Nyle DiMarco and Chella Mann: Deaf queer actors with sitcoms, superheroes, butts, and baskets. Plus Ryan's butt and Mustafa's dick

Having dated (or hooked up with) several guys who were disabled or had visual differences, I am deeply invested in promoting their on-screen representation and aesthetic beauty.  I've done profiles of Gavin McHugh (cerebral palsy), Noah Matthews Matofsky (Down Syndrome), Knox Gibson (amputee), Lenny Rush (dwarfism), and James Stockdale (multiple), but only one deaf person, Mustafa Alabbsi.

So I searched for another deaf actor with a physique, preferable queer, and found Nyle DiMarco.  Born in 1989, Nyle graduated from Gallaudet University in 2013, and sprang into the public eye in 2015 on America's Next Top Model.  He was the second man and the first deaf person to win the season.  Soon he was represented by the prestigious Wilhelmina Models, he had a book contract, and he was performing on Dancing with the Stars. 

"Nyle takes his shirt off so you'll pay attention to deaf rights." That may have backfired, buddy -- we're too distracted by your pecs.

He has seven acting credits listed on the IMDB:

Switched at Birth (2011-17), a teen drama about two girls who were literally switched at birth. Daphne is deaf, and there are several other gay characters, such as best friend Emmett (Sean Berdy), and the other girl's boyfriend Garrett (Nyle).

On a 2016 episode of Difficult People, about a gay man/Jewish woman friendship (hey, that's Will and Grace), Billy (Billy Eichner) goes on a date with Doug (Nyle) and his ASL interpreter, who tries to sabotage the relationship.

I always thought that Station 19 was post-apocalyptic, but it's about firefighters. In a 2019 episode, "openly" gay Travis ( Jay Hayden) is surprised to discover that the firefighter who saved the day (Nyle) is deaf.  They kiss, but the guy never appears again. 

This Close (2018-19) is about two best friends, a straight woman and a gay man (hey, that's Will and Grace again).  They are both deaf, as are many of their friends and associates, such as Ben (Nyle), who dates the woman in four episodes.  

But he goes back to playing a gay character on a 2022 episode of the new Queer as Folk, when gay couple Marvin (Eric Graise) and Ali (Sachin Bhatt, right) throw a party for disabled queer people. He doesn't appear in the plot synopsis, but AZ Men has a video of him topping Ryan O'Connell (star of Special, who has cerebral palsy). 

Nyle is also the producer/director of Deaf President Now! (2025), about the students at Gallaudet University struggling to get a deaf president in 1988: "a pivotal moment in deaf rights and representation." 

More after the break

Mustafa Alabbsi: Syrian-Canadian deaf advocate, zombie, hairdresser, Faust, and clown. Is he gay? Can we see his dick? And who is his cute bff?

 

You may recall Mustafa Alabbsi from the tv series Black Summer (2019).  He plays Ryan, a deaf teenage who survives the first few days of a zombie apocalypse and has a brief but obvious gay-subtext buddy-bond with Lance (Kelsey Flower).  It may even have been intentional: Kelsey Flower is "gay af" in real life.  

 Mustafa was born in Madaya, Syria, about 40 km from Damascus, in 2000.  When he was 12 years old, he and his family fled the war, and lived as refugees in Jordan.  He was not able to attend school, so he never learned to read and write Arabic (or English).  When he was 17, the family received asylum in Regina, Saskatchewan.  He tried to make up for the gaps in his education by enrolling in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program at Thom Collegiate. 

There are about 100,000 Canadians of Syrian ancestry.  30% arrived as refugees after 2015.  About 2/3rds are Christian, primarily Roman Catholic.  Many are LGBTQ, sponsored by the Toronto-based Rainbow Road.  Prominent queer Syrian-Canadians include Danny Ramadan, author of The Clothesline Swing (A gay Syrian love story) and The Foghorn Echoes (queer love in war-torn Syria); and Bassel Mcleash, who had been in Canada for only a month when he was invited to walk beside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the 2016 Toronto Pride Parade.

Back to Mustafa: He learned to read and write English and to sign with American Sign Language, and to pursue his  lifelong dream of becoming an actor, joined Regina's deaf theatrical community, The Deaf Crows Collective.  He has appeared in: 

Apple Time (2017) 

The Madcap Misadventures of Mustafa (2022), playing himself as a deaf Syrian clown who arrives in Canada with only a suitcase.

Firebird (2023)

Deaf Settlers (2024-25), about the Indigenous people's response to the first deaf European settlers in Canada.

100 Years of Darkness (2024), about brutal experimentation conducted on deaf people in the 19th century.

The Light of the Deep (2025): "A deaf-led theatrical discovery into darkness and discovery."

