15 Actors Who Came Out After Playing A Queer Character
Grey's Anatomy, Callie, came out as bisexual in a storyline back in 2009. At the time, Sara knew they were also bisexual, but wasn't ready to come out. "I was really afraid it would hurt my career if I came out as bisexual," they told People in 2021.The star came out publicly as bisexual in 2016, then in 2020 announced they are non-binary.
Sara went on to play the non-binary character, Che Diaz, in the Sex And The City reboot — And Just Like That... "Che is someone who came out as non-binary later in life and who speaks their truth unapologetically," they told People. "I thought, 'This character will teach me a lot about how to embrace the power that you have even against systems that would have you shut down.'"The Sex Lives of College Girls star has known she was bisexual since she was a teen, but says that through playing the lesbian character of Leighton, "I feel like I'm being much more openly queer, because it is a public part of who I am, and I'm very proud of that."The actor has said that filming the first season of the HBO show was terrible, thanks to her internalized homophobia: "I was just in a panic constantly," she revealed on the Call Her Daddy podcast in 2023.Reneé grew up in what she calls a “super a**-backwards and very conservative” area where everyone was "homophobic", baggage which she carried into her role as Leighton.
Now, she's in a much better place. "Truly, though, so much of Leighton is me, and so much of Leighton has helped me understand myself," she told Vogue.
Demi Lovato guest-starred as Santana's short-lived girlfriend in an episode of Glee in 2013, and has since come out as queer, pansexual, and nonbinary.
