The debate over whether or not straight actors should play gay roles will probably never end. The same can be said for fans speculating about celebrities' sexualities.
However, there is one benefit to having actors who aren't out playing gay characters: It may help them feel confident and comfortable enough to come out in real life.
That's the case with these 11 actors. They all played gay characters, sometimes with compelling coming-out moments, and they all say their queer roles helped them come out.
Whether playing queer helped them realize they were gay, or it made them feel safe enough to come out, these are 11 actors whose gay roles helped them come out.
Noah Schnapp
Schnapp has starred as Will Byers in Stranger Things since 2016, and for several seasons, it was hinted that Will might be gay. The character was confirmed to be queer in season 4 and came out in season 5. Schnapp came out publicly after the fourth season.
"When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was 'we know,'" he wrote in a TikTok.
Kelly Marie Tran
When Star Wars and Raya and the Last Dragon star Kelly Marie Tran came out in 2024, she said that filming the queer movie The Wedding Banquet, where she plays a lesbian, helped her come out.
"I haven't said this publicly yet, but I'm a queer person," Tran said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
"The thing that really excited me about it was I got to play a person that I felt like I knew," Tran said about starring in The Wedding Banquet, by queer filmmaker Andrew Ahn (Fire Island). "I don't feel like I'm acting at all in this movie."
"I'm here doing this amazing movie with these amazing people," she continued. "I've never been in a queer space before. I've truly never felt this accepted."
Ronen Rubinstein
Rubinstein is known for playing gay first responder T.K. Strand on 9-1-1: Lone Star, and it's thanks to that role that he came out in real life.
Rubinstein said that "it was definitely nerve-wracking and a little mindboggling at first how specific T.K. was to my personal life," which made him "a little scared" to play the role.
"The biggest thing for me is where I come from, it's like people like me and people who have identified as bisexual or gay or as any part of the community, you're just not welcomed," Rubinstein told Variety. "It's as brutally honest as that. It's either you faced insane amounts of profanity, like the F-word was thrown around all the time or you would get your ass kicked if you were gay. So there was definitely a fear of sort of embracing how I felt."
However, fans and friends' positive reaction to the character and his romance with police officer Carlos (Rafael L. Silva) left him feeling confident enough to come out.
"I fully identify as bisexual," Rubinstein said. "I literally just got goosebumps saying that. It feels so good to talk about it, it feels so good to finally be comfortable with it."
Kit Connor
Unfortunately, not every actor who came out after playing gay has a happy story. In 2022, then-18-year-old Heartstopper star Kit Connor came out as bisexual following accusations that he was "queerbaiting" on the show.
"I'm bi. Congrats for forcing an 18-year-old to out himself," he wrote on social media at the time. "I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye."
He later told British Vogue how he felt about the pressure to come out.
"I think 'forced' isn't the right word I would use, but I would say that I would have preferred to do it another way," he said. "I also don't know if I would have ever done it. But at the end of the day, I don't regret it. In many ways, it was really empowering."
Jessica Gunning
When award-winning Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning publicly came out as queer in 2024, she said that a role in a play helped her figure out her sexuality. She said that she starred opposite Cate Blanchett in a National Theatre production of When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other, where the two actors shared a kiss on stage.
"I should have known then," Gunning said. "All these signs from pre-Reindeer staring me in the face."
"In hindsight, I used to go downstairs and watch The L Word, that's a bit of a giveaway," she added. "So some of those things I should have really put two and two together. I took my time."
Chyler Leigh
In 2020, Chyler Leigh came out as queer while playing lesbian character Alex Danvers on the show Supergirl. Leigh said that the character coming out helped her figure out some things about herself.
"When I was told that my character was to come out in season 2, a flurry of thoughts and emotions flew through and around me because of the responsibility I personally felt to authentically represent Alex's journey," she wrote in a post for Creating Change.
"What I didn't realize was how the scene where she finally confessed her truth would leap off the pages of the script and genuinely become a variation of my own. IRL," she continued. "My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest each take we filmed, every time presenting another opportunity to get those honest words out of my mouth. Though they don't exactly match my personal dialogue, the heart behind it surely did."
Keiynan Lonsdale
Keiynan Lonsdale came out as queer in 2017 while starring on The Flash. He came out publicly on Instagram shortly after filming the 2018 gay coming-of-age movie Love, Simon, where he plays a gay student.
