Culture

Arrested Development star comes out as bisexual

May 16 2017
Written by Josh Jackman

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 02: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) (L-R) Jeffrey Tambor, Portia De Rossi, Mitchell Hurwitz, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, David Cross, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat attend The 2011 New Yorker Festival: “Arrested Development” Panel at Acura at SIR Stage37 on October 2, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The New Yorker)

One of the biggest stars of Arrested Development has come out as bisexual.

Alia Shawkat, who plays Maeby Fünke on the hit Netflix show, opened up about her sexuality to Out Magazine.

The 28-year-old actor also revealed that she will play one-half of a lesbian couple in Duck Butter, a film she wrote which is coming out later this year.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Shawkat, who can be currently seen in noir sitcom Search Party as the popular programme’s main character, said she was “a tomboy growing up”.

“I remember my mum asking me when I was 10: ‘Are you attracted to boys or girls?’ I said: ‘I don’t know.’

“Now I consider myself bisexual, and I think balancing my male and female energies has been a big part of me growing as an actor.”

Shawkat also pledged to be at the forefront of LGBT activism in future.

“I used to be less outspoken.

“But as a woman, an Arab-American, and a member of the LGBTQ community, I have to use whatever voice I have.

“There’s no more delicacy in being quiet.”

Speaking about Duck Butter, she explained: “I love that it was written for a man and a woman, but we couldn’t find the right guy, so now it happens to star two women [as lovers].”

She added that co-star Portia de Rossi helped her on her journey, but that most of her influences in terms of shaping her sexual identity were “from growing up in Los Angeles and being exposed to lots of gay artists.”

(Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Netflix)

Another TV star to make headlines recently is Jim Parsons, who married his partner of 14 years, Todd Spiewak, on Saturday night.

Parsons, the highest-paid gay actor in the world at an estimated $1 million per episode, was wed at the Rainbow Room, a glamorous New York landmark in the Rockefeller Plaza.

And yesterday, he posted pictures from the wedding on Instagram – and boy, were they the cutest thing ever.