Everything you need to know about the sexy, rising star of ‘Fire Island’ and ‘Legacies’
Zane Phillips’ star is on the rise. Whether he’s playing the charming bad guy in Fire Island—a modernized LGBT version of Pride and Prejudice—or stealing the scene (and viewers’ hearts) as a hunky demigod in the fantasy series, Legacies, it’s hard to take your eyes off the talented, Colorado-born actor. (Phillips also stands at 6-feet, 2-inches tall, which doesn’t hurt either!) But while his CV of movies and TV shows is impressive, Phillips is still relatively new to the big screen. So who is Zane Phillips?
Who is Zane Phillips?
Zane Phillips was born on November 25, 1993 in Denver, Colorado. But in middle school, he moved to Fredericksburg, Texas, a small, conservative town where Phillips experienced quite the culture shock. He started participating in community theater initially to make friends, but eventually Phillips came down with a case of the acting bug. Phillips has stated that acting gave him an outlet to be in touch with his emotions as a queer youth. “Being in a place like Texas, I had to really watch how much emotion I was showing. It’s really heavily masculine; the gender roles are really clearly and strictly defined,” the actor told Xtra. “Part of my socialization was really, in many ways, pushing my emotions down, and I found theater was a way for me to sort of rediscover them again.”
The Many Characters of Zane Phillips
Though he’s still early in his career, Phillips has had a few notable roles already. In Fire Island, Phillips plays Dex, who’s mapped onto Jane Austen’s George Wickham in Pride and Prejudice. Dex is an attractive, sex-positive (but morally wrong) sex worker, and the film has Phillips in multiple intimate scenes.
Meanwhile, in the fantasy television series, Legacies, Phillips plays Ben, a hunky demigod who is half of the queer love story between Ben and Jed. Jed is played by Ben Levin who, while not queer himself, made thoughtful efforts to build chemistry between the two characters. “I’d go to his place, and we would run the scenes together. I’d get to hang out with him, his dogs and his wife. He’d make dinner, and we’d just chill and get to know each other,” Phillips said speaking to Xtra. “That all really brought me to a place emotionally that I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to go to before in a romantic storyline, in that I really did get to understand where these characters’ feelings for each other got to come from in a much deeper way. I got to bring the admiration that I have for him in real life to the admiration that Ben has for Jed.”
More recently, Phillips has starred in the Netflix series Glamorous. The series follows Marco (portrayed by Miss Benny), a makeup enthusiast who is hired as an assistant to beauty mogul, Madolyn Addison (played by Kim Cattrall). Phillips plays Chad Addison, Madolyn’s “bro-y” gay son and director of sales at her beauty company. “Chad fulfills that classic teen movie villain; the quaffed hair and constant sneers,” Phillips said to Gay Times. And for fans who are thirsting for a tall drink of water, Phillips has no nude scenes in Glamorous, but he is shirtless a lot. As an added bonus, nearly all of Madolyn’s employees are queer, which figures into each of their respective character arcs.
Zane Phillips’ Personal Life
Is Zane Phillips Gay?
Phillips is openly gay. In an interview with Logo TV, Phillips talked about how when he was younger, he didn’t really have an “aha moment” about his sexuality. “In my town of 10,000 people, there were not out gay people around,” explained the actor. “Theoretically I guess they were in media, like I remember having seen Will & Grace as a kid…[but] I didn’t understand what it was.” In the same interview, he goes on to share that in ninth grade, while managing the school football team, he developed feelings for one of the players. “I remember that probably being the first guy that I could recognize like, ‘I don’t want to be like this guy…I just want to be around him.’”
Is Zane Phillips Single?
Phillips has been linked to actor Froy Gutierrez. Though not married (yet), the two actors went public with their relationship when they were spotted kissing at an NYC Pride event in June 2023. Phillips then made it Instagram official in August 2023.
