45 People You Might Have or Probably Didn’t Know Came Out in the Last 10 Years

Beloved Parks and Recs actress, Aubrey Plaza was considered a major LGBTQ+ icon long before she herself came out as bisexual. Her coming out happened in 2016 when an interviewer asked her if girls ever hit on her.

Aubrey happily responded that they definitely do and that she likes it! “Hey, I’m into [girls] too. I fall in love with girls and guys. I can’t help it,” she explained. Aubrey recently played a queer character in the Christmas comedy, Happiest Season.

Best known for her role in Arrested Development, Alia spoke in an interview about her journey. “I was a tomboy growing up, and I remember my mom asking me when I was 10, ‘Are you attracted to boys or girls?’ I said I don’t know.”

“Now I consider myself bisexual,” she explained. “I think balancing my male and female energies has been a big part of me growing as an actor.” How great is it that she had her mother’s support so early on?

Jojo Siwa might have started as a child star on Dance Moms, but she’s since built a serious career as a dancer, singer, and actress alongside her signature bows and colorful personality. She shared that she’s pansexual in early 2021.

Her coming out happened online when she shared photos with her then-girlfriend. Sadly, not everyone was super supportive of her. In response to online disapproval, Jojo explained, “I don’t want people to watch my videos or buy my merchandise if they aren’t going to support not only me, but the LGBTQ community.”

Runner-up on season seven of American Idol, David Archuleta shared with his fans that he was gay during Pride Month of 2020. “A year ago I was pulling weeds and felt in my heart I needed to open up about something that before I always considered unthinkable.”

David shared in a post on Instagram a year after coming out, “[I] always considered [coming out] my greatest fear. But, that day I felt peace with myself. I wasn’t afraid anymore of who all of me meant. Even if that meant I liked guys.”

Sadly, not everyone gets to come out when absolutely ready. Some are forced to declare their orientation due to external circumstances. Such was the case for Pitch Perfect actress, Rebel Wilson, who came out this past summer.

After being threatened to be outed by an Australian newspaper, Rebel decided to break the news on her own terms. Before they could, Rebel shared on her Instagram “I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess.”

This might not surprise fans of her recent songs “Boyfriend” and “Breakfast,” but Dove Cameron, according to her own words, is “super queer.” The former Disney star, now singer and actress, came out in 2020.

“I think there’s this narrative where if you are a queer person and you speak about your identity, it’s as though you’ve been sitting on a secret your whole life and it’s this big revelation,” she shared. “Where in my experience, it wasn’t a revelation. I always knew who I was.”

Wentworth Miller officially came out in a letter when he rejected an invitation to a film festival in a country where anti-gay laws had been passed. In 2013 he published the letter, saying, “It would make me happy to say yes. However, as a gay man, I must decline.”

“I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women,” he explained. “The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly.”

Shannon Purser is fairly new to the limelight of Hollywood — she’s best known for her roles as Ethel in Riverdale and Barb in Stranger Things. The 25-year-old actress, though, came out as bisexual in 2018.

She shared that she partially came out to “try to encourage young people and be somebody that they can look up to. I just always think about what would I have needed as a kid, what would have meant a lot to me. If somebody can see me and feel less alone and more understood then that’s it.”

Known for his part in Road Trip and his many roles on TV, 41-year-old actor DJ Qualls came out publicly as gay in early 2020. He shared this part of himself during his friend Jim Jeffries’ stand-up show!

“It is 11:20 pm. I just came out on stage at a @jimjefferies show in San Diego,” he tweeted that same night. “Tired of worrying about what people would think of me. Tired of worrying about what it would do to my career.”

Jason Mraz’s wife was a part of his coming out journey. He’s been out for quite a few years, but during an interview, he shared how his wife helped him realize that he’s bisexual.

While Jason and his now-wife were dating, he was also experimenting with men and wondering what that meant. “My wife laid it out for me. She calls it ‘two-spirit’, which is what the Native Americans call someone who can love both man and woman. I really like that.”

Navigating a queer identity isn’t always easy or simple. As people explore their orientation more, some can come to the conclusion that another label fits them better. That’s what happened to actress Bella Thorne. She came out as bisexual in 2016 via Twitter.

However, in an interview in 2019, she realized that bisexuality no longer quite fit her. Bella shared, “Somebody explained to me really thoroughly what that is. You like what you like. Doesn’t have to be a girl or a guy or a he or she or they or this or that. It’s literally you like personality.”

It’s not just Hollywood stars that have publicly come out in recent years. In 2014, Tim Cook, Apple CEO, became the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to come out as gay. He shared this news in an essay. Tim wrote:

“If hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.”

