Hoyt Richards

Hoyt Richards, born John Richard Hoyt on April 10, 1962, is an American model, actor, and screenwriter. Dubbed the first male supermodel, he attained international fame in the late 1980s working alongside contemporaries such as Cindy Crawford and Fabio Lanzoni.

In his final year of high school, Richards received a scholarship to attend the sixth form at Haileybury, an English public school. He subsequently attended Princeton University as a scholar-athlete, playing varsity football and graduating in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. Although he initially focused on academics and sports without plans to model, a shoulder injury ended his football career. During a trip to New York to see a medical specialist, he was spotted by a casting director. His subsequent trips for auditions led to a meeting with the Ford Model Agency, initiating his modeling career.

Richards became one of the prominent names in modeling during the late 1980s and 1990s. His modeling career spanned over fifteen years, during which he appeared in over 200 major advertising campaigns and hundreds of commercials. Throughout his career, he worked with photographers such as Bruce Weber, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Steven Meisel, Horst, and Albert Watson. His major brand campaigns included Gianni Versace, Valentino, Gianfranco Ferré, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Dunhill, Cartier, and Donna Karan.

In the late 1990s, Richards relocated from New York to Los Angeles to pursue acting. He made his initial appearance in the romantic comedy Six Days, Seven Nights starring Harrison Ford and Anne Heche. He went on to appear in over fifteen independent films, including the comedy Hit and Runway (1999) as well as the dramas Taxi Dance (2009) and The Disciple (2010).

In 2005, Richards expanded his work in the entertainment industry by founding his own production company, Tortoise Entertainment. The company develops and produces film, television, and documentary projects. As a screenwriter and producer through Tortoise Entertainment, he wrote and starred in the 2014 buddy comedy feature Dumbbells.