From wood to fatherhood, Luke Macfarlane carves a new mold as a gay lead

For his photo shoot with Out magazine, Luke Macfarlane had a checklist. He wanted to be outdoors. He wanted a shovel. And he wanted to get dirty — and wet.

Consider those boxes checked. By the end of the shoot during an idyllic day in the Malibu woods, the Bros and Platonic star had dug a hole, submerged himself in a stream, and bared his torso — with a small team (including a stylist, reps, and videographer) hiking trails alongside for the outing.

For the Canada native and nature lover, nostalgia helped guide his creative direction. “I remember being a kid [outdoors] when you’re by yourself and… [you] took your shirt off, and you don’t worry about any other people’s eyes on you, ‘cause you’re just there. You were playing. You kind of felt a little wild. You felt a little bit free.”

CALVIN KLEIN White Cotton Classic Tank Top; LEVI’S Vintage New Friend Dark Wash Jeans; REDWING Iron Ranger Men’s 6-Inch Boot in Amber Harness LeatherJohn Russo

Time also played a factor for the 45-year-old, who usually refrains from showing too much skin during publicity. “I’m not gonna look this way forever,” he acknowledges, questioning, “Why do I go to the gym all the time?” if he remains buttoned up. Rejecting a jest from friends that he is “sometimes a little bit stiff,” he now wants to let out “my inner hippie.”

The point is to show the world a never-before-seen side of Macfarlane — who came out as gay in 2008 during his run as Scotty Wandell on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters before building a leading-man image on over a dozen of the Hallmark Channel’s scripted rom-coms. Macfarlane is older now (and a dad), but he has a lot more he wants to share for a new stage in his career.

Macfarlane’s latest project, Hallmark Plus’s Home Is Where the Heart Is, premiering March 20, presents another new view. Now fans can see him doing what he loves — helping transform homes alongside designer and cohost Olivia Westbrooks.

Executive produced by Macfarlane, the home makeover show begins with a self-introduction: “I’m an actor, design enthusiast, and a woodworker. When I’m not on set filming movies, I’m pursuing a passion for carpentry and home renovation, a skill that’s been passed down through my family.”

Macfarlane inherited a love of woodworking from his father. He speaks glowingly about the man who “completely rebuilt” his childhood home, constructing cabinetry and even a small barn in the backyard. When their family later moved to a less personal suburban structure, it felt like a loss for Macfarlane, who saw the act of woodworking as an act of love.

From there, the carpentry bug became ingrained in Macfarlane, who in his teens found summer jobs building decks. Later, as a struggling actor, the Juilliard graduate made ends meet with odd jobs like hanging doors and trim work. His passion led to taking formal classes where he learned more advanced skills like attaching European hinges, lamination, and steam bending.

JOHN VARVATOS Black Augusto Tank Top; LEVI’S VINTAGE New Friend Dark Wash Jeans; FRYE Mahogany Plain Toe Hudson Workboot John Russo

Cut to the first episode of Home Is Where the Heart Is, where Macfarlane passionately advocates for the virtues of unpainted wood and, outside, crafts a small door intended to be the portal to a children’s nook under a stairwell. (Each episode, he presents the family with a handmade gift of his own creation.) “Do you know what they call sawdust? Carpenter fairy dust,” he jokes in one scene, shaking wood particles from his shirt.

Similar to the Out shoot, Macfarlane wanted to highlight that he is “not afraid to get his hands dirty.” It’s all part of his reintroduction to the world of who he is as a public figure, and what he can accomplish. And the gay actor pushes back on any assumptions that his presentation of masculinity — like his love of woodworking — is “some sort of PR stunt.”

“This is a very true authentic piece of myself that I’m excited to share with you … and it comes from a real place,” he asserts.

CALVIN KLEIN White Cotton Classic Tank Top; LEVI’S Vintage New Friend Dark Wash Jeans; REDWING Iron Ranger Men’s 6-Inch Boot in Amber Harness LeatherJohn Russo

Macfarlane credits the Hallmark Channel, known for its Christmas movies and past religious roots, with supporting his career. His first Hallmark movie, The Memory Book, debuted in 2014. “I’ve worked with Hallmark a really long time, and they’ve grown with me, and they’ve let me try different things, different kinds of characters,” he says. “They’ve let me play an out gay man on their network [2023’s Notes of Autumn], so I’ve been part of their change as well.”

