Our inaugural Queer on TV package, produced in partnership with GLAAD and released in conjunction with the annual Where We Are on TV report, is all about queer visibility on television today. At once a celebration of LGBTQ+ stories and a call to action, this series examines the state of representation on TV while also highlighting the vital work being done to expand it. Read more here.
A decade ago, during the 2012-2013 television season, the advocacy organization GLAAD counted 66 LGBTQ+ series regular characters across scripted broadcast and cable shows. Today, according to the organization’s latest Where We Are on TV report, there are nearly 400 LGBTQ+ series regulars across scripted broadcast, cable, and streaming originals — a sixfold increase, not to mention an additional 200 recurring characters.
You can point to a lot of factors to explain this uptick: television as a medium has exploded and the viewing audience is queerer than ever, but the earnest truth is that the rise in LGBTQ+ representation is the result of courage and dedication. Queer and trans people have always worked in television, pushing the envelope and advocating for important precedents, even if it means dragging studios and networks reluctantly into the 21st century. Real people — not just broader cultural trends — made this happen, and they deserve to be celebrated.
That’s why, for our inaugural Queer on TV package, we’ve chosen to highlight 15 actors, writers, directors, and producers who should be on your radar if they aren’t already. These are rising creators who are pushing the medium forward, making the kind of programming we’ll remember a decade from now. No single list could capture the breadth of LGBTQ+ talent in this industry, but the below are some of the people whose projects we’ve been especially excited about, and whom we’re following closely. Together, they are proof that the best years for queer TV are still to come.
When Roberta Colindrez found out she had booked Girls in 2012 — but only one episode — she was “crushed,” as she told the Texas Observer. Since then, however, the Latinx actor has accrued a steady series of credits, landing a series regular role on Tanya Saracho’s GLAAD Award-winning series Vida and, most recently, playing Lupe García in Prime Video’s sapphic-beloved series A League of Their Own. Watch for the talented Colindrez to appear alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Gaby Hoffman in Netflix’s forthcoming TV thriller Eric.
Among the remarkable talent working behind the scenes of FX’s Emmy and Golden-Globe nominated limited series Under the Banner of Heaven was Isabel Sandoval, a transgender Filipina filmmaker with a subtle and deeply empathetic style. Making her breakout with the 2019 Netflix film Lingua Franca, in which she also starred, Sandoval appears to be equally at ease writing her own films as she is directing episodes of series like Hulu’s Tell Me Lies. She also looks completely at home standing in the Criterion Closet, as she should.
Our Flag Means Death star Vico Ortiz is everything — and we don’t just mean that in the emphatic sense. The Latinx nonbinary actor is a drag king. They are an activist. They are a TikTok superstar. They’ve worked as a stunt performer and sword fighter. Name a more interesting résumé, we’ll wait. In addition to their role on HBO’s super gay pirate show, Ortiz has also appeared in Vida and The Sex Lives of College Girls. Watch for the multi-talented performer to appear in an array of forthcoming projects, along with the return of OFMD season two.
Larry Owens is one of those ubiquitous talents that everyone seems to know from a different project. Fans of Quinta Brunson’s beloved ABC show Abbott Elementary will recognize him as Jacob’s boyfriend Zach. Theatergoers will recognize him as the star of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop. And Ziwe viewers will recall his memorable appearance as a pastor in the “Critical Race Theory” episode. We’re excited to see what the queer actor and singer adds to his already varied CV, with forthcoming projects like the Miramax rom-com Silent Retreat and Julio Torres’ Tilda Swinton-starring directorial debut Problemista.
Where would we be without Meg Stalter’s masterful “hi gay” video of 2021? We’re not saying the comedian single-handedly got us through the pandemic, but quarantine certainly would have been a lot worse without her. Since achieving viral stardom, Stalter made a name for herself on HBO Max’s hilarious Hacks and now seems to be on the brink of becoming a movie star. In addition to her SXSW-premiering film Cora Bora, watch for her to appear in forthcoming films from Kay Cannon of Blockers fame, Chelsea Peretti, and SNL’s Please Don’t Destroy. She’s also in development on Church Girls, a half-hour comedy about a closeted Christian lesbian from A24 and HBO Max. We love gay, and we love Stalter, too.
Despite the fact that queer people are literally the funniest inhabitants of planet earth, Saturday Night Live has taken a shamefully long road toward LGBTQ+ inclusion. The series didn’t have any openly lesbian cast members until Kate McKinnon was hired in 2012, and before that the only out LGBTQ+ series regular in the show’s history was Terry Sweeney in… 1985. (Sweeney, by the way, was mostly relegated to playing gay stereotypes, as Vulture reported.) All of which is to say the show’s recent strides toward inclusion, including the addition of LGBTQ+ on-camera talent like Bowen Yang and Molly Kearney, are welcome developments. While you’ve likely heard those names, you might not know that nonbinary comedian Celeste Yim has been writing for the long-running sketch comedy series since 2020. Yim has brought a wry and often queer sensibility to SNL with sketches like this realistic spoof of “It Gets Better” or this absurdist tribute to L’eggs pantyhose. We’re expecting big things from Yim on SNL and beyond.
