As non-binary representation grows, more people in the public eye are finding the confidence to share their gender identity with the world.
If you need a little refresher on non-binary gender identities, it can help to look at gender as a spectrum.
While some people fall on either side of it (as either male or female), others fall somewhere in between.
These people might describe themselves as non-binary or gender fluid, which means that they don’t necessarily identify with a certain gender or with gender at all.
Many non-binary people like to use they/them but others may stick with the pronouns they were assigned at birth or the ones they feel closest too on the spectrum.
When people like these non-binary celebs choose to live as their authentic selves in the public eye, it gives other queer (and especially non-binary) people the courage to share who they really are.
Emma Corrin
Emma Corrin, who is best known for their portrayal of Princess Diana in Netflix’s The Crown, came out as non-binary in 2021.
“I feel much more seen when I’m referred to as ‘they,” the actor told Vogue in 2022, “I’m working out all this complex gender and sexuality stuff,” they noted. “In my mind, gender just isn’t something that feels fixed and I don’t know if it ever will be; there might always be some fluidity there for me.”
Sam Smith
Sam Smith confirmed their identity to be non-binary via an Instagram post in 2019, when they wrote “after a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out.”
The singer first discussed their gender fluidity during a conversation on Jameela Jamil’s podcast, when Smith said “I’m not male or female, I think I flow somewhere in between. It’s all on the spectrum.”
Emma D’Arcy
Emma D’Arcy, who is best known for playing Rhaenyra Targaryen in HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, goes by the pronouns they/them.
“I’m a non-binary person. I’ve always found myself both pulled and repelled by masculine and feminine identity,” the actor told Entertainment Weekly in 2022.
D’Arcy also recently opened up The Independent about playing female roles, explaining “I really like playing women and I’m really good at it. My worst-case scenario is that suddenly people tell me what I can and can’t play. I have all the tools necessary to play women. I lived as one for a long time; people still think I am one. It’s like, ‘Let me do my job; I’m really good at it.”
Sara Ramirez
Since starting their career on Grey’s Anatomy, Sara Ramirez has played a number of interesting roles, including the polarising Chez Diaz in And Just Like That. Like their character in the show, Ramirez also identifies as non-binary.
“In me is the capacity to be girlish boy, boyish girl, boyish boy, girlish girl, all, neither, #nonbinary”,” the actor wrote on Instagram.
Jonathan Van Ness
Queer Eye’s beauty expert Jonathan Van Ness revealed their non-binary identity in an interview with Out Magazine in 2019.
The Queer Eye star told the magazine, “The older I get, the more I think that I’m non-binary—I’m gender nonconforming.”
“I didn’t think I was allowed to be non-conforming or genderqueer or non-binary—I was just always like ‘a gay man’ because that’s just the label I thought I had to be.”
When it comes to pronouns, Van Ness also said that he doesn’t have a preference, stating “I am literally ok with ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘they’”.
Nico Tortorella
You might recognise Nico Tortorella from their role in Younger, when they played the protagonist’s much younger love interest, Josh. Tortorella came out as non-binary in 2018 during a discussion with RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Trinity Taylor, when they admitted, “I just pretty recently have come to terms with the fact that maybe I am not fully cisgender.”
Tortorella is married to Bethany Meyers, who also identifies as non-binary.
Kehlani
While R&B singer Kehlani has long since been a publicly queer figure, the singer only recently discussed their preferred pronouns. After changing their pronouns on social media to she/they, Kehlani told Byrdie, “I don’t mind when people say ‘she’ at all, but something feels really affirming when people say ‘they’.”
Lachlan Watson
Known for playing the part of Susie Putnam in the Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, Lachlan Watson first came out as trans before realising they were non-binary.
“I realized in [beginning to transition], the problem wasn’t that I wasn’t male; the problem was just that I was female,” they told MTV.
“I didn’t want the world to look at my body and inherently deem me female and inherently decide just by looking at me what I can or cannot do, how I’m supposed to sound, what I’m supposed to say, what my career is going to look like, how I’m supposed to act, my mannerisms. Everything could have been deemed by taking one look at my body because society assumes that’s what we’re bred and born to do…Seeing myself as female every time I look in the mirror is painful in a way I will never be able to describe.”
Ruby Rose
Although Ruby Rose doesn’t publicly identify as non-binary, she hasn’t shied away from talking about their journey with gender.
“For a long time, I thought there was something a bit wrong with me, or that I wasn’t the gender I was meant to be,” the Australian actor told The Guardian in 2021, “It took years, but eventually, I came to a place where I went: ‘OK, I think I’m just very androgynous and very in tune with the masculine energy.”
Amandla Stenbnerg
You might recognise Amandla Stenbnerg for their role as Rue in The Hunger Games but the actor has also recently made a name for themselves for roles in films such as The Hate U Give. The actor revealed they use the pronouns she/they on Tumblr back in 2016, explaining “they/them makes me feel comfortable.”
Dua Saleh
Sex Education fans will know Dua Saleh for their portrayal Cal, a non-binary character in the show. Saleh has a little in common with their Sex Education character as they identify as non-binary as well.
“Hey I know I’m already out and I love the pronouns that I use they/them/theirs & he/him/his but I’ve also been referring to myself with the neopronouns xe/xyr/xim #NationalComingOutDay,” Saleh wrote on Twitter in August 2020.
Bella Ramsey
Bella Ramsey revealed she identifies as non-binary and uses any pronouns in an interview to The New York Times in January.
In an interview with GQ, Ramsey opened up about playing female characters when she explained, “In Catherine Called Birdy, I was in dresses. Young Elizabeth, I was in a corset. And I felt super powerful in that,” Ramsey told the publication.