While he was out to friends and some of his coworkers, Lonsdale said he didn't tell the crew of Love, Simon, that he was gay until the end of shooting.
"I was in a relationship at the time with a guy, and I didn't even tell them that. It took me until the last day, until wrap time, to tell my cast," he said to The Hollywood Reporter. "And I remember that made me really upset. I was speaking to one of my friends, and I was like, 'I don't know why I’m so scared. I'm on a LGBT film, playing this character, there's a gay director, everyone is so supportive. I couldn’t be in a better environment.'"
"Before we got to the afterparty, we just went out for drinks. Like, all the cast and I," Lonsdale explained of his coming out. "I don't even know how I said it, but I just said it to the group, and they were, of course, really supportive, and I explained to them that I wish I had said something earlier. It was great. It’s an interesting thing to go through that kind of growth and learn those lessons while your character is also learning those lessons. I’m very thankful for it."
Adamo Ruggiero
Ruggiero played gay student Marco Del Rossi on the show Degrassi: The Next Generation, but didn't come out himself until after the show.
"I was a closeted gay boy, and I found myself on the show, and my life went from zero to 100," Ruggiero told A.V. Club. "I hadn't really acted that much before. Suddenly, I was a character that was playing to all my deepest, darkest secrets, so there was a lot of negotiation of my coming out personally and a negotiation of my personally not being prepared to have those conversations because they were drawing to these pains in me."
"But in a way, I was forced to have those conversations, publicly and globally," he continued. "That balance was ping-pong, like, 'Who am I? Am I ready to reveal? I know that this character, whether I like it or not, is going to reveal it for me.'"
"It was a coming-out experience that should not have been that public for me. However, there's always a wonderful side," he added. "What Marco gave me is a community. In the promotion of the show, I connected with a queer world. He just busted open this door of a world that probably would have taken a lot longer to find."
Dominique Provost-Chalkley
Provost-Chalkley, who also came out as nonbinary in 2021, is perhaps best known for playing bisexual world-saver Waverly Earp in the cult sci-fi series Wynonna Earp, and that role helped them publicly come out.
In a blog post, Provost-Chalkley wrote that "as soon as I became sexually aware, I was attracted to all shapes and genders. But unfortunately, before long, it became clear to me that my sexuality was viewed in a very complex and largely negative light."
They say they were scared and "suppressed" her sexuality and "focused really hard on the 'boy part'" of their attraction. Then, in 2015, they were cast as a bisexual character in Wynonna Earp.
"Through this incredible, enlightening journey of playing a queer character and meeting the fans that are drawn to her, I guess I’ve reevaluated how I am to face this part of me," they wrote. "Though this is one of the scariest things life has challenged me with so far, I know now that by slowly speaking my truth and living in alignment with my morals and values, I will be happier. And I will likely shine brighter. Because being queer is a f*cking colourful and magical journey and because I am happiest when I am my AUTHENTIC QUEER SELF."
Katherine Barrell
Kat Barrell starred opposite Provost-Chalkley in Wynonna Earp as her character's love interest, lesbian cop Nicole Haught. After playing the queer character, Barrell came out in an interview with Diva Magazine.
When discussing fans who criticized her for playing a lesbian on TV while being married to a man, Barrell came out.
"I am attracted to both men and women, and the person I fell in love with is a man. I wish it could just be about the human I am in love with, not their gender," she said, per Autostraddle. "This is why I am so passionate about advocating for equal acceptance across the spectrum of sexuality. Let’s just love who we love and leave each other alone. The world has bigger problems."
Kaylee Kaneshiro
Kaneshiro, known for playing queer witch Josie Saltzman on Legacies, came out in 2021. (She formerly went by the stage name Kaylee Bryant, but later reverted back to her birth name.) Kaneshiro told Buzzfeed that playing queer helped her get the confidence to come out in real life.
"I felt a lot of pressure when I initially booked Josie because I was still figuring out who I was and what my label was," she said. "And playing a character who was so comfortable in who she was, it was inspiring [to me] in a way that I think a lot of other people watching the show have been inspired. I have so many people constantly telling me that watching Josie on the show has made them feel more comfortable in themselves. It's kind of amazing that we all have the same experience in that having queer representation makes you more comfortable."
