16 UK Actors That Played Queer American Characters

The growing multitude of LGBTQIA+ projects produced by Hollywood has led to a host of actors finding an outlet for their craft. Queer American entertainment has often been inclusive when it comes to casting. In fact, some of the most interesting American queer characters have actually been played by actors hailing from other countries. This week's listicle highlights 16 UK actors that played queer American characters. Leave a comment below if we missed any of your favorites. Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Charlie Heaton 
Hometown: Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK
UK native Charlie Heaton is no stranger to American audiences, having made his biggest splash in the hit Netflix series Stranger Things and in the films Shut In and The New Mutants. Stranger Things premiered in 2016, as did the independent feature As You Are, where Heaton starred as Mark, an American teen questioning his sexuality through a growing friendship with fellow teen Jack (Owen Campbell). 

 

Dominic Sherwood 
Hometown: Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK
Dominic Sherwood has found most of his acting success in American productions. He's appeared in Vampire Academy and Partner Track, in addition to his biggest starring role on the genre series Shadowhunters. Sherwood followed up that role with the miniseries Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, where he took on his first queer role, playing Kurt, a young hit man who finds love with a local councilman (Michael Gladis).

 

Nicholas Galitzine 
Hometown: London, England, UK
Nicholas Galitzine's queer cinema resume has been growing for years. From Handsome Devil to Red, White & Royal Blue to Mary & George, Galitzine has never shied away from queer roles, though they have always utilized his native accent. For his role in 2020's The Craft: Legacy, Galitzine took on his first as an American, playing Timmy, a teen classmate of the film's leading witches, who comes out as bisexual. 

 

Oliver Stark 
Hometown: London, England, UK
Despite his UK heritage, American audiences best know Oliver Stark for his role as Evan 'Buck' Buckley on the long-running firefighter drama 9-1-1. Stark has been burning up primetime television in the U.S. since 2018 and during Season 7, his character Buck experienced a major sexual awakening, which saw him embracing bisexuality, as he embarked on a romance with fellow first responder Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.).

 

Tom Blyth 
Hometown: Birmingham, England, UK
Tom Blyth has found acting success in multiple American productions, including the series Billy the Kid and the film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. He appeared in the UK film Benediction, chronicling the life of queer poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden). In 2025, Blyth took on his own queer role playing American police officer Lucas, struggling with his homosexuality in the film Plainclothes.

 

Joe Locke 
Hometown: Douglas, Isle of Man
Hailing from the British Crown dependency between England and Ireland, Manx actor Joe Locke skyrocketed into pop culture around the world with his role as gay teen Charlie Spring on the popular Netflix series Heartstopper. In 2024, the out actor made the trip to the U.S., where he starred in the Marvel series Agatha All Along, taking on the role of iconic queer American comic book superhero William Kaplan/Billy Maximoff.

 

Tom Holland 
Hometown: Kingston upon Thames, England, UK
29 year-old UK native Tom Holland is already a major American movie star thanks to his film career as teen Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. Holland's most recent American project was the 2023 miniseries The Crowded Room, where Holland took on his first queer role, playing Danny Sullivan, a young man suffering through mental illness while being under investigation for a heinous shooting in 1979 New York. 

 

Paul Bettany 
Hometown: Harlesden, London, England, UK
Veteran actor Paul Bettany has starred in a number of American productions over the course of his 30-year career. Most of those roles have never required Bettany to portray an American character. However, for his starring role as the titular character in 2020's Uncle Frank, he played a gay American man who embarks on a coming of age journey with his teenage niece as they journey to South Carolina for a family funeral.

 

Jonathan Bailey 
Hometown: Oxfordshire, England, UK
Jonathan Bailey's star continues to rise with his roles in hit American productions like Wicked and Jurassic World: Rebirth, in addition to his role on the popular British Netflix series Bridgerton. In 2023, the out actor took on the gay role of Tim Laughlin in the period drama Fellow Travelers. The miniseries chronicled the romance between Tim and his secret love Hawk (Matt Bomer), as they navigated the 1950s Lavender Scare.

 

Toby Jones 
Hometown: Hammersmith, London, England, UK
Veteran UK character actor Toby Jones has taken on roles in major franchises from Marvel to Harry Potter to The Hunger Games. Jones has never shied away from taking on roles playing American characters. In 2006, he took on the role of queer icon Truman Capote in the drama Infamous. The film chronicled Capote's research for his famous novel "In Cold Blood," which saw him growing close to two convicted murderers. 

 

Jacob Anderson 
Hometown: London, England, UK
Jacob Anderson became known to American audiences thanks to his roles on the Showtime series Episodes and the hit HBO series Game of Thornes. Anderson moved on to another popular genre series in 2022 with Interview with the Vampire. Anderson took on the role of New Orleans native Louis de Pointe du Lac, as he becomes romantically involved with Lestat (Sam Reid), embarking on a new existence as a vampire. 

 

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett 
Hometown: Wandsworth, London, England, UK
Over the course of his 18-year career, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett has not been a stranger to queer American roles. From horror films like 2021's Candyman, to the 2017 remake of Angels in America, Stewart-Jarrett has embraced the portrayal of queer American characters. For the 2021 series Genera+ion, the actor starred as Sam, a gay guidance counselor dealing with a student (Justice Smith) who harbors an inappropriate crush. 

 

Luke Evans 
Hometown: Pontypool, Wales, UK
Luke Evans is known to American audiences for his role in big budget franchises like The Fast and the Furious and The Hobbit. In 2023, the out actor took on a pair of roles in American productions which cast him as out gay characters. For Our Son, Evans played Nicky, a father struggling through divorce, while in Good Grief, he played Oliver, a man who dies leaving behind his grieving love Marc (Daniel Levy).

 

Ben Aldridge  
Hometown: Exeter, Devon, England, UK
Out actor Ben Aldridge got to play American for his role on the 2019 DC Comics series Pennyworth, as Thomas Wayne, the future father of Batman. Aldridge followed that up with two queer roles in American films. He played Kit Cowan, the real-life love of Michael Ausiello (Jim Parsons) in 2022's Spoiler Alert. In 2023, he took on the role of protective husband and father Andrew in M. Night Shyamalan's Knock at the Cabin.

 

Russell Tovey 
Hometown: Billericay Essex, England, UK
Russell Tovey's first big queer role in an American series came in HBO's Looking, where Tovey was cast as Kevin, the boss and love interest for Patrick (Jonathan Groff). Tovey played a Brit living in America on that series, but he would later take on the role of closeted American cop Patrick for Season 11 of American Horror Story. The 2025 queer drama Plainclothes would also cast Tovey as an American, for his role as Andrew.

 

Ian McKellen 
Hometown: Burnley, Lancashire, England, UK
Legendary out actor Sir Ian McKellen began his acting career in 1964. His resume of roles, both gay and straight, is filled with notable projects. Typically, his queer roles have been UK characters. However, in 1993 he took on the role of American gay rights activist Bill Kraus in And the Band Played On. That same year, McKellen would play another gay American character, Archibald Anson Gidde, for Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City miniseries.