Singer began his career at Blackside, Inc., where he was an associate producer of Eyes on the Prize II, the Emmy-winning PBS series on civil rights history, and a member of Blackside’s publishing team. He went on to co-direct Brother Outsider, a “potent and persuasive” (Los Angeles Times) biography of the gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. The film premiered at Sundance, aired nationally on PBS, and won more than 20 awards. He also co-directed Electoral Dysfunction, a “frightening and enlightening” (WBEZ Radio) documentary about voting in America that “lives up to its title” (New York Times). Hosted by political humorist Mo Rocca, the film had a dual premiere at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, aired nationally on PBS, and was featured in a four-part New York Times Op-Docs series. A Classroom Edition was distributed to more than 20,000 history and social studies teachers. Additional credits include serving as a producer/director on With God On Our Side, a six-part PBS series on the history of the Religious Right, and as a producer on The Question of Equality, a four-part PBS series on the movement for LGBTQ rights.

 

For eight years, Singer was Executive Editor of TIME Magazine’s Education Program, where he created teaching materials to accompany The Laramie Project, Band of Brothers, Iron Jawed Angels, and Unchained Memories. He is the author or editor of five books, including 42 Up (the companion volume to Michael Apted’s documentary series); LGBTQ Stats, an “astounding” and “indispensable” (Booklist, starred review) almanac of facts and figures that Singer co-authored with his husband, David Deschamps; and The Student Body, a “wry, insider thriller” (Village Voice) that Singer co-authored with three Harvard classmates.

 

Singer has spoken at The United Nations, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, The British Museum, The Library of Congress, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and at dozens of colleges and universities, including NYU, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the University of Lynchburg, Middlebury, and Emerson. In 2015, he delivered the keynote address at the city of Bloomington, Indiana’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration.

Singer is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College; his senior thesis won a Hoopes Prize, Harvard’s highest undergraduate award for research and writing. He developed and taught a course on LGBTQ literature at Tufts University and in 2023 was an Artist in Residence at Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts. He is the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Residency for Collaborative Teams at Yaddo, a Fellowship in Video from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a Visiting Artist Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. He divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.