15 Actors That Played Queer Characters and Dads of Queer Characters

Film and series narratives that explore queer stories have often featured relationships between queer characters and their fathers. Whether supportive or contentious, these relationships have been vital. Some actors have managed to bring an even more unique perspective to fictional patriarchs, because they have also played queer characters themselves. This week's listicle highlights 15 actors who got the opportunity to play both queer characters as well as straight dads of a queer character. Leave a comment below if we missed any of your favorites. Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
 

Aidan Quinn 
1985's award-winning drama An Early Frost was one of the earliest television movies to explore the AIDS epidemic. Aidan Quinn starred as Michael Pierson, a young lawyer who is forced to come out after his AIDS diagnosis. Just over 20 years later, Quinn would star in the television drama The Book of Daniel, playing a reverend, Daniel Webster, who reconciles his faith with his personal dramas involving his family. Daniel's gay son Peter (Christian Campbell) is out to all of his immediate family, except for his religious father. This plot point was written to play out over the course of the first season, but the series was cancelled after just four episodes.

 

Victor Garber  
Despite his status as a veteran out actor, Victor Garber has been most known in his career for playing straight roles. For the 2020 holiday comedy Happiest Season, he played politician and patriarch Ted to multiple children, including the closeted Harper (Mackenzie Davis), whose homosexuality is a driving source of conflict within the film's narrative when she brings her secret girlfriend home for the holidays. In 2024, Garber would take on one of his rare queer roles for the anthology series American Horror Stories, where he played David Woodrow Randolph, an ailing tech billionaire who commissions a clone of himself to care for his younger lover John (Guy Burnet).

 

Jack Davenport  
UK actor Jack Davenport made his first big splash with American audiences in the 1999 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley, where he played Peter Smith-Kingsley, a companion to dastardly leading man Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), until his jealousy led to his demise. For 2023's Bonus Track, he took on a very different role, playing dad Jeffrey to lead character George Bobbin (Joe Anders), a charming teen who experiences his coming of age while bonding with newcomer Max (Samuel Small) over their shared love of music, leading to a blossoming romance. George was supported throughout the film by his quirky parents, despite their marriage separation.

 

Bruce Greenwood  
Bruce Greenwood has gotten to play a father to queer characters in multiple series. For the 2023 Netflix miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher, his role as patriarch Roderick Usher saw him as father to multiple queer children. Prior to that, Greenwood found himself giving fatherly advice on the medical drama The Resident, as his character Dr. Randolph Bell counseled his gay step-son Dr. Jake Wong (Conrad Ricamora) went on a journey to parenthood with his partner Gregg. Back in 2005, Greenwood took on the queer role of Jack Dunphy, the longtime companion of Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) for the biographical drama Capote. 

 

Kyle MacLachlan 
Kyle MacLachlan took on his first gay role in the 2018 film Giant Little Ones. The coming-of-age drama followed Franky (Josh Wiggins) a teen whose life is upended when he has a drunken sexual encounter with his best friend, leading him to be shunned socially. MacLachlan played Ray, Franky's estranged father whom he keeps his distance from after Ray's coming out strained their relationship. More recently, MacLachlan took on the recurring role of John, father of closeted leading man Benny (Benito Skinner) on the comedy Overcompensating. John reckons with his son's decision to abandon sports at college, unaware that he's struggling with his sexuality. 

 

Ray McKinnon 
In 2007, Ray McKinnon presented the crime comedy Randy and the Mob, telling the story of Randy, a man who seeks help from his estranged gay twin brother Cecil to evade the mob. McKinnon was writer and director, in addition to playing the identical twins. For Episode 2 of Dolly Parton's 2019 Netflix anthology series Heartstrings, McKinnon took on the role of dad to a closeted gay character as Roy Meegers, whose son Tyler (Andy Mientus) is outed during preparations for his sister's wedding. Despite his gruff Southern exterior, Roy is immediately supportive of his gay son, unlike his wife Amelia (Melissa Leo) who spins out from all the family drama.

 

Nick Offerman 
Nick Offerman is no stranger to gay roles, having played a bisexual man who comes between the titular duo on an episode of the comedy Will & Grace. Offerman would also win a Primetime Emmy Award for his guest appearance on the drama The Last of Us, where he played one half of a gay couple facing life in a post-apocalyptic world. At the same time he was winning an Emmy for playing gay, Offerman was lending his voice to the popular animated series The Great North, where he played the lead role of Beef Tobin, a single father in Alaska raising three children, including his oldest son Ham (Paul Rust), who would come out as gay during the series. 

