Together with Kilmer-Purcell, Ridge bought in 2007 a 19th Century farm, Beekman Mansion, located in Sharon Springs, New York. The couple launched a business, Beekman 1802, selling products derived from produce raised on the farm.
In 2010, Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell became the stars of The Fabulous Beekman Boys, a reality television series on Planet Green that follows their lives as they work to develop the Beekman brand to the point where they can live at the farm full time. In 2012, CBS announced that Ridge and Purcell had been cast in the 21st season of The Amazing Race, ultimately becoming the season's grand prize winners.
Ridge grew up in Randleman, NC. He graduated from the University of North Carolina –Chapel Hill with a B.S in Public Health.
He was accepted into the University of North Carolina School of Medicine as part of the Early Acceptance Program. During medical school he was awarded fellowships to study socialized medicine in England as well as a grant from the American Federation of Aging Research which enabled him to work on the New England Centenarian Project at Harvard University
Brent Ridge is an American physician, business owner and reality television participant. He was formerly the VP of Healthy Living for Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Brent Ridge met his partner, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, in 1998 on a website. Josh was the first man that Brent had ever dated. They got married at their farm on June 28, 2013 with guests including Martha Stewart. In 2012 Ridge and Purcell had been cast in the XXI season of The Amazing Race, ultimately becoming the season's grand prize winners.
After medical school, he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Columbia University and a fellowship in geriatric medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City
After completing his fellowship, he was offered the position of Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He was responsible for clinical care as well as medical student education. He was also the Director of the hospital’s ACE (Acute Care of the Elderly) inpatient unit.
In 2005, he matriculated at the New York University Stern School of Business and received an MBA.
He returned to Mount Sinai with the title of Director of Clinical Strategy.
He was responsible for working with the famed architect IM Pei to design a new center for the care of older adults at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Once the design was complete, he wrote Martha Stewart a letter while she was incarcerated asking her to consider becoming the benefactor of the new center. The Martha Stewart Center for Living was dedicated to Martha Stewart’s mother, Martha Kostyra and is now one of the largest centers for the care of older adults in the world.
Martha Stewart subsequently wrote about his entrepreneurial drive in her book, The Martha Rules.
After opening the Center for Living, Ridge was asked to join Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia as the Vice President for Healthy Living, a new core area of the company devoted to health and wellness, working on developing healthy living initiatives across the companies media and merchandise divisions
In 2008, he was laid off from the company, but remains friends with Stewart who has appeared in several episodes of The Fabulous Beekman Boys.
In 2010, Epicurious.com named Brent and his partner, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, among others as “The next Martha Stewarts”.
After losing his job at MSO during the recession of 2008, Brent moved to a weekend property he had purchased in Sharon Springs, NY, and launched Beekman 1802, a lifestyle company devoted to seasonal living.
The company produces a wide range of products in the beauty, gourmet foods, home décor and gardening areas. They have had business relationships with retailers such as Anthropologie, Henri Bendel, Williams-Sonoma, John Derian, ABC Carpet, Home and others.
NASDAQ has called Beekman 1802 “one of the fastest growing lifestyle brands in the United States”
The launch of the company was documented in the docu-series, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, which aired for 2 seasons on Discovery Communication’s Planet Green channel. When that channel folded, the show was purchased by Scripps and can be seen on The Cooking Channel.
The original Beekman 1802 Mercantile on Main Street in Sharon Springs, NY, can still be visited and Brent can often be seen in the shop when he is not traveling.
In 2011, The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook, was published by Sterling Epicure. Brent and Josh subsequently signed a multi-book deal with Rodale. The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Desserts will be published in September 2013.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Ridge
In 2010, Discovery Network's Planet Green channel debuted a reality television series about Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge, titled The Fabulous Beekman Boys. The series documents their relationship and lives as farmers in upstate New York as they build a green lifestyle company together. The President and General Manager of Planet Green declared it the "No. 1 original series" on the network. In 2012, Cooking Channel acquired rights to the program, and began airing the second season.
On March 10, 2010, Bravo television network announced a development deal with Darren Star to produce I Am Not Myself These Days as a scripted television series based on Kilmer-Purcell's bestselling memoir of the same name.
