Joey Pollari has gone from playing Lyle in Love, Simon to one of the new central roles in American Horror Story: 13.
Pollari plays Ben DeSoto, a hospice worker who is drawn into the world of Constance Langdon in the latest season of Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology.
For an openly gay actor, it is a strikingly visible role in one of television’s biggest horror franchises.
A role in a queer-friendly TV universe
Pollari’s connection to queer screen history began with Love, Simon, the 2018 film about a closeted high-school student navigating love, friendship and coming out.
His new role is very different. American Horror Story is darker, stranger and much less interested in making its characters feel safe.
But the visibility matters. Pollari is now part of a long-running television universe that has repeatedly made room for queer characters, queer desire and performers who do not have to hide who they are.
Bringing Polari into the present
Pollari is also making music that reaches back into queer history.
His new song, “The Low Gives Weight,” was inspired by Polari, the coded language once used by gay men in Britain to communicate discreetly when homosexuality was criminalised.
Pollari discovered Polari during the pandemic and began exploring its history and vocabulary. He uses the language as part of a larger artistic interest in the movement from private identity to public expression.
That gives his current moment an extra layer. While audiences are meeting him as Ben DeSoto in a major horror franchise, Pollari is also bringing a hidden piece of gay history into new music.
From Lyle to Ben
Many viewers will recognise Pollari from Love, Simon. Now they are seeing him in a very different kind of story — one involving hospice care, supernatural danger and Constance Langdon.
It is a memorable new chapter for an openly gay actor who is exploring queer identity both on screen and through music.
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