In 2025, Macfarlane will be far from the only out host of a home makeover show; Queer Eye looms large in this space as well as Jeff Lewis and the married design duo Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent. Macfarlane has a theory as to why this lane is so gay-trodden. “Maybe when you’re growing up, and your world feels a little chaotic and a little scary, the one thing you can order is your clothes and your space and your fashion. So it comes out of a need to feel safe in the world,” he mulls.

However, Macfarlane sees himself as carving out his own space. “I’m a maker, and I’m a builder. I’m not great at design, or at least I’m intimidated by fabric. I’m intimidated by color. Pattern freaks me out,” he admits. It’s an area of expertise where he defers to his cohost, Westbrooks.

But when Macfarlane speaks of homes, he attributes to them something of a soul and an ability to have “lost its way.” In transforming a space, he seeks to unearth the house’s history and to encourage a family to “honor” that past — framing a cherished grandmother’s recipe by the stove, for example, or consulting a local historian about the preferences of painted wood during the Victorian era (a sign of wealth, they learn).

“I think we often talk about wanting to represent ourselves with clothing, but we don’t often do it with the same intents and intentionality as we do with our homes and the spaces we live in,” he says.

JOHN VARVATOS Black Augusto Tank Top; LEVI’S Vintage New Friend Dark Wash Jeans; FRYE Mahogany Plain Toe Hudson Workboot John Russo

Macfarlane has taken this care with his own Los Angeles home, an American Craftsman with “beautiful quarter sawn oak paneling” built over a century ago by the owner of a lumberyard. “I think that I sometimes bought a house because of two rooms that were beautifully paneled in wood because I’m a sucker for beautiful wood,” he shares.

Macfarlane has created a woodshop in his garage, where — particularly in his downtime between productions — he adds to his home’s history by making projects for his family. Noticing a loose cable for his partner’s electric car, he built a spool and a hook as a surprise. He also constructed a crib for their daughter, Tess, and is currently trying to complete a tea table for her. “She’s gonna be 19 by the time you get this done,” his partner, Hig Roberts, joked, as relayed by Macfarlane. (Tess was born in June 2023.) But he sees the table’s completion as part of his duty as a dad.

“I think so much as a first-time parent, you’re trying to figure out how to do it,” he says. “We borrow from our parents. I borrow from my dad, ’cause I think he did a pretty good job, and so I want to be able to do the same thing for my daughter.” The message? “Knowing that someone that you love created this for you.”

Fatherhood has changed Macfarlane for the better. “I find I’m so much more loving and compassionate with other people,” he marvels. “And I didn’t expect that. I spend so much time looking at the world through Tess’s eyes and trying to figure out her needs and wants…and so you’re tapping into this deep well of attention and empathy for somebody. I do find that that is translated to other people in my life that maybe I was a little more impatient with.”

That includes Roberts: “I find that I’m much more sympathetic to his feelings than I think I was before we had a child.”

LEVI'S Premium Medium Wash Shorts and Fresh Ecru Relaxed Fit Western ShirtJohn Russo

Macfarlane declined to share many personal details about his relationship with the former professional skier. But he attests that parenthood has brought them closer as a couple. “I’m so grateful to be able to share parenting with somebody,” he gushes. “I knew I wanted to be a father, and he wanted to be a dad too, and I feel very fortunate for that. I know a lot of couples struggle with that conversation. He’s been a wonderful dad, he really has.”

In fact, parenthood had always been a priority for Macfarlane. Prior to his relationship with Roberts, “I had actually already decided I was going to start a family, and it was kind of something that he learned very quickly after meeting me,” he says.

As the Trump administration escalates its attacks on LGBTQ+ people and their families, Macfarlane finds comfort and guidance in attending church weekly at his Episcopal congregation, where the leaders apply the lessons of another renowned carpenter to the current climate. He finds a lot that can be learned from the Good Book in a time of a sharp political divide.

“I just wish people [would] operate a little bit more from, How was the other person feeling? rather than telling the person that what they feel is wrong,” he says. “It’s what I feel like is happening a lot right now is less asking the question, more demanding the results. It makes me sad.”

“At least in my understanding of scripture in the life of Jesus, I don’t think that’s what he had in mind,” he says of a rightward swing that seeks to cast out the marginalized rather than invite them in.