The last two were performed at the Inside Out Theatre, written by deaf queer artist Landon Krentz. In March 2025, got a grant to develop his short play, The Confidence of a Deaf Queer Male, into a "full 90-minute theatrical experience."  He explains: "This isn’t just about being visible. It’s about BELONGING. It’s about walking into rooms we weren’t invited into and refusing to shrink."

So, Mustafa is associated with the queer deaf community.  

And in his day job, he's a hairdresser, offering "Mane by Mustafa"

"Working out with Lawson.  Very help.  Hard."

I'll bet Lawson is, too.

I'm going with: gay in real life.

N*de photos after the break.  Caution: Explicit.

Valin Shinyei: Billy Elliot's gay friend, a gay monster hunter, a straight ballet dancer, and a Lego boy who cooks. With Valin bulge and Vladimir cock

Billy Elliot (2000) encourages homophobic parents to relax: boys who like dance are absolutely, positively, 100% not-gay, although they might have gay friends.  I heard that the musical gave the gay character a less "endless angst and misery" plot arc, as demonstrated by a production by the Vancouver Arts Club in 2016, with Valin Shinyei as Billy's gay friend.  

Interesting name, even more interesting underwear photo, doubtless gay in real life, and there's something in his bio about the Paralympics -- I always like to promote disabled representation.  He's definitely getting a profile.  

Vallin Shinyei (the name is Sanskrit and Japanese) was born in Vancouver in 2001 to an artist dad, a choreographer mom, and an actress sister.  He was home schooled through eighth grade while studying dance at the Peggy Pearl School.  Then he enrolled at the Thomas Haney Secondary School, graduating in 2019.

Valin began doing commercials and modeling in 2006, and moved into television in 2009, playing a Little Boy in an episode of Smallville and one of the kids being nanny-ified by Mrs. Miracle. 

Plus he began dancing nightly s at the Pacific Exhibition ("British Columbia's choice for diverse events and experiences.". 

At the 2010 Paralympic Games, Valin passed the torch to the Russians at the closing ceremony.

He also hosted the ceremony commemorating Rick Hansen's 25th Anniversary Tour:  In 1987, Rick completed his Man in Motion Tour, traveling around the world in a wheelchair to raise awareness spinal cord injuries. In 1987, he repeated the tour, traveling across Canada.

Valin does not personally have a disability.  I don't know what his connection to the disabled community is.

He broke into film with A Christmas Miracle (2012), about eight strangers stranded  in an abandoned church, who...well you can figure it out.  Star Dan Payne played a gay guy (and showed off his butt) in Mulligans (2008).  Valin won a Young Artists Award for his role as a boy lost in the woods.

Continuing the Christmas theme, Valin starred in A Christmas Story 2 (2012), a straight-to-video sequel to the 1983 movie, with the 16 year old Ralphie (Braedon Lemasters) wanting a car and the Girl of His Dreams rather than a rifle. Valin plays his piggish younger brother.  It got horrible reviews, but three years later (2015), Valin was playing Ralphie in A Christmas Story at the Vancouver Arts Club.

In 2016, he began as the understudy for Billy (Nolan Fahey) in the musical Billy Elliot.  Then he took over as Billy's gay friend Michael, who has a crush on him.  Billy isn't into guys, but he does agree to a drag number, "Expressing Yourself," and he kisses Michael on the cheek. That's better than endless angst and misery, I guess.

More after the break

The Brothers Ferox: A bodybuilder, a swimmer, and the Joker's nemesis walk into a gladiator arena. With bonus nude short guys

  

In Episode 1.1 of Spartacus: House of Ashur, a dwarf gladiator team called Brothers Ferox (shouldn't that be Frates Ferox?)  fight Ashur's champion Logus (Joe Davidson).  He yells "My cock stands larger threats!",  thinking that they'll be easy to defeat, but they best him, and further humiliate the House by urinating on his corpse.

We see them briefly in Episode 1.2.  The gladiator Achillea is assigned to fight them, but after she fends off an attempted rape by Creticus (Stephen Madsen) -- and slices off his private parts -- she has to fight Korris first, and is killed in the arena.  

The brothers appear in every future episode; hopefully we will see more of their fighting, and some of their lives outside of the arena. 

I'll profile each of the actors separately. From left to right, Daniel Bos as Balbus, Leigh Gill as Satyrus, and Mikey Thompson as Musicus. 

Daniel Bos, from Perth, Western Australia, has been competing in the Paralympics since he was 12 years old. In 2025 he beat two Oceanic records at the World Para-Powerlifting Championship in Egypt.

He is also a competitive bodybuilder.

