“I found that the biggest gambles have actually been the most rewarding for me,” Dan Harry says. He became a beloved TV personality after appearing on the BBC’s I Kissed A Boy, the UK’s first gay dating show, in 2023 and has since become a spokesperson for sexual health.
Harry studied journalism in Glasgow and later landed a job in PR – a career which took him to London. “I never had any interest in doing anything on TV. I was quite comfortable being behind the camera as opposed to in front of it,” he says. But then he was approached by a casting producer through Instagram.
The producer told him the show would be hosted by Dannii Minogue, would air on BBC Three and it was being filmed in Italy. “He was selling the show to me, because at the time, there was nothing like that – there was no I Kissed A Boy, there was no I Kissed A Girl. It was literally the first of its kind,” he says. Seeing it as a big step for LGBTQ+ representation in the media, Harry agreed to go on the show.
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He came in as a “bombshell” contestant and found an almost instant spark with fellow contestant Ollie King, whom he was in a relationship with for a time after the show ended. “I remember being so nervous and I wanted to present the best version of myself, but I was also very conscious of the fact that I wanted to deliver a fun story,” he says.
After the show aired, he went from 2,000 to 35,000 Instagram followers in the span of two weeks. For Harry, it was important to use his new platform to talk about the issues that mattered most to him. “I didn’t just want to be the guy from I Kissed A Boy for the rest of my life,” he says.
Before he entered the show, Harry had signed up to an HIV vaccine research trial. “I spoke about it on my social media, and it exploded – everyone wanted to learn more about this medical trial that I was taking part in,” he says. This was the catalyst for using his platform to break down the stigma around sexual health.
@danharrypr I am very proud to be taking part in a groundbreaking HIV vaccine trial as a volunteer – this is a year-long research study which will hopefully result in a vaccine that can create immunity to HIV for HIV negative adults. That means I will be one of the first people in the world to ever be given this trial vaccine, and I will go through a year of testing to see if it creates positive antibodies in my body that will protect me from ever contracting HIV. This is something I am very passionate about and I am just at the start of this journey – but I want to talk about it and remind everyone that the fight against HIV isn’t over and to please consider supporting organisations such as @thtorguk and many more, to help make a change. I will continue documenting this over the next year and let me know if you have any questions about the research study! (I will answer what I can) With any hope, this will lead to a widespread vaccine that will eradicate HIV. And thank you to Serge Fedele and your team at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for the amazing work that you do ❤️ #ikissedaboy #lgbtq #fyp #hiv #freddiemercury #vaccine
♬ vlog, chill out, calm daily life(1370843) – SUNNY HOOD STUDIO
In May 2024, he fronted the BBC documentary HIV, PrEP & Me, which he describes as “probably the proudest thing I’ve ever done”. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a medication used to stop HIV from getting into the body. “I get people coming up to me all the time saying they watched the documentary and started taking PrEP shortly after,” he says. The creator has also done presenting and journalistic work for Gay Star News and Pride in London’s YouTube broadcast.
Charity work is important to Harry, who has longstanding partnerships with the HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust and the LGBTQ charity Stonewall. For the former, he recently completed the World AIDS Day Red Run. He also helped spread awareness of Stonewall’s campaign against anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime on public transport, using his own experience as an example. “I’ll do some brand stuff here and there, but primarily my content will be about supporting my community,” he says.
His brand partners include Sky, YO! Sushi and London North Eastern Railway. “It’s not like I have an absolutely huge following, but I do have a really engaged following, prominently people from the queer community,” Harry points out. This is part of his USP for brands – an engaged niche community – and he currently has a 7.43% average engagement rate on his Instagram. “There’s been lots of things that I’ve turned down because it just feels not quite right, because I wouldn’t want anyone to look at my profile and think ‘he’s just sold out’”, he says.
As for future plans? Harry wants to create another documentary, this time about the rise of chemsex – consuming psychoactive drugs to enhance sexual experiences. “That’s the next topic I would love to cover, because I think it’s a very underground part of queer culture, which not a lot of people understand, and it’s very much under-researched,” he says.
By Dina Zubi, news and features writer for CORQ. Picture credit: Dan Harry via Instagram.
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