Alec Taylor

**Alec Daniel Taylor** is an American television personality. He was a cast member on *The Real World: New York*, the first season of the reality television series *The Real World*.

Afterwards, Taylor competed in *The Challenge: Dynamic Duos*, where he was eliminated in episode three.

## Biography

Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts to parents Kevin and Colleen Taylor. His father worked in advertising, while his mother worked as a nurse. He was raised Roman Catholic and comes from an Irish-American family. Taylor was raised in a large family with five siblings; his siblings include Kenneth who is six years older than him, Maureen who is four years older than him, Jane who is three years older than him, Noël who is two years older than him, and Paul who is two years younger than him. He grew up in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston.

Taylor attended private Catholic schooling growing up, graduating from Saint Joseph Preparatory High School. In high school, Taylor was an accomplished varsity lacrosse player, and also played junior varsity soccer in his first two years. After finishing high school, Taylor enrolled in the University of New Haven, where he received a degree in journalism.

## Background

*Alec was born to a middle-class family in suburban Boston. He comes from a large Irish-Catholic family, growing up in a three-bedroom house with two brothers and three sisters. Alec first began to question his sexuality in middle school, yet pushed the feelings aside and began dating girls in order to repress these thoughts. He did not come to terms with his sexuality until his senior year of high school, where he was an accomplished lacrosse player, and did not publicly begin coming out until beginning college. He graduated from the University of New Haven with a degree in journalism, and subsequently returned to Boston to begin his career with online news sources. He is coming to New York in order to help further his career in the news capital of the country, and in order to make lasting memories with new people.*

## *The Real World*

Taylor became a cast member on *The Real World: New York*, the first season of the reality television series *The Real World*. After arriving in the cast's New York residence, Taylor quickly formed a bond with his roommate Johnny Richmond. Taylor was the first homosexual person Richmond had ever met, as there were no openly gay people in his hometown, and he became very fascinated with the community and what life is like for a gay person. Taylor took the cast members to a New York gay bar in order to have a fun night out and educate them on the community.

In New York, Taylor met Gabriel, a French international student at New York University, whom Taylor began a romantic relationship with. They remained committed and loving throughout their time together, and agreed to visit each other when Taylor returned to Boston after filming wrapped.

### Reunion

After leaving New York and returning to Massachusetts, Taylor continued his relationship with Gabriel long-distance. He remains in contact with every member of the cast, especially Johnny Richmond who he calls one of his "very close friends." They have made many visits to each other, with Taylor visiting West Virginia and Richmond visiting Massachusetts. Several months after filming, Taylor moved permanently to New York to begin writing for *The Huffington Post*.

### *The Challenge*

#### *Dynamic Duos*

As an alumni of *The Real World: New York*, Taylor took part as one of the alumni in *The Challenge: Dynamic Duos*. He was impressed enough by Madison McGillicutty in the obstacle course for her to be selected by him as his partner for the duration of the show. McGillictty and Taylor formed a close friendship during their time together in the show, and this friendship resulted in them being targeted for their close connection and near-competition wins. After being voted into the elimination challenge in episode three, they were eliminated by Markus Black and Talia Peralta.