Welsh actor and singer Luke Evans was BOTD in 1979. Born in Pontypool, he was raised a Jehovah’s Witness, leaving the church at 16 and moving to Cardiff to study singing. After studying at the London Studio Centre, he performed in West End productions of musicals Rent, Miss Saigon and Taboo (about the life of queer performance artist Leigh Bowery). In 2002, he came out as gay in an interview with The Advocate. Relocating to Hollywood, he appeared in big budget action films Clash of the Titans, Immortals, Fast & Furious 6 and The Three Musketeers, and stopped commenting on his sexuality, stating that “an air of mystery” was more important for his career. He continued playing heterosexual alpha-males throughout the 2010s, including The Hobbit trilogy, Dracula Untold, Beauty and the Beast and High-Rise. By 2019, he was happily Instagramming his relationship with Argentinian designer Rafael Olarra via an astonishing number of shirtless selfies (sadly deleted after they broke up). In 2020, he won Attitude magazine’s Man of the Year award, and gave an interview rejecting claims that he’d hidden his sexuality to advance his career. He finally played an openly gay character in the 2021 TV series Nine Perfect Strangers, followed by Our Son, a maudlin drama about a gay couple in a custody battle, co-starring Billy Porter. He has released two pop albums, and a 2024 memoir, Boy From the Valleys. He is currently in a relationship with Spanish graphic designer Fran Tomas, with whom he has resumed his regime of shirtless Instagram selfies.