15 Times Out LGBTQ+ Actors Played Straight in Film & Television
| 10/04/22
Gay actors can do anything!
Universal Pictures' latest rom-com Bros broke new ground when it featured an all-LGBTQ+ principle cast of actors. (And yes, some of those queer actors even played straight characters in the movie!) But while a cast of all gay actors playing straight roles is new, out actors playing straight isn't.
Many of the best acting roles from some of our favorite LGBTQ+ actors are when they've been playing straight roles. Several have even been nominated for -- and won! -- Emmys, Tonys, and Oscars for playing straight.
On the heels of Bros, lets take a look at some of the most successful and recent examples of out, gay and queer actors playing straight.
Ana Fabrega as Tati in ‘Los Espookys’
Fabrega and fellow queer comedian Julio Torres created Los Espookys along with Fred Armisen, and while Torres plays a gay character in the show, Fabrega plays one of the few straight characters. Tati is Ursula's sister who is constantly getting new strange jobs and acting as Los Espooky's test dummy. She dated a man she met online in the first season, and then married the heir to a cookie empire.
Ariana DeBose as Anita in ‘West Side Story’
DeBose's first big role was as the lesbian teen Alyssa in The Prom, but since then, she's played straight schoolteacher Emma Tate in Schmigadoon! and won an Oscar for her performance as Anita in West Side Story.
Ben Platt as Evan Hansen in ‘Dear Evan Hansen’
Platt started playing the title character in the Dear Evan Hansen musical back in 2016 and continued the role when he starred in the movie version of it last year. He's been out to friends and family since the age of 13 and publicly came out in 2019. He won a Tony and Grammy for his role in the Broadway play, but the movie version was less enthusiastically received.
While many viewers assumed that Evan Hansen was gay, the character is definitely not.
Guillermo DÃaz as Edgar in ‘Bros’
Diaz has played tons of roles on TV in his career, and a lot of them have been straight, including tech guy/assassin Huck on Scandal. In Bros, he plays Bobby's married, straight friend Edgar.
Monica Raymund as Tina in ‘Bros’
The bisexual Raymund plays Bobby's other straight friend Tina, who is married to Edgar in Bros. She also played straight paramedic Gabby Dawson in Chicago Fire.
Jai Rodriguez as Jason in ‘Bros’
In Bros, Rodriguez, who is perhaps best known for being the culture expert on the original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy series, plays Jason, the straight brother of Luke Macfarlane's Aaron. When Jason is going through a divorce (from his wife), he stays with Aaron, and the two give each other relationship advice.
Jane Lynch as Sophie Lennon in ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’
Lynch has played several long-lasting straight characters on TV including cheer coach Sue Sylvester in Glee, and more recently, successful comedian Sophie Lennon in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Lennon is a rival to Maisel and while she is a snobbish socialite, she performs stand up in a fat suit to portray a frumpy housewife.
Janelle Monáe as Teresa in ‘Moonlight’
Monae plays the girlfriend of Mahershala Ali's drug dealer Juan in the first part of Moonlight and then continues to help guide Chiron after Juan's death.
Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton in ‘Bridgerton’
As the Viscount Anthony Bridgerton, Jonathan Bailey has won the hearts of women across America. The eldest Bridgerton child is handsome, charming, dutiful, and rich, making him the perfect husband.
Lee Pace as Greg in ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’
Lee Pace played the older boyfriend of Rachel Sennott's podcaster character Alice in Bodies Bodies Bodies. He plays the one older character in a movie full of young, Gen Z actors.
Luke Evans as Gaston in ‘Beauty and the Beast’
Evans has been out since the early 2000s, and that hasn't stopped him from having a very successful career playing straight characters in movies like Aramis in The Three Musketeers, villain Owen Shaw in the Fast and Furious franchise, Bard in The Hobbit, Dracula in Dracula Untold, and the famously so-straight-it's-almost-parody Gaston in the live action Beauty and the Beast.
Matt Bomer as Ken in ‘Magic Mike’
Bomer, who has been married since 2011, played a hunky singing stripper in both Magic Mike movies. Ken dances and serenades women, winning their hearts as well as their bodies.
Neil Patrick Harris as Desi Collings in ‘Gone Girl’
Harris made his career playing straight characters like Doogie Howser, the child prodigy doctor on his self-titled show and of course Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. But as he started playing those roles before he came out, we're going to focus on his obsessive simp character Desi Collings in Gone Girl.
Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp in ‘Impeachment: American Crime Story’
While Paulson plays gay a lot, including in projects like American Horror Story, Ratched, and Carol, she was most recently nominated for an Emmy for playing real-life straight woman Linda Tripp in Impeachment: American Crime Story.
Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales in ‘Spencer’
Stewart got an Oscar nomination for playing Diana, Princess of Wales in 2021's Spencer, which focused on the Princess' struggles in her marriage and role in the royal family.