 

Mauricio Ochmann 
2022 was a unique year for actor Mauricio Ochmann as he got to play a straight dad to a queer character and a queer character himself both in the same year. For the Spanish drama Can't  Live Without You, Ochmann played David, one-half of a gay couple looking to become parents when David's troubled sister Blanca re-enters his life, presenting a potential solution. Later in the year, Ochmann would play the lead again for the holiday comedy, A Not So Merry Christmas. Ochmann played Chuy, a grumpy patriarch cursed to relive Christmas Eve over and over until he can turn his life around, including mending fences with his gay son, Oscar (Bastian Calva).

 

Dallas Roberts  
Dallas Roberts' first breakout film role came in 2004's A Home at the End of the World, where he played Jonathan Glover, a young man who finds himself in a love triangle with his childhood best friend Bobby (Colin Farrell) in the 1980s, where he also faces an HIV diagnosis. Years later, he would play another queer man for his lead role as Bob in the 2018 Netflix dark comedy series Insatiable. Between those two roles, Roberts would play Lionel, the detached father of queer serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (Ross Lynch) in the acclaimed docudrama My Friend Dahmer, which centered on the young Jeffrey Dahmer's tumultuous high school years amid growing instability.

 

Kevin Alejandro 
Kevin Alejandro took on the role of dad to a queer teen on both the big and small screen. He played Santos, the father of teen Justin (Mark Indelicato) who would come of age over the course of four seasons on the comedy Ugly Betty. In 2022, he would play Sam Quintana, supporting his gay son Dante's (Reese Gonzales) coming of age in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Sandwiched between those to projects, Alejandro would take on his own queer role, playing Jesus Velasquez, the love interest of the fiery scene-stealing Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis) on the acclaimed drama True Blood, where he appeared in 27 episodes. 

 

Colm Feore  
Veteran Canadian actor Colm Feore took on a gay role for the 2000's drama The Perfect Son, which chronicled the relationship between estranged brothers, the straight Theo (David Cubitt) and the gay Ryan (Feore), who are reunited when Ryan falls terminally ill from AIDS. Nineteen years later, Feore would take on the role of eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who adopts seven extraordinary children whom he prepares to save the world in the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy. Hargreeves' brood includes multiple queer characters, including the openly gay Klaus (Robert Sheehan) and his trans son Viktor (Elliot Page), who unite after his death.

 

Robert Gant 
Out actor Robert Gant gained notoriety for his role as HIV-positive college professor Ben Bruckner on the acclaimed drama Queer as Folk beginning in 2002. Ben's relationship with lead Michael Novotny (Hal Sparks) would become a major part of the series. In 2018, Gant took on the role of straight patriarch Jim Hunter whose children would become entwined with the large Foster family on the series The Fosters. The spinoff series Good Trouble would find Jim's son Carter (Spencer List) beginning a romance with Jude Foster (Hayden Byerly). The recurring role allowed Gant to take part in an emotionally pivotal coming out scene with his on-screen son. 

 

Dean Norris  
Character actor Dean Norris is best known for taking roles in crime and legal dramas. For his role in the 2017 dark comedy series Claws, he got to play local crime boss "Uncle Daddy" who also happened to be openly bisexual, as he romanced his wife Juanda as well as his boy toy Toby (Evan Daigle). In 2025, Norris took on a very different role for the horror comedy The Parenting. He played Cliff, father to leading man Josh (Brandon Flynn) who invites his parents on a winter getaway, hoping they will bond with the parents of his boyfriend Rohan (Nik Dodani), until a 400-year-old poltergeist turns things upside down inside their rental, endangering them all.  

 

James Martinez  
James Martinez's biggest series role came in the Hulu original Love, Victor where Martinez played Armando Salazar, the father of teen lead Victor (Michael Cimino), whose coming out is chronicled along with its effects on his relationships with various family members, including his father. Armando does his best to educate himself and support Victor, even as his own marriage struggles. Prior to that, for the 2010 independent comedy BearCity, Martinez starred as Carlos, a member of a close-knit gay friend group entrenched in New York's bear community. Carlos was a love interest for "bear" Michael (Gregory Gunter), and he would reprise the role for the 2012 sequel. 

 

Guy Pearce 
Guy Pearce's first breakout film role came in 1994 when he portrayed Adam/Felicia, a drag queen on a road trip across the Australian desert as part of a performing trio in the comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. For 2015's Holding the Man, Pearce would take on the role of Dick Conigrave, the father of leading man Tim (Ryan Corr). The biographical drama chronicled the real-life romance between Tim Conigrave and John Caleo, told across 15 years. It wouldn't be the last queer true story for Pearce, as he would later portray gay rights activist and AIDS Memorial Quilt founder Cleve Jones for the 2017 miniseries When We Rise.