Alyson Stoner, known for her career as an actor on the Disney channel (Camp Rock) and as a dancer, came out as part of the LGBTQ+ community in 2018. In an interview, she shared how she figured it out.

Her attraction for all genders became apparent to her when she formed an intimate friendship with her dance instructor, a woman, which turned into a loving romantic relationship. To those questioning their identity she said, “Whatever your identity, you are lovable and wonderful and enough.”

Carole Baskin might be the founder of Big Cat Rescue, but in recent years she’s become a fully-fledged celebrity in her own right thanks to her appearance on Tiger King. In 2020, she shared for the first time that she’s bisexual.

Though she’s been married to her husband, Howard, since 2004, she said that “Even though I’ve never had a wife, I could just as easily have a wife as a husband.” She shared that she realized this way back in the ‘80s, thanks to being involved with the queer community at the time.

Probably best known as Elvira (Mistress of the Dark), Cassandra Peterson has kept her private life extremely close to the chest. In fact, despite living with her partner for over 20 years, Cassandra only shared this part of her life in 2021.

In her 2021 memoir, Your Cruelly, Elvira, she shared that she considers herself fluid – having been with people of different genders. She also wrote about her 20-year relationship with Tereasa Wierson and how she hated hiding her love.

Sara Ramirez has definitely been a trailblazer for LGBTQ+ characters on TV as their character on Grey’s Anatomy was one of the earliest regular bisexual characters in a show. In fact, it was Sara who insisted on the character being queer.

The actor had two coming-outs — the first in 2016 when she shared that she’s queer and bisexual, and the second in 2020 when they began identifying as non-binary (moving to use she/they pronouns). On playing a non-binary character on And Just Like That…, Sara shared, “It felt like a really organic, natural fit.”

Brendon Urie, as the lead of the beloved band Panic! at the Disco, has inspired many emotional teens over the years. And since coming out during an interview in 2018, he’s become a role model for young pansexuals.

“I’m married to a woman and I’m very much in love with her but I’m not opposed to a man because to me, I like a person,” Brendon shared during an interview with Paper magazine. “Yeah, I guess you could qualify me as pansexual because I really don’t care.”

Miley Cyrus came out as pansexual in 2016. She shared that after exploring both her gender and her attraction, she realized that pansexuality best fit with her feelings. “Once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my [attraction] more.”

While she is currently dating Mazz Morand, in the past, she’s been in public relationships with both men and women (most famously with Liam Hemsworth). She has always been a loud and strong advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.

Coming out over social media has become pretty popular in recent years, especially for celebs who are known for their online presence. So, Lilly Singh coming out in 2019 with an Instagram post saying “Female, Coloured, Bisexual” just felt right.

A few months after she shared in another post that, despite being incredibly happy to be out, it hasn’t all been rosy. “Coming out was one of the scariest experiences of my life. I’d love to tell you that everyone was supportive and that people didn’t treat me differently but I’d be lying.”

Abbi Jacobson has become a queer icon since coming out as bisexual in 2018 and showing that character transformation on Broad City at the same time. She’s further explored that side of her in the recent A League of Their Own.

In several interviews, she explained that she’s committed to telling queer stories as they definitely have a positive effect — one of the athletes who inspired the original movie came out in her 90s! Abbi also recently shared the very happy news of her engagement to her loving girlfriend, Jodi Balfour.

Cara Delevingne only recently appeared as Selena Gomez’s love interest on the hit show Only Murders in the Building, but that should hardly surprise long-time fans as the actress came out as pansexual back in 2018.

In interviews, she spoke of her constant gender identity exploration. As for her attraction, she explained, “I always will remain, I think, pansexual. However one defines themselves, whether it’s ‘they’ or ‘he’ or ‘she,’ I fall in love with the person and that’s that. I’m attracted to the person.”

Beloved model and social media influencer, Tess Holliday has been out as pansexual for quite a few years now. She shared that she now feels that she can “connect with people on a more intimate level than I was before because I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not.”

“A lot of the things that I felt when I was younger make sense,” she explained. “A lot of the relationships that I had make sense.” On coming out she said, “I had no idea how freeing it was going to be for my own body image and confidence.”

Another rising actress who came out recently is Lili Reinhart who shared her orientation with her Instagram followers in 2020. She’s probably best known for her role as the iconic Betty on Riverdale, though she’s been branching out to other roles recently.

Lili is currently working on an LGBTQ+ period drama. “I’ve always just loved the drama of period pieces and adding that queer element is very exciting for me,” she said in an interview. She’s currently rumored to be dating Spencer Neville, a fellow actor.

Kit Connor is most famous for playing Nick Nelson in Heartstopper. The actor recently came out as bisexual (just like his character in Heartsopper) but not by choice.

