Actor J. August Richards has come out
gay, saying that he could not give an honest portrayal of a gay man
on NBC's Council of Dads without coming out.
The 46-year-old Richards is best known
for playing vampire hunter Charles Gunn on the WB's Angel and
Mike Peterson on ABC's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In
Council of Dads,
Richards plays Dr. Oliver Post, a gay man who is raising a daughter
with his husband. Oliver is one of three dads picked by a dying
father to help raise his son in his absence. The drama is based on a
book by the same name by Bruce Feiler.
Richards
shared a
clip on social media of himself speaking with actress Sarah Wayne
Callies (The Walking Dead).
“I knew that I
could not portray this gay man honestly without letting you know that
I was a gay man myself,” Richards said. “I've never done that
with the people that I worked with. I knew how important it is to
other people out there like me, who would need to see that role
model.”
Callies described
Richard's character as groundbreaking for network television.
“One of the
things that I find is so fascinating about Oliver is that we have
never had anybody like him on network television,” she said. “He's
a black, gay professional married to another man who is also a black
gay professional. This has never happened before on television.”
“With a
daughter,” Richards interjected.
Richards added that
the role required him “to show up fully in a way that I don't
always when I'm working.”
In another post,
Richards thanked fans for their support.
“Yesterday was
one of the best days of my life,” he wrote. “'Thank you' feel
like cheap words to describe the depths of the gratitude I feel for
your support and the crushing avalanche of LOVE I felt aimed at me
yesterday... For now, it will have to do. #PRIDE #LGBTQ #BlackLGBTQ
#ComingOut.”
Another
LGBT character on Council of Dads
is JJ Perry (played by Blue Chapman), a 7-year-old transgender boy.