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Trailblazer, creative polymath, renaissance man, maverick, master of reinvention, beyond eclectic; Alan Cumming is all of these things and more – and next week, he will add ‘SLTN Awards presenter’ to that vast CV. On Thursday 6th November international star Cumming will take to the stage at the Glasgow Hilton to reveal the winners of 2025’s SLTN Awards, in front of a 700-strong audience of their hospitality industry peers. A proud Scottish native, Cumming has forged an extraordinary transatlantic career since he first came to public attention as one half of cabaret duo Victor and Barry with his longtime collaborator Forbes Masson. From that comedic start, Cumming emerged as ‘an actor knocking at the door of greatness’ by storming the West End in a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, then leapt the pond to become an international sensation as a subversive Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret, a smash hit production that is said to have changed the Broadway landscape forever. His acting kudos were then forever secured by a visceral, virtually one man delivery of Macbeth, which was hailed as a stunning, transatlantic coup de theatre. His most recent adventures include winning two Emmys for hosting and producing the US version of hit reality show Traitors, and being named artistic director of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. In between those two huge commitments, he has played the lead in Brian Cox’s directorial film debut Glenrothan, recorded a single with Gaelic rapper Griogair Labhruidh, reunited with Masson to write a book celebrating the fortieth anniversary Victor and Barry, shot a film in French, voiced an elderly woman (with a pet crab) in the Disney Kids series Robogobo, and toured with US broadcasting star Ari Shapiro in their cabaret Och and Oy! as well as his own solo show Uncut. In the near future, he will return to the big screen reprising his role as the indigo teleporting X-Man Nightcrawler in Marvel’s upcoming blockbuster Avengers: Doomsday! Alan co-owns his own, eponymous cabaret boite Club Cumming in New York City’s East Village, which he describes as a home for ‘all ages, all genders, all colours, all sexualities, where kindness is all and anything could happen!’ Perhaps not surprisingly, Time Magazine has named him as one of the three most fun people in show business, alongside Cher and Stanley Tucci. The list of his collaborators over the years includes Liza Minnelli, Jeremy O. Harris, Jackie Chan, the Smurfs, David Bowie, The Simpsons, Robert Wilson, Stanley Kubrick, Jay Z, Bianca, Del Rio, the Spice Girls, George Lucas, Terence Blanchard, KT Tunstall and not forgetting Dora the Explorer, Arthur and Elmo. He is a Tony and Olivier award winning theatre actor, recipient of a Scottish BAFTA and a British Comedy Award, an Independent Spirit award-winning producer and National Board of Review winning director. He is a Grammy and multiple Golden Globe nominee. His portrait was hung in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, he has four honourary doctorates and a further forty awards for being a humanitarian.
