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Travis Kelce appears in ‘Grotesquerie’ teaser and the internet isn’t pleased

Former Eagle Jason Kelce's brother appears bathed in a purple-red light in the teaser for Ryan Murphy's latest show

FILE - Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) waves after the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
FILE - Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) waves after the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)Read moreFrank Franklin II / AP

Kansas City football player, three-time Super Bowl winner, and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce has been famous for his life off the field. All thanks to his love life and the popular podcast, New Heights, he cohosts with his brother, retired Eagle Jason Kelce.

But today, the world has seen a glimpse of a never-before-seen side to Travis Kelce: his acting face.

Kelce joined the cast of American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy’s new FX show, Grotesquerie. The series stars Niecy Nash-Betts as a detective and Margate native Micaela Diamond as a nun-journalist, who team up to investigate a series of violent killings.

Kelce’s role has yet to be disclosed, but IMDb shows that he’s slated to appear in all 10 episodes of the first season, which premieres on Sept. 25. (Episodes will air on FX and stream on Hulu the day after.) The show marks Kelce’s acting debut for a scripted series, though he first appeared on TV in 2016 for his reality dating show, Catching Kelce.

This fall will also see the Oct. 16 premiere of the reality game show hosted by Kelce, Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? on Prime Video.

The first teaser for the show dropped on Thursday showing a creepy montage of crosses, strippers, insects, neon signs, taxidermy crows, bulletin boards, and other uncomfortable shots that are signature Murphy aesthetics (with dashes of True Blood and The Witch). Kelce appears for less than a second (at the 1:10 mark) bathed in purple-red lighting and doing some sort of hand crossing in front of his face as Nash-Betts says in the voiceover: “Something is happening around us. Nobody sees but me.”

When Film Updates shared a screengrab of Kelce on X, the internet simply couldn’t resist dunking on him, with some commenters calling him a “nepo boyfriend,” a funny play on “nepo baby” referring to Swift, and others questioning his acting skills. We’ll remind folks: It’s too early to speculate about his potential talent when we haven’t seen the show yet!

Murphy previously helped Lady Gaga crossover into acting, casting her in season five of American Horror Story. Though it was a notorious flop, she’s been successful at snagging big roles from A Star Is Born to House of Gucci and the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux. So who knows, maybe there’s a fruitful acting future for the other Kelce yet.