Spartacus: House of Ashur is Daniel's first acting gig, but he calls it "the best thing I've ever done," and is anxious for more.

The heavily inked Leigh Gill, sharing a hot tub with an equally inked buddy or boyfriend, has 27 acting credits listed on the IMDB.  He is best known as the hetero-horny actor Bobono in Game of Thrones (2018) and Gary Puddles, a clown traumatized by his gay-subtext friend's murder, in two Joker movies (2019, 2021).

.

Left: The buddy or boyfriend nude.  I forgot to record his name.  

More after the break

Noah Matthews Matofsky: Head Lost Boy, model, disability advocate, Oscar Wilde fan, boyfriend. With bonus n*de Matthews and Captain Hook's hook

  

Peter Pan & Wendy (2023) omits the most egregious heterosexualization of recent Peter Pan movies by skipping the usual Peter-Wendy romance, and by  making Captain Hook (Jude Law, below) gay.  Well, he's usually gay-coded, but his time around he mentions a childhood  boyfriend  -- Peter himself (Alexander Molony), who refused to leave Never-Never Land and grow up, while Hook choose an adult career as a pirate.

I got the same rhetoric when I was a kid: "When you grow up, you will drop your same-sex loves  to devote your life to what really matters, finding and winning the Girl of Your Dreams."  I turned 14, 15, 16, 17 and the joy I felt in masculine smiles never vanished, but my boyfriends began to treat me as a mere chum, someone to discuss girls with. They were Captain Hook leaving Neverland, but I remained, refusing to "grow up."    

Some of the other male actors were of interest, including Joshua Pickering (Wendy's brother John Darling), a cute member of the Short Guys Brigade.  And Noah Matthews,  who plays the gay-coded Slightly: the leader of the Lost Boys, the only one who remembers anything of his life before Neverland, and the most musical.

"But your son said the sleepover was 'clothing optional.'" 

 Sorry, that's another Noah.  Slightly was played by Noah Matthews Matofsky, the first actor with a visible disability to star in a Disney movie, a leap forward in disability representation.  Especially since the character Slightly is not disabled. Noah was cast because the casting director, and then director David Lowery, loved his audition (they also bonded over a comparison of the Lost Boys and Lord of the Flies).

This was the 16-year old's first on-screen acting job, and rather daunting -- he had to spend six months in Canada during the COVID pandemic, spend hours filming in the hot sun, and still do his schoolwork.  But he loved the challenge, and there were perks -- the Lost Boys shared an apartment with a pool on the roof, so after the shooting and schoolwork, they had pool parties.  Tell me more.  

And Michael Darling (the one with the teddy bear) was played by Jacobi Jupe, brother of Noah's crush Noah Jupe (left). It's not everyday that you get to hear all of the gossip about your crush from your roommate.

More after the break.  Caution: Explicit.

More Alfie Williams: In the pub, in the pool, on holiday. With gay friends, a disability advocate, some grown-up dicks, and Corey's backside

 

This is a collection of cute/cool photos of  Alfie Williams, star of the zombie apocalypse movies 28 Years Later (2025) and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026), and the upcoming thriller Banquet, with Corey Mylchreest.  Plus a few photos of some adult co-stars. 

1. Corey's butt.

2. Alfie looks contemplative on the green hills of home: Gateshead, just across the river from Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

3. Milking a cow (for fun, not for a part).  But it's not a real cow, and I don't think that's milk coming out.

4. The Bone Temple features a post-Apocalyptic cult where everyone is named after and dresses like 2000s English media personality Jimmy Saville.  Here Alfie and his Dad are hanging out with his two favorite Jimmies.

Next to Alfie is Maura Bird (Jimmy Jones), a nonbinary, genderfluid actor who uses she/they pronouns.  

Next to them is Robert Rhodes (Jimmy Jimmy), who is gay in real life.

Alfie is always drawn to LGBTQ people and guys who have played gay characters.  I can't imagine why.

5.Robert Rhodes is also an advocate for people with visual differences.  When he was starring in House of the Dragon, he received some hostile and derogatory comments, and the fans who came to his defense "used very unpleasant language."  Call it a scar or a difference, not a deformity or disfigurement.

6. Sorry, I couldn't find any nude photos of Robert, so what about Sebastian Rhodes? 

More after the break

Lenny Rush: Doctor Who's buddy, the Artful Dodger's boyfriend. a gay-vague vampire. With a lot of acting awards and co-star d*cks

In the 2023-24 season of Doctor Who, Episodes 1.7 and 1.8, the time-and-space zapping Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his latest companion Ruby Sunday visit UNIT, the time-and-space anomaly-investigation agency, to solve two mysteries:

1. Why does an elderly woman pop up in various guises in all of their recent adventures?

2. Ruby's mother left her on a church doorstep on Christmas Day.  They want to go back in time to discover who she is, but the Doctor can't use his regular time-traveling power, for reasons, so they use one of UNIT's experimental devices.

