Wilson Cruz A Life Of Discovery

The Star Trek: Discovery star, who made history portraying a gay teen on My So-Called Life, reflects on a career devoted to playing gay characters—and continuing to break barriers after 25 years in acting.

- Patrick Gomez @patrickgomezla

There was more than just a paycheck at stake for Wilson Cruz while he waited to see if My So-Called Life would be picked up to series. “I was still in the closet when we made the pilot, but I had made an arrangement with myself that if the show got picked up, that I would come out to my parents,” the actor recalls. It took months, but Cruz eventually got the call—and on Christmas Eve 1993, he told his mom and dad that he was gay. “It didn’t go well with my dad,” says the actor, who was 19 at the time and living at home. “He kicked me out. I lived in my car. I slept on friends’ couches.” But three months later, he began filming My So-Called Life—and when the short-lived, critically acclaimed drama launched in August 1994, Cruz became the first openly gay actor to play an openly gay character as a series regular on a television show. “I took it as an opportunity to shed light on LGBT youth issues and give a voice to young people,” Cruz, now 44, says of playing abused teen Rickie Vasquez. “I felt like, at that time, there weren’t a lot of people who were willing to take those roles. Here I was, not only willing but excited to take them—and to make a difference because of them.”