Marcellas Reynolds was born in Chicago and grew up with two siblings, which most likely meant he didn’t have a lot of privacy. Who knew his experience growing up would serve him so well in the future?

Reynolds tried out for and was cast on “Big Brother: Season Three” in 2002. Life in the “Big Brother” house is akin to living in a fishbowl; a fishbowl that millions of people tune in to each week to see what the contestants will do – behaviors that usually reflect the best and worst conditions of the human condition.

It was not in the cards for Reynolds to be crowned the winner that year, but he later hosted “House Calls: The Big Brother Talk Show” during seasons five and six as a nice consolation prize. He has also appeared on numerous other TV shows, including a stint on “The Bold and the Beautiful.”

Along with other hopefuls from seasons past, Reynolds got another shot to snag the $500,000 prize during the “Big Brother 7: All Stars” edition of the popular summer reality show. Unfortunately, he was again unable to claim the glory that year.

The Gay & Lesbian Times spoke with Reynolds, a celebrity stylist in the real world, about the self-contained microcosm that is “Big Brother” while he was sequestered in the second jury house (the first one had to be evacuated due to Hurricane John hitting Cabo San Lucas, where the jury members were holed up). He was candid about being referred to as, “Hey, you’re that gay guy from ‘Big Brother,’” and also very gregarious.

Gay & Lesbian Times: Can you liken being involved in “Big Brother: All Stars” to the Academy Awards, where it’s an honor just to be on the show?

Marcellas Reynolds: [Laughs] Absolutely! It is an honor to have been included in the top 20, and then it was even more of an honor to be asked to actually go into the house. I think I’m really closely identified with “Big Brother.” I was the first black and gay contestant – that double threat, sort of. So, yeah, it is like being nominated for an Academy Award. I would have rather won the Academy Award, but unfortunately it didn’t work out [laughs].

GLT: What do you think were your single greatest moments from seasons three and seven?

MR: My favorite moment, season three, was when I won the Head of Household the second week. I’d gone from being the first person nominated [for eviction] to then winning the HOH. [It] was just unreal. That was actually like winning the Academy Award. Then I queened out and I was like Diana Ross in Mahogany or something, not exactly my mother’s favorite moment of me on the show, but definitely it was a highpoint for me on the show.

The big difference between season three and “All Stars” is [that] in season three, it seemed like everybody wanted to be kind to one another, but “All Stars” was this season where right out of the gate people just wanted to be assholes. They didn’t care about how they were perceived outside the game; they didn’t care how they were perceived by each other. If I am going to be a bitch, there are reasons why I am being a bitch – I’m being a bitch because that person has done or said something to me.

My favorite moments this season were actually shared with Janelle, because even though we had this crazy love/hate relationship, I actually really liked her. She was like this great big Barbie doll. And I loved when Janelle and I took a bubble bath together. I had never been in a bathtub with a girl. I’ve been in a lot of bathtubs with a lot of boys, but I have never gotten into a bathtub with a girl [laughs].

GLT: Reality shows do not shy away from having gay participants. Is there any added pressure of representing a community?

MR: Absolutely. It’s one of the reasons why I went into “Big Brother.” I feel like when you’re black and when you’re gay, there are definitely added pressures. Like you don’t want to be the aggressive, crazy black guy that’s going off and being really threatening and menacing. Then you don’t want to be the overly effeminate queen. Both of these subgroups, being gay and being black, are monolithic.

When you see one person behaving like that, you almost feel like it speaks for the entire group. It’s all about those stereotypes. A lot of the time I found myself trying to break those stereotypes. That is important because it’s only when people start looking at us as individuals that people can start to empathize with us.

GLT: What is the one thing you’d like people to know about you that they didn’t get to see on the show?

MR: That I am much more low-key than I appear on television [laughs]. I think people get this image of me as this crazy, over the top, whirling-around dramatic person.

And in my real life I spend a great deal of time alone. I’ve got a core group of friends and those are basically the people that I see and talk to. It seems like I’m an extrovert when there’s a camera around me, but I’m actually an introvert.

I’m a fashion stylist and I work in L.A. It’s always about the newest shoe, the newest watch, the newest this, the newest that; but that’s not the stuff that’s important to me.

My relationship with my friends and my family are the most important things to me.