Kit says his reveal was due to the constant pressure and speculation from the show’s fans. He took to Twitter to say, “Back for a minute. I’m bi. congrats for forcing an 18-year-old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye.”

It’s not just Hollywood big-shots who’ve come out in the last decade — many athletes have shared the struggles and joys of their identities. One of those is Olympic gymnastics medallist, Danell Leyva, who came out in 2020 as bi and pansexual.

His coming out was on Twitter. “In the post, I said that I’m still trying to figure out between whether I’m bi or pan. It was nice to have people be like, ‘You don’t have to label it. You don’t have to just be ‘a thing’. It’s an ever-changing fluid thing, so you don’t have to worry about that,’” he shared later.

Demi Lovato’s coming out has been the subject of much social media debate in recent years. The star came out as non-binary several years ago and has changed her pronouns several times over the years.

They currently use she/they pronouns according to their Instagram account — this means that either can be used when referring to her. “I’m such a fluid person when it comes to my gender, my [attraction], my music, my creativity,” she explained.

Gender identity, of course, isn’t the only thing that can be fluid. As these stars teach us, identity formation at any age is a constant journey of discovery. That’s probably why Kehlani, who came out as queer and bisexual years ago, recently shared a bit of change for her.

The non-binary artist (she/they) shared that they now understand that they’re lesbian. “You wanna know what’s new about me? I finally know I’m a lesbian!” she said in a video. “I just wanted y’all to know that everyone knew but me.”

Nikkie de Jager, best known for her online handle NikkieTutorials, has had a massive social media presence for years as a makeup artist and beauty influencer. Therefore, she made huge waves when she came out as trans in a video in 2020.

In the now-famous video on her channel, she explained how she wanted to start the new year by sharing one of the biggest parts of herself. Sadly, she also talked about feeling pressured to come out as some people threatened to out her. “I’ve always wanted to share with you one day, but under my own circumstances, it looks like that chance has been taken away from me.”

For fans of the incredibly talented actor, Lee Pace’s orientation has been a source of some confusion for several years. This is due to him accidentally being outed by his co-star Ian McKellen in 2012. He finally confirmed this, though, in 2018.

In an interview, he shared that “When you grow up queer, you get tough… When someone comes at you that you don’t know, interested in that area of your life, it’s not always a good thing. I certainly knew that when I was a kid.”

Best known for his incredible roles in Juno and Umbrella Academy, Elliot Page’s coming out as trans has been one of the most talked-about LGBTQ+ events of the past few years. He was vocally a member of the queer community long before that when he came out as a lesbian.

In his famous coming out post on Instagram, he wrote, “My joy is real, but it is also fragile. The truth is, despite feeling profoundly happy right now [] I am also scared. I’m scared of the invasiveness, the hate, the ‘jokes,’ and of violence.” Luckily, for the most part, fans have embraced Elliot.

Kevin McHale has been out and proud, alongside his loving partner Austin McKenzie since 2018 when he shared his attraction on Twitter. The actor began his career as the lead singer of the boy band NLT but became a true household name thanks to his role on Glee.

When asked why he waited until after the hype around Glee died down, he opened up that it was due to the person he was with at the time. “The person I was with came from the most accepting family, but one of the family members, he was terrified of them finding out.”

Sam Smith has had quite a few coming outs as they’ve examined and re-defined both their romantic orientation and their gender identity. They’ve publicly spoken of their love for, and relationships with, men since 2014. In 2017, they came out as genderqueer.

Most recently, though, was in 2019 when they announced themself as non-binary, changing their pronouns to they/them. “After a lifetime of being at war with my gender,” they explained, “I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out…”

Here’s another Hollywood star who came out after the character she portrayed did so. Taylor Schilling, best known for her role as bisexual protagonist Piper Chapman on Orange Is the New Black, revealed that she, too, is bisexual in a 2020 post.

In the post, she celebrated her relationship with now ex-girlfriend Emily Ritz. Later, though, she did share, “It’s very confusing to me when people are like, ‘When you came out…’ because since I was 14, everyone’s known who I am. I’ve always been exactly who I’ve been.”

2007 might have been a long time ago, but one part of it that’s definitely left an impact is the beloved adaptation of Hairspray starring the fabulous Nikki Blonsky as sweet Tracy. Since then, she’s mostly stayed on the stage, but she also has a big social media presence where she came out in 2020.

Playing on her popular intro to videos on TikTok, “Hi, I’m Nikki Blonsky from the movie Hairspray,” Nikki came out to her fans who enthusiastically supported her. She once again shared some happy news in September when she told the world she’s now engaged to her non-binary girlfriend!

