seb castro: three early music videos
by Douglas Messerli
US singer and actor Benjamin Brian Castro,
known to his YouTube audiences as Sebastian Castro, is best known for his music
video Bubble, which made him an overnight internet celebrity with a
following mostly in Southeast Asia and particularly in the Philippines and
Indonesia.
On
February 14, 2013, Bubble appeared on YouTube, garnering over 3 million
views, according to Wikipedia. The video itself served as an international “coming
out,” since before the video he had not publicly spoken about his sexuality.
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Castro officially came out on a Philippine podcast, Beki Nights shortly
after the release of Bubble, declaring at age 24, “I know there are lots of people
out there that are scared to be themselves.”
In
November of 2013, Castro made another homoerotic video titled Theban.
This work, as I describe it below, contained perhaps even more sexual content
that Bubble, but had lost much of the comic charm of the earlier video.
However, in 2014 Castro followed it up with another exuberant
school-based musical narrative, You’re Gay, which recaptures the naughty
glee of Bubble.
In
2014, he and former ABS-CBN reporter Ryan Chua announced their relationship
over social media during a trip Castro made to London where his companion was involved
in a Master’s degree program at the City University of London. The couple
separated in 2017.
After
his videos Castro turned to performing in movie roles in several films,
including Mrs. (2015), Bar Boys (2017), 4 Days (2016), Bakwit
Boys (2018), and Urban Legends (2018), works, when appropriate, I
review along with his 2019 musical video Feel the Burn in the years in
which they were created.
Los Angeles, May 19, 2024
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (May 2024).
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