For Scott Nevins, 29, life as a television personality and host of a live talk show is about finding his place and making his mark in the middle. From his sense of fashion, to his work on truTV’s The Smoking Gun Presents, to his unashamed love for Judy Garland, the native New Yorker has gone from being a lonely kid in Queens to a rising star with a reputation for breaking the mold.

Scott got his first break out of college. “It was in 2001. I had come to the city and was working at Pizzeria Uno in the West Village,” he says. “I was a terrible waiter. All I would want to do is talk to the tables. I would get so into their stories and chatting with them, that I would forget to bring them their food or drinks.” To the customers’ relief, that career did not last long.

“My good friend [NYC drag queen] Cashetta was doing her show at Barracuda,” he says. “She pulled me aside after a party and told me she liked my ideas for her act. I told her she should do a real cabaret show. She agreed. The show kind of caught on and I made a name for myself directing all these big-name drag queens.”

Scott parlayed directing drag queens into managing all the live acts for a new club called Therapy. It was there, when they noticed the club needed regular Monday entertainment, that Scott became host of his own live talk show. “Everyone thought I was crazy doing a talk show in a gay bar. Not singing, not stripping, and not in drag. It took the audience a while to know what to do with me,” he says. “We booked our first celebrity guest, the late and great Tammy Faye Bakker. I watch that video today and it’s so bittersweet. She was so wonderful to me, and that night changed my life.”

It wouldn’t be the last time Scott’s life changed. Find out how this New Yorker ended up in L.A., what type of guy can catch (and keep) his attention, and much more in the March issue of Instinct Magazine.