Kilmer-Purcell has written or co-written four bestselling books, including two memoirs, a novel, and a cookbook.
I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir, Harper Perennial, 2006, Memoir. Kilmer-Purcell's first memoir is a tragicomic account of his early days in New York City, living as an advertising art director by day and a drag queen named "Aquadisiac" (or "Aqua") by night. The memoir details his relationship with a crack-addicted male escort named "Jack", and was a New York Times bestseller in the spring of 2006.
Candy Everybody Wants, Harper Perennial, 2008, Novel.
The Bucolic Plague, HarperCollins, 2010, Memoir. Kilmer-Purcell's second memoir recounts his purchase of a historic mansion and goat farm in Sharon Springs, New York, and quickly became a national bestseller.
The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook, Sterling Publishing, 2011, Cookbook. Co-authored with Brent Ridge, and Sandy Gluck.
Starting in 2006 Kilmer-Purcell began writing a monthly column about urban gay life for Out magazine. He has contributed to national media outlets including The Advocate and National Public Radio.
Kilmer-Purcell (born "Joshua Gordon Kilmer") was born in Albany, New York, and was raised in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. He attended high school in Mansfield, Massachusetts and attended Michigan State University, where he studied creative writing with the poet Diane Wakoski. He received a BA in English Literature in 1991. He added his stepfather's surname "Purcell" in 1990. He met husband Dr. Brent Ridge in New York City in 2000.
Kilmer-Purcell has worked at several Manhattan advertising agencies, including Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, Merkley Newman Harty, TBWA\Chiat Day, SS+K, & JWT. It is widely believed that the events in I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir took place while he was working at Merkley Newman Harty.
As his drag queen alter ego "Aqua" (short for "Aquadisiac"), Kilmer-Purcell performed at nightclubs in New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Tokyo. Aqua was best known for her use of live goldfish in the breasts of her costumes. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent a letter of protest to Kilmer-Purcell condemning the use of live animals in his shows.
In 2008 Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge launched Beekman 1802, a green lifestyle company inspired by their farm in Sharon Springs, New York.
Kilmer-Purcell is openly gay, and his husband, Dr. Brent Ridge, a physician at Mount Sinai Hospital who was the vice president of healthy living at Martha Stewart Omnimedia, have been together since 2000. Their engagement was announced in December 2011. The couple married on June 28, 2013.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Kilmer-Purcell
Further Readings:
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (March 22, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061997838
ISBN-13: 978-0061997839
Amazon: The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir
Amazon Kindle: The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir
“I adore the Beekman boys’ story. Their unlikely story of love, the land, and a herd of goats is hilariously honest. If these two can go from Manhattan to a goat farm in upstate New York, then I can’t help feeling there is hope for us all.” –Alice Waters
“Kilmer-Purcell’s genius lies in his ability to blindside the reader with heart-wrenching truths in the midst of the most outlandish scenarios. He makes you laugh until you care.” — Armistead Maupin
Michael Perry (Coop, Truck: A Love Story) meets David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim) in this follow-up to Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s beloved New York Times bestselling debut memoir, I Am Not Myself These Days—another riotous, moving, and entirely unique story of his attempt to tackle the next phase of life with his partner… on a goat farm in upstate New York.
Series: P.S.
Paperback: 308 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (February 7, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060817321
ISBN-13: 978-0060817329
Amazon: I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir
Amazon Kindle: I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir
The New York Times bestselling, darkly funny memoirof a young New Yorker's daring dual life—advertising art director by day,glitter-dripping drag queen and nightclub beauty-pageant hopeful by night—was asmash literary debut for Josh Kilmer-Purcell, now known for his popular PlanetGreen television series The Fabulous Beekman Boys.His story begins here—before the homemade goat milk soaps and hand-gatheredhoneys, before his memoir of the city mouse’s move to the country, TheBucolic Plague—in I Am Not Myself These Days, with “plenty of dishy anecdotes and moments of tragi-camp delight” (WashingtonPost).
More LGBT Couples at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance
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