Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorThomas Dekker has been acting since he was six years old. Now 34, he’s best known for playing Zach on “Heroes” and John Connor on the short-lived “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”But the spotlight unexpectedly became much brighter in 2017 when former “Heroes” co-executive producer and writer Bryan Fuller outed Dekker during a speech at Outfest.
While Fuller didn’t mention Dekker by name, he talked about a gay actor on the show whose character was also gay until the actor’s team insisted he be straight.
It didn’t take long for people to figure out who he was referring to.Dekker responded by acknowledging he was gay in an open letter he posted on Twitter.
Looking back, Dekker insists he has no hard feelings toward Fuller. “Everyone has their journey and I hated that mine was taken away from me in a way,” Dekker tells me during a recent Zoom interview from the Los Angeles home he shares with his husband of five years, actor Jesse Haddock. “But it was also this kind of a weird fucked up blessing because it opened the door for me to just be fully who I am.”Dekker, who stars as out Hollywood studio executive assistant Travis in Roku’s new series “Swimming With Sharks,” gives his first interview about being outed, his battle with alcoholism and the piece of advice he received from Natasha Lyonne that he will never forget.Travis is your first gay role since coming out as gay.