15 Gay Actors Who Play Straight Characters
9. Raven Symone
For actress Raven Symone, coming of age in America during this time period included having her personal life under the microscope as a massively popular child star during the 1980s and 1990s.
Her television career was launched in 1989 by her role as Olivia Kendall in The Cosby Show.
She had previously auditioned a role in Bill Cosby’s 1989 feature film Ghost Dad; and while producers thought she was too young, Cosby felt she would be perfect on the television series. Symone remained a member of the Cosby cast until the series’ final season in 1991.
The next year she landed another role in a major television series, this time as Nicole Lee on Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper.
She would appear in that series for four years until its finale in 1997. Over the course of her career she has gone on to have her own series on the Disney Channel, launch a music career, and land starring roles in feature films. In 2012 she addressed her sexuality on Twitter by proclaiming that her private life was just that, private.
In 2013 however, she applauded the legalization of gay marriage in several states and said she was happy to know she could now get married if she wanted to do so. Though she is not officially linked with anyone at the moment, she is rumored to be in a relationship with America’s Next Top Model contestant AzMarie Livingston.
