Rift, among a few others, all with his partner, Lanier Laney. Sweeney's major film credit was as the co-screenwriter for the film Shag, which was released in 1989. Sweeney also performed a stand-up routine for the special Coming Out Party in 2000, which centered on his rough childhood in the 1960s, how he explored his sexuality in the 1970s, how he tried to survive the 1980s with the AIDS epidemic, conservative politics, and being open about his sexuality when he was chosen to be a cast member for Saturday Night Live (making history as the first openly gay male actor to ever appear on a network TV show); and his post-SNL life, when he and Lanier Laney cared for Laney's mother, who had Alzheimer's disease and did not know her son was a homosexual. He is the author of two published books. The first, Nancy Reagan: It's Still My Turn (1990) which started as performance art piece at Highways in Santa Monica, and transferred to New York's the Actor's Playhouse Off Broadway. His second book, Irritable Bowels and the People Who Give You Them (2015), is a collection of comic essays about his life in Hollywood. In 2018 he appeared in two episodes of FX's Emmy Award-winning The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story as David Gallo. Episodes of Tripping the Rift written by Sweeney and Laney "Mutilation Ball" (also written with Sy Rosen) "Power to the Peephole" "Android Love" "Roswell" "Creaturepalooza" "Chode's Near-Death Experience" "Six, Lies, and Videotape" Personal life Terry Sweeney's husband is Lanier Laney, an artist and comedy writer who also wrote for SNL in the 1985–1986 season. According to a 2000 magazine article, they first met as members of a sketch comedy troupe called the "Bess Truman Players" before joining SNL. Laney and Sweeney were also writing partners for Saturday Night Live during the 1985–1986 season, the film Shag, and the Syfy Channel cartoon Tripping the Rift''. As of 2012, the couple reside in Los Angeles and Beaufort, South Carolina. References External links Living people American male actors American gay actors American gay writers American LGBT screenwriters Gay comedians American television writers American male television writers People from Queens, New York People from Massapequa Park, New York American sketch comedians Comedians from New York (state) Middlebury College alumni Screenwriters from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people) American LGBT comedians