Things go terribly wrong, of course, and they release Sutekh, the Great Beast, the Abomination, the Destroyer, the Bringer of Death, the One Who Waits...who actually looks rather like a giant dog.  He intends to destroy all life in the universe.  Well, it's better than yet another visit from the Dahh-leks.

UNIT is staffed primarily by the Doctor's retired companions, all ladies, but there are a few hunks wandering around: 

Tachia Newall (left) as Col. Chidozie, who gets sanded to death by the Giant Dog

Alexander Devrient as Col. Ibrahaim, whose muscles are praised by the Doctor (bisexual this season): "You've been working out!"

 Aneurin Barnard (butt in candlelight, left) as Roger ap Gwillam, who will become the most evil Prime Minister in the history of Britain.  

And a cute kid: Lenny Rush as12-year old super-genius Morris Gibbons, who runs the time-travel device, fights the Giant Dog, gets dusted and resurrected, and after the Dog's demise, invites everyone out to a pizza party.

Lenny was originally cast in Episode 1.1, as one of the sentient babies running an orbiting space nursery, but he was so great that they decided to cut his scene and cast him in this much bigger role.

As of this writing, Lenny is 16 years old and looks a bit younger, so I won't be searching for beefcake or n*de photos.  I'll post some of his co-stars instead.

But at  3'2" he's a perfect addition to the Short Guy Brigade, so I'm going to research the other usual questions of a profile:

1. Has he played any gay characters?

Lenny has 14 acting credits listed on the IMDB, beginning with 4 episodes of the animated Apple Tree House (2018-19) and 7 episodes of The Dumping Ground (2021-22), about children "dumped" in a foster home.

There were two lesbians in The Dumping Ground, but no gay boys.

Dodger (2022-23) featured the Victorian-era pickpocket Artful Dodger (Billy Jenkins, left) and his mentor Fagin (Christopher Eccleston) before their adventures in Dickens' Oliver Twist.  Lenny (right) played Morgan the Crossing Sweeper, the Dodger's gay-subtext boyfriend.

More after the break

"Best Foot Forward": Boy negotiates middle school with a prosthetic leg, a hung dad, a bodybuilder brother, a gay buddy, and no annoying girl-craziness

 

We just dumped Peacock in favor of Apple Plus, so now we can watch Best Foot Forward (2022), based on childhood experiences of  "Paralympian, comedian, author, disability advocate, and Halloween enthusiast" Joshua Sundquist.  

Focus character Josh has been home schooled since he lost his left leg at age nine, but he finally convinces his parents to allow him to start seventh grade in public school.  He faces the standard junior high problems of friends, math tests, soccer practice, movie night, and school dances.

Josh is played by Logan Marmino, fifteen years old in 2025 and thinking about college.  Maybe Johns Hopkins?

He's an accomplished athlete, competing in Paralympics track and high school basketball and baseball.  Plus surfing and skateboarding. 

When showrunner Joshua Sundquist invited him to audition for Best Foot Forward, he had no acting experience, not even a school play.  And he doesn't really seem interested in an acting career -- he hasn't appeared in anything since. Sports and disability activism keep him busy.

While Josh is experiencing the joys and hassles of junior high, Dad and Mom (Stephen Schneider, left, Joy Suprano) have B plots of their own, like when they tried to order two pizzas, and accidentally ordered twenty. "Sometimes older people can't see the order screen very well," the delivery guy explains, to Mom's consternation.

Stephen Schneider may be best known for a five-minute long n*de fight scene in The Righteous Gemstones, but he has 37 acting credits on the IMDB, including three tv series reviewed here: You're the Worst, Broad City. and Nobody Wants This.

Josh's younger brother Matt (Roger Dale Floyd) mostly tries to help, or feels left out when Josh gets all of the attention.

Roger Dale Floyd, 13 years old in 2025, has appeared in The Walking Dead, Doctor Sleep, Greenland, and Stranger Things.  He is a junior bodybuilder, interested in promoting fitness among teens and tweens. 

In Greenland (2020), Roger and his Mom and Dad (Gerard Butler, left) must flee cross-country to safety after a comet-Apocalypse.  Whoops, they forgot to bring his insulin. 

Josh makes two friends, Kyle (Peyton Jackson, left) and Gabriella (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss).

More after the break.  Yes, I'm getting to the review.

Gavin McHugh: The gay-vague kid from 9-1-1 is now a teenager, with male friends and risque comments. Bonus Tyler cock and costar butts

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.