Beauty Break: Connor Jessup Comes Out

by Nathaniel R

A special Gay Pride edition of our random "Beauty Break" series. Today we celebrate the very talented actor Connor Jessup who just turned 25 this week. We hope you know him from his incredible work in the second season of American Crime or the queer Canadian indie Closet Monster. Next up for Jessup is the British mystery/ thriller Strange But True (which just premiered at the Edinburgh Festival and will be released by CBS films in the US) and the Netflix adaptation of the family fantasy series Locke & Key (due later this year).

We've been enjoying Jessup on Instagram since his cinephilia is readily apparent. While he's been playing gay characters for some time now, he's officially come out himself, having felt guilty about never stating it publicly, and speaking of his characters from a "neutral" distance. Here's what he has to say after the jump, along with photos for your gayzing pleasure...

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TIFF: An LGBT Winner "Closet Monster"

Portions of this piece were originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

The Toronto International Film Festival closes shop on its 40th year tonight (imagine the stops they'll pull out for the 2025 festival!) and I'm probably on a plane as you're reading this. Given the breakneck pace of seeing so many movies there are more reviews to come from both Amir and Nathaniel (c'est moi). In other words TIFF will have something of a half life here at the blog and the Oscar charts must be updated Monday/Tuesday and so on. With the end of the big three fall fests tonight (Telluride, Venice, TIFF) it's officially on for Awards Season. Cue: marks, gunshot, running campaigning. The first prizes won't roll around until late November / early December of course.

And for many 2015 festival films winning distribution is the only thing worth campaigning for at this moment. If you're into LGBT cinema you should also check out the reviews of Desde Allá and Girls Lost. My favorite LGBT picture of the festival was Canada's own Closet Monster. More after the jump...

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