Hailing from Chicago, the talented self-described “genderqueer rascal” Brittani Nichols built a career as a TV writer with credits on six episodes of A Black Lady Sketch Show before joining ABC’s Abbott Elementary as a producer and staff writer. Nichols is also an accomplished actor, appearing most recently in the queer-themed pilot A Guide to Not Dying Completely Alone, which premiered at South by Southwest. As one of the longest-working writers on this list, it’s especially gratifying to see Nichols being recognized for her consistently excellent work: This February, she won the NAACP Image Award for best writing in a comedy series for the “Student Transfer” episode of Abbott.
In 2023’s smash-hit horror comedy M3GAN, Brian Jordan Alvarez somehow managed to steal scenes just by hanging his jaw slightly open and looking dumbfounded. Such is the power of the comedian that he can crack you up with his face alone, not to mention his rotating cast of bizarre social media personalities. Earning notice in 2016 with his delightfully strange webseries The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo, Alvarez’s film and TV career was further boosted by his multi-season role on NBC’s Will & Grace reboot. Last year, FX ordered a pilot from Alvarez for a show about a gay high school English teacher living in Austin, with the main cast revealed in September. We’re ready for a character actor like Alvarez to get his star moment.
We’re obsessed with Poppy Liu. The fashions. Every word they say as the blackjack dealer Kiki in Hacks. The fact that she’s a full spectrum doula. It’s no wonder the nonbinary Chinese American actor has so much on the horizon: In April, they’ll appear with Rachel Weisz in Dead Ringers, Prime Video’s TV adaptation of David Cronenberg’s 1988 horror film. But especially after Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Oscars sweep, we’re excited to see Liu in Disney’s American Born Chinese this May, starring alongside Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, and James Hong.
After making appearances on Netflix’s Gentefied and an Emmy-nominated episode of FX’s Atlanta, Ava Grey’s next movie is bound to draw notice. “Right now, I’m paying lots of attention to detail to the steps of building my legacy and trying to figure out the imprint I truly want to leave,” the young actor and artist recently told Paper, and she’s got plenty of time to do just that. Whether she’s talking about transgender representation with Teen Vogue or quietly sharing that she has an entire album already written, Grey is revealing herself as an emerging talent to watch.
Queer Indigenous Canadian actor Devery Jacobs has been acting since 2009, but it was the 2021 FX series Reservation Dogs, which cast her in the lead role of Elora Danan Postoak, that proved to be her breakout moment. In addition to writing on the series, Jacobs is poised to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Hawkeye spinoff Echo, starring Alaqua Cox as the eponymous hero. But we’re also intrigued by Jacobs’ forthcoming voice role on Ark: The Animated Series, a fantasy adventure series about an Australian paleontologist that will also feature Elliott Page, Jeffrey Wright, Michelle Yeoh, and more.
At 27, Mason Alexander Park has already landed roles on Netflix’s widely watched adaptation of The Sandman and NBC’s revival of Quantum Leap. But the nonbinary actor is also a buzzy stage performer, starring in the national tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and playing the Emcee in the Olney Theatre Center’s acclaimed production of Cabaret. Watch for Park to appear in Luke Gilford’s queer rodeo film National Anthem, which was warmly received at its South by Southwest premiere. In their review, RogerEbert.com wrote that Park “takes what could have been a small role and makes it unforgettable,” which sounds exactly like the impression the actor has left with each of their parts to date.
As a writer and director with a long list of credits, what’s perhaps most impressive about Navajo filmmaker Sydney Freeland is her range. Longtime fans of Jen Richards and Angelica Ross might recall that Freeland directed the web series Her Story back in 2016, a project that was in many ways a precursor to the boom in transgender representation on mainstream television. But Freeland has gone on to direct episodes of everything from Grey’s Anatomy to Fear the Walking Dead to Reservation Dogs, on which she also served as a staff writer. With filming set to begin on Freeland’s next feature, the LeBron James-produced Native American basketball drama Rez Ball, it’s clear big things are in store for this multi-hyphenate.
When HBO Max canceled Generation, and then removed it from the streamer, we lost access to some incredible performances from young LGBTQ+ actors, Nava Mau’s moving portrayal of a transgender aunt among them. Fortunately, Generation is now available to view for free on Tubi, and it won’t be long before we see Mau in Baby Reindeer, a Netflix series adaptation of Richard Gadd’s play about a female stalker. Beyond her acting and producing work, Mau is also an advocate and public speaker, proving that a rising generation of LGBTQ+ stars sees their work on and offscreen as being inextricably linked. In an interview with Elle, Mau noted that as film and TV place more demands on her time, she’s continuing to “bring in the frameworks that I believe in from my cultural work.” That’s the kind of Hollywood synergy we can get behind.
Josh Feldman’s This Close, a moving queer-themed Sundance TV dramedy about Deaf best friends living in Los Angeles, set multiple historic precedents and also garnered great reviews, with Vulture calling it “terrific” and “quietly groundbreaking.” We’ve been eager to experience more of Feldman’s work ever since then; fortunately, last summer, Deadline revealed that the writer is penning the screenplay for a film entering production this year about Keith Adams, a Deaf high school football coach who led an all-Deaf team to a championship win against hearing competitors. We’re hopeful that his 2022 GLAAD List-honored screenplay First Language will get the big-screen treatment, too.
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