

Now onto Benny’s newly minted show, Overcompensating. With cameos from Megan Fox, Kyle MacLachlan, Kaia Gerber and musical direction from Charli xcx, it’s partly based on Benny’s own experience of going to Georgetown University – a long, 36-or-so hour drive from his home city of Boise, Idaho. Opening episode one with Lucky by (who else?) Britney, the series follows Benny Scanlon, a closeted freshman who begins his morning with a few press-ups before practising the following greeting in the mirror: ​“Hey, what’s up everybody? I’m Benny and I love pussy.” As any self-respecting heterosexual man should.

He spends the remaining episodes navigating college life and its ritual humiliations: secret society initiations, throwing up flavoured vodka, getting hold of a fake ID, and worst of all, peer pressure to sleep with women. ​“It’s about this hunkering down for the long winter in the closet and being like, God, am I really going to stick this out? And also, at a certain point, why am I doing this?” he says. It’s good to know Benny eventually made it out of homosexual hibernation.

Help! A bro is coming towards you to dap you up. What’s the best way to get out of it?

A hug, sadly. I’d be like, bring it in, I guess? Nipple to nipple. Hate it.

If you were a cocktail, what cocktail would you be?

Tequila sunrise.

What’s your Housewives opening sequence statement?

​“Idaho? Yeah, sounds about right.”

What’s a song that sums up Overcompensating?

Charli xcx – party 4 u.

What do you do when you get writer’s block?

Go for a walk. Blast music. The best thing you can do is have a playlist that is within the world that you’re trying to write for. [For Overcompensating] I was having a huge Lorde Melodrama resurgence. I was also listening to nostalgic Charli, like [her 2017 mixtape] Number 1 Angel.

What’s the one skincare product you swear by?

CeraVe PM. I’ve used it since I was 17 and I have rosacea, so trust me. Just believe gay men, please, when they say they’ve tried it all. I just keep coming back to this girl.

What can you never have too much of?

Could you imagine if I was, like, SEX! No, but sparkling water. Sometimes, if I’m at a party, I get excited thinking about the cold sparkling water I have in the fridge at home. I get giddy and my back tingles.

What’s the most embarrassing thing in your wardrobe?

I find that nothing could be more embarrassing than your own merch. I have this sweatshirt I love and it just says ​“Benny Drama”. Could you imagine if someone saw me wearing that who knew who I was? Mortifying.

Who’s your hear me out crush?

[Disney CEO] Bob Iger. You have to print that! No one’s ever let me say that!

If you could give yourself a new Insta username, what would it be?

You know what? I wouldn’t touch it. At this point, it’s so funny going to something and for someone to go, ​“Is that booked under Drama?”