While coming out has no expiration date (some tell the world at a super young age, while others only share that part of themselves later in life), it can still carry with it a lot of unwanted comments and questions. This is especially true for celebs in the public eye.

Luckily, J. August Richards’ experience has apparently been pretty positive after coming out as gay in 2020. “Here’s the thing that’s so wonderful;” he explained. “People are so much more understanding than we give them credit for so everyone has my back to figure it out on my own time.”

Rebecca Black has not had the easiest adolescence in the public eye. The release of her infamous song “Friday” brought with it harsh and extensive ridicule and bullying of the girl. Yet, it seems that she’s made it into adulthood as a strong young woman.

In a podcast interview in 2020, she shared that she identifies as a part of the LGBTQ+ community. When asked to specify, she explained, “Every day is different … I have dated a lot of different types of people, and I just don’t really know what the future holds.”

Charlie Carver became pretty famous thanks to his role on Teen Wolf alongside his twin brother, Max. After his coming out in 2016, he appeared in several LGBTQ+ projects. He shared his experience of both hiding and revealing his gay identity in a post on Instagram.

Charlie wrote that accepting himself was no easy task, but he did have help and support. “I recognize that I was born with an immense amount of privilege, growing up in a family where my orientation was celebrated and SAFE.”

There are all sorts of reasons that people come out at a later stage of their lives. Barry Manilow is a perfect example of that — despite being in a loving and very long relationship (since 1978!) with his now-husband, Garry Kief, Barry only shared his orientation with the world when he was 73!

The reason he didn’t share this part of himself before then, is that he didn’t want to disappoint his fans. Luckily, “When they found out that Garry and I were together, they were so happy. The reaction was so beautiful … I’m just so grateful for it.”

Janelle Monáe first came out as bisexual but later refined her identity as pansexual in 2018. “Later, I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.’ I’m open to learning more about who I am,” she explained in an interview.

She also came out as nonbinary (she/her) in 2022. She shared: “I feel all of my energy. I feel like God is so much bigger than the ‘he’ or the ‘she’ … but I will always, always stand with women.”

Kal Penn, probably best known for his roles in bro-movies Harold and Kumar, shared in 2021 that he and his boyfriend of 11 years, Josh, became engaged. This also marked his coming out as gay. He explained that his friends and family have known but now he felt was the time to share it with the world.

The comedian joked, “I shared things with my parents and close friends first. I know this sounds jokey, but it’s true: When you’ve already told your Indian parents that you intend to be an actor for a living, really any conversations that come after that are super easy.”

After rumors of her close relationship with Janelle Monáe surfaced in 2018, Tessa Thompson came out as bisexual. She also represented the queer community in the hit Marvel movie, Thor: Ragnarok in 2017.

In a 2022 interview, she shared how amazing it has been for her to be a role model for her fans. “That’s been tremendous,” Thompson explained. “I’ve had so many folks write me and say that they were able to come out or to talk to their family, which is a dream.”

Mara Wilson was a huge part of the life of anyone who grew up in the ‘90s, thanks to her iconic role as the gifted Matilda. Despite her hiatus from acting to focus on working, Mara has stayed partially in the limelight thanks to her social media and her newer web series.

She initially hinted at her orientation on Twitter in 2016, sharing that “The LGBTQ community has always felt like home, especially a few years later when I, uh, learned something about myself.” In 2017, she then shared that she identifies as bisexual.

Mae Whitman has become a household name thanks to her roles in Good Girls and Parenthood, but she’s been a beloved voice actress long before, with roles in kids’ programs like Tinker Bell and the groundbreaking The Owl House.

On the Disney show, she voices Amity, a young lesbian girl in a relationship with Luz who’s bisexual. She shared this in a Tweet: “Being pansexual myself, I wish I had such incredible characters like Amity and Luz in my life when I was growing up. Queer representation is so so so important.”

Rita Ora had a bit of a controversial coming out when she released her 2018 song “Girls” alongside Charli XCX, Bebe Rexha, and Cardi B. Critics of the song claimed that it perpetuated harmful bisexual stereotypes.

Rita, though, explained the song like this: “That was a really sensitive subject for me; it was my story and I knew it was going to be a bit of a shock for people because I’d never spoken about it in public before.”

Love, Simon has turned into one of the most beloved LGBTQ+ teen movies in recent years. Having played one of the main gay characters in the film, Keiynan Lonsdale became a massive success. It’s also thanks to the film that Keiynan came out himself.

In an interview in 2020, he said, “I didn’t fully accept my queerness until I was in my twenties when I got my first therapist. She helped me come to terms with it.” While the journey has not been easy, it seems Keiynan is happy to be out as bisexual.