Individual | Inducted 2025
Richard Knight Jr. has contributed to Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community as a television and cabaret entertainer, recording artist, filmmaker, creative writer, critic and journalist, public relations director, and activist. He earned two Emmys as his “Dick O’Day” character on WTTW’s “Wild Chicago.” His alter-ego endures in the theatrical game show “Dick O’Day’s Big Lovely Bingo” and the “Showbiz Kids from Hell” comedy duo, which have been raising money for LGBTQ+ charities for decades.
Having served as film critic for Windy City Times for 12 ½ years, Knight has authored several books of film criticism. For eight years he served as the features programming director for Reeling: The Chicago International LGBTQ+ Film Festival. He has hosted multiple film series including “Camp Midnight” at the Music Box Theater and the “Cinema Q” series at the Chicago Cultural Center and the Chicago Public Library.
As an openly gay journalist in mainstream Chicago media, Knight has brought a queer perspective to the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, and Newcity. “Haunted Houses, Porn Stars & Toy Collectors,” a compilation of his 15-year career as a human-interest journalist, was published in 2022. He is also the author of “How Do I Get Outside?!” (based on his stint as the cocktail pianist on the world’s most luxurious cruise ship) and “Twilight World,” a chronicle of mid-1980s glittery nightlife set against the rise of AIDS in Chicago.
As a pianist and singer/songwriter, Knight has helmed numerous musical comedy ventures, most notably as omni-sexual bandleader Monty Mattachine of the wacky, Latin-flavored “Samba Bamba” for the past 31 years. He also co-wrote, co-directed, and co-produced “Scrooge & Marley,” a gay film version of “A Christmas Carol” currently being adapted for the stage. “Given Your True Nature” –– a screenplay based on Knight’s experience being kicked out of high school for being gay –– is in development as a feature film. He was PR Director of Chicago’s Limelight nightclub in the 1980s and has enjoyed a long association with the Annoyance Theater.
Richard’s activism includes membership in ACT-UP Chicago and extensive volunteer work beginning in the 1980s delivering meals to home-bound people with AIDS for Open Hand Chicago, which he later served as a board member. He also conceived and orchestrated that organization’s extremely successful Annual Croquet Tournaments, which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for critical services over multiple years.