LEVI'S Premium Medium Wash Shorts and Fresh Ecru Relaxed Fit Western ShirtJohn Russo

“I’m grateful for a continuing conversation with myself and some really smart, sensitive people about what it means to have faith and live in Los Angeles in 2025, and be openly gay and a parent — but also to surround myself with people that have dedicated their lives to understanding the Bible and scripture and gospel and thinking about that in the time we live and how to care and give back.”

Macfarlane has applied this introspection to his own journey as a gay actor and man — and he bemoans a culture that values a masculinity that is “brutal and tough and mean.”

“I used to think, Well, if I’m too nice, I’ll be a pushover, but [now] I don’t think that’s true,” he says. “At least right now at 45, I’m feeling it doesn’t hurt you to be kind.”

LEVI'S Premium Medium Wash Shorts and Fresh Ecru Relaxed Fit Western ShirtJohn Russo

As an actor, empathy has been a gift for Macfarlane, who last appeared on Out’s cover alongside Billy Eichner in 2022 to promote Bros, the first gay rom-com to be greenlit by a major studio. The historic film had an all-LGBTQ+ cast, and Macfarlane praises the bond he forged with transgender castmate Eve Lindley: “The opportunity to really get to work with somebody who is so different than me and who’s had such a different journey than me, but [learning] that we really kind of want the exact same things.” He says he’s still “friendly” with Eichner, praising his “absolutely incredible” recent opportunity to reprise the voice of Timon in Mufasa: The Lion King.

“I haven’t watched [Bros] in a while, but I look forward to watching it again soon and eventually watching it one day with my daughter,” he says. “And I can say like, ‘Look at your father’s abs!’” (The film had a generous helping of shirtless scenes for Macfarlane.)

Since Bros, Macfarlane has appeared alongside Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen on Apple TV’s Platonic (co-created by Nicholas Stoller, the director of Bros); the second season debuts later this year. He’s also cast in the young-adult zombie film This Is Not a Test, in which he will play a teacher who may or may not be a villain alongside Olivia Holt (Heart Eyes) and Froy Gutierrez (Teen Wolf).

“It’s gonna be fun as heck,” Macfarlane says of the zombie flick. “I’m really, legitimately looking forward to it. There’s gonna be fight scenes, there’s gonna be blood, there’s gonna be acting, and I’m just really excited to work with these actors too. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on set with… 21-, 22-year-olds, so that’ll be really fun.”

LEVI'S Premium Medium Wash Shorts and Fresh Ecru Relaxed Fit Western ShirtJohn Russo

Macfarlane sees the action and comedy genres as a natural fit for him. A classical music buff and cello player, he speaks admirably about the career of Bradley Cooper, who also excelled in action and comedy while pursuing passion projects like Maestro, the biopic of queer composer Leonard Bernstein, which Cooper directed and starred in.

Macfarlane also praises Timothée Chalamet. “He’s such a good actor,” Macfarlane says of the Dune and A Complete Unknown star. “And I’m curious to see in 10 years what kind of roles he’s gonna be interested in doing, because I think he can do it all, and I’m always interested to see what Hollywood will let someone do.”

Macfarlane has much love for his LGBTQ+ community (and Out readers) who have helped him do what he loves. He feels lucky “that I belong to a community that is interested in following how I’m developing, how I’m changing, what my interests are, that I’m now a father.”

“And that you can still read this magazine, and you can remember that 22-year-old kid that came out when he was on the set of a network television show with Sally Field,” he concludes. “But he’s still around. He’s still making things. And he’s still creating. And I hope you’re just as interested in my life as you were when I was 22 years old.”

Home Is Where the Heart Is debuts March 20 on Hallmark Plus.

This cover story is part of the Out March/April issue, which hits newsstands April 1. Support queer media and subscribe — or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting March 20.

talent: LUKE MACFARLANE @ten_minutes_younger
photographer: JOHN RUSSO @johnrussophoto
photography assistant: KEN WALLER @kenwaller
stylist: WARREN ALFIE BAKER @warrenalfebaker with THE WALL GROUP @thewallgroup
grooming: AYAE YAMAMOTO @ayaeyamamoto with EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS @exclusiveartists
videographer: ISABELLE PASSAGLIA @isabellepassaglia

LEVI’S VINTAGE New Friend Dark Wash Jeans; FRYE Mahogany Plain Toe Hudson Workboot John Russo