Who is Dexter Mayfield from Come Dance With Me? Plus-size model has danced at Jennifer Lopez and Taylor Swift shows

CBS' new reality dance competition, Come Dance With Me is all set to premiere on Friday, April 15, 2022 at 8.00 pm ET. The show features dancers, aged between 9 and 15, who will pair with an untrained family member to compete for the $100,000 grand prize.

One of the esteemed judges who will provide their expert advice to the contestants will be Dexter Mayfield. He is a dancer and actor, as well as a plus-size model from Dallas, Texas, who made his modeling debut at LA Fashion Week in 2015, walking for designer Marco Marco. Residing in Los Angeles, California, he has worked with numerous artists like Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez and Katy Perry.

Along with Dexter, Come Dance With Me judges include actress, former model and dancer Jenna Dewan, and choreographer Tricia Miranda. The show is hosted by eight-time Grammy award-winner Philip Lawrence and is produced by Chris O’Donnell, LL COOL J and 3 Ball Productions.

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Who is Come Dance With Me judge Dexter Mayfield?

The 37 year old star has appeared on the covers of GAYTIMES & Hardy Magazine & has been featured in campaigns for Fenty Beauty & Quay Sunglasses. Most recently,he has appeared in Taylor Swift’s latest music You Need To Calm Down which has won two MTV Video Music Awards, as well as being featured in the Savage x Fenty Volume 2 Fashion Show.

The actor is also known for his roles in Sandy Wexler (2017), and The Art of Being (2019).

A plus-size model, an actor and a dancer are some of the jewels embedded on Dexter's hat, but before gaining recognition, he recalled a constant need to overcome the perception that society had of him as a "fat, Black, queer" man.

The Come Dance With Me star's journey with body image began when he was just seven years old, when he first realized that his body and weight were used to classify his talents in a youth football league. In an interview with Yahoo! Life, he opened up about his experience.

“It was categorized by age but then secondarily it was by size. When I turned 7, I had to go into a category called younger but heavier. So I would have to go to the next team automatically because my weight was not deemed appropriate for my age."

This experience was the Come Dance With Me judge's first-hand account of the fact that his body was "different" from everyone else and wasn't the set standard. This was the first time he encountered fatphobia.

It was in his early 20s that he decided to explore his passion for dance without any expectation of where it might lead. Dexter was worried about the scrunity he might be subjected to if he joined a real dance class, hence, he joined a dance class at the gym. When people there mistook him as the instructor because of his great skills, he realized there was something more.

The process of turning his passion into a profession was difficult for the Come Dance With Me judge as people tried to put him into a box, judging his capabilities by his appearance or sexuality.

"Being a fat Black queer performer in the industry, almost every odd is against you. I missed out on so many opportunities because I was too gay or I wasn't masculine enough or on the flip side, I had lost a lot of weight just from the sheer training schedule and work schedule that I had had, and I was booking nothing because I had kind of an in-between body, so they were like, well, we can't use you at all.”

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Come Dance WIth Me gives young individuals an opportunity to perform with and get paired with someone from their family that they look up to in their lives. The untrained family members include a preschool teacher, a doctor, a social worker and an engineer, among others, who have left their daily lives and activities behind to support their children in this endeavor.