LGBTQ+ Actors Behind Some of Your Favorite Characters

Some of television and film’s most beloved characters were brought to life by LGBTQ+ actors.

That does not always mean the character was LGBTQ+. Some actors played straight characters. Some played queer characters. Some helped create major representation moments. Others became famous in roles where their identity was not part of the story at all.

This article focuses only on actors who have publicly identified as LGBTQ+ or whose identity has been widely documented through reliable sources. It does not speculate about private identities or “out” anyone.

Here are beloved characters played by LGBTQ+ actors.

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris made Barney Stinson one of the most memorable sitcom characters of the 2000s.

On How I Met Your Mother, Barney was loud, ridiculous, dramatic, suit-obsessed, and often wildly inappropriate. He could have been a one-note womanizer, but Harris gave him speed, vulnerability, physical comedy, and surprising emotional depth.

Harris publicly came out as gay in 2006, while How I Met Your Mother was still on the air. ABC News later described him as an actor who came out in 2006 and used Barney Stinson as an example while discussing his thoughts on actors playing different kinds of roles.

Jim Parsons

Jim Parsons turned Sheldon Cooper into one of the most famous sitcom characters of modern television.

On The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon was brilliant, socially rigid, rule-driven, awkward, and strangely lovable. The character could have been cold in the wrong hands, but Parsons gave him rhythm, precision, and a kind of innocent arrogance that audiences responded to for years.

Parsons publicly came out in a 2012 New York Times profile, with coverage noting that he was gay and in a long-term relationship.

Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox made television history as Sophia Burset on Orange Is the New Black.

Sophia was a transgender woman in prison, but Cox’s performance made sure she was never only defined by that fact. She was a mother, a wife, a hairstylist, a survivor, and a woman trying to hold on to dignity inside a brutal system.

Cox rose to prominence as Sophia and became the first openly transgender person nominated for an Emmy in an acting category.

Elliot Page

Elliot Page’s character on The Umbrella Academy became meaningful in more than one way.

Page first played the character as Vanya Hargreeves, a quiet and powerful member of the Hargreeves family. After Page came out as transgender in 2020, the show later reintroduced the character as Viktor Hargreeves.

Page came out as transgender and non-binary in December 2020, and that The Umbrella Academy season 3 introduced the character as Viktor.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Jesse Tyler Ferguson played Mitchell Pritchett on Modern Family for 11 seasons.

Mitchell was careful, anxious, sarcastic, loving, defensive, and deeply human. His marriage to Cameron Tucker and their life as parents helped put a gay couple at the center of a major network sitcom.

Ferguson has spoken about feeling responsibility as a gay actor playing a gay character on such a visible show.

Dan Levy

Dan Levy helped create and play one of modern TV’s most beloved queer characters: David Rose.

On Schitt’s Creek, David was dramatic, anxious, stylish, spoiled, loving, and surprisingly tender. His relationship with Patrick Brewer became one of the show’s emotional anchors.

David is widely noted as one of television’s best-known pansexual characters, and Levy has said he wrote from his own experience as an openly gay man. Levy also said in a 2020 interview that he is gay and has been out since he was 18.

Jane Lynch

Jane Lynch made Sue Sylvester one of the funniest villains on television.

On Glee, Sue was ruthless, strange, competitive, insulting, and sometimes unexpectedly tender. She could destroy a room with one line, then reveal a softer side when the story needed it.

Sue became one of the show’s breakout characters, and Lynch won major awards for the role, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Lynch is also widely known as an openly lesbian actor and LGBTQ+ public figure.

Sara Ramirez

Sara Ramirez gave Grey’s Anatomy one of its most important characters.

Callie Torres started as an orthopedic surgeon with confidence, humor, and emotional messiness. Over time, her story became central to one of prime-time television’s most visible bisexual character arcs. Callie Torres became one of the longest-running LGBTQ+ characters in U.S. television history.

Billy Porter

Billy Porter’s Pray Tell was the beating heart of Pose.

As ballroom emcee, mentor, friend, truth-teller, and survivor, Pray Tell carried humor and pain in equal measure. Porter gave the character glamour, sharpness, grief, music, and deep humanity.

Porter made Emmy history in 2019 as the first openly gay Black man to win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Pose.

Jonathan Groff

Jonathan Groff gave Disney’s Frozen one of its sweetest male characters.

As Kristoff, Groff voiced a mountain man who was awkward, kind, loyal, and deeply attached to his reindeer Sven. Kristoff was not the usual smooth Disney prince type, which made him more lovable.

Groff publicly came out as gay in 2009 and later voiced Kristoff in Frozen, one of Disney’s biggest animated films.

Amandla Stenberg

Amandla Stenberg’s role as Rue in The Hunger Games left a lasting mark.

Rue was gentle, clever, brave, and heartbreaking. Her bond with Katniss became one of the emotional turning points of the film, and Stenberg’s performance made the character unforgettable.

Stenberg received wide attention for playing Rue and has publicly discussed identity over the years, including coming out as bisexual, non-binary, and later gay.

Cynthia Erivo

Cynthia Erivo brought new power to Elphaba in Wicked.

Elphaba is already one of musical theater’s most loved characters: misunderstood, gifted, angry, compassionate, and unwilling to accept a world built on lies. Erivo’s version brought the character to a massive film audience.

Erivo has spoken publicly about embracing her queer identity and the importance of visibility. She opened up about publicly coming out in 2022.

Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen has played more than one beloved character, but two stand above the rest: Gandalf and Magneto.

As Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, McKellen gave fantasy cinema one of its most comforting and commanding figures. As Magneto in the X-Men films, he brought pain, intelligence, anger, and dignity to a comic-book villain shaped by persecution.

McKellen publicly came out as gay in 1988 and went on to become one of the most visible LGBTQ+ actors and activists in the world.

Cynthia Nixon

Cynthia Nixon played Miranda Hobbes across Sex and the City and And Just Like That…

Miranda was sharp, practical, cynical, ambitious, loyal, and often the most grounded member of the group. Fans loved her because she was not trying to be soft or perfectly likable. She felt real.

Nixon has been open about her identity and relationships, and And Just Like That… later explored Miranda entering a queer relationship.

Raven-Symoné

Raven-Symoné made Raven Baxter one of Disney Channel’s defining characters.

On That’s So Raven, Raven was funny, dramatic, stylish, psychic, and endlessly expressive. She became one of the first Black female sitcom leads many young viewers grew up watching on Disney Channel.

Raven-Symoné publicly came out as gay in 2013, and People later reported that she had shared her sexuality with her parents earlier during her college years.

Tessa Thompson

Tessa Thompson gave the Marvel Cinematic Universe one of its coolest heroes as Valkyrie.

Introduced in Thor: Ragnarok, Valkyrie was a hard-drinking warrior with trauma, humor, and a sharp edge. Thompson gave the character swagger without making her feel empty. Thompson has spoken publicly about being bisexual, and Paper reported that she discussed how coming out helped fans feel more empowered in their own lives.

Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart became globally famous as Bella Swan in Twilight.

Bella was quiet, intense, awkward, and emotionally all-in. The character became a defining figure for a generation of fans, even as the franchise became heavily debated. Stewart came out publicly as queer in 2017.

Matt Bomer

Matt Bomer made Neal Caffrey the stylish heart of White Collar.

Neal was charming, brilliant, elegant, deceptive, and strangely vulnerable. He was the kind of character who could steal a painting, talk his way out of a problem, and still make viewers root for him. Bomer publicly came out in 2012 and has spoken about the way his sexuality affected his career.