Jake Rory: The Shropshire Lad plays gay-vague on EastEnders, falls in love with Mercutio, gets naked in a third of his on-screen roles.

 

The media calls Jake Rory  a Shropshire Lad, reflecting the book of poetry by A.E. Housman, who was terrified of acknowledging his love for men:

Look not in my eyes, for fear
  They mirror true the sight I see,
And there you find your face too clear
  And love it and be lost like me.

He grew up in Maesbury, Shropshire, near the Welsh border; his Mum ran the Talbot Pub across the border in Welshpool.  After secondary school at The Hammond, he attended ArtsEd, a "world-renowned" drama school in London:

There he appeared in:

The Cherry Orchard (who hasn't?)

 Orpheus Descending, by Tennessee Williams.  Bi actor Marlon Brando starred in the movie version.

Macbeth

And The Voysey Inheritance: Desire and social obligation, by the heavily closeted Harley Granville-Barker.

He also had a minor role in the short Renters (2024): a lesbian couple in Auckland are looking for a flat.  One seems too good to be true, until... 

Jake graduated with a B.A. in Acting in 2024, and was immediately cast in a modernized version of Oedipus on the West End (October 2024-January 2025).  Mark Strong played Oedipus. Jake was in the ensemble, and understudied the roles of Eteocles, Polyneices, and Lichas (Oedipus' son, brother, and assistant).

In 2025, Jake and Connor Monroe wrote and performed in Mercutio,  a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, at the Camden Fringe Festival.  A review mentions an "unexpected romantic subtext," but of course the gay-subtext romance betwween Mercutio and Romeo is well known.  

Connor Monroe is apparently gay.  A woman posts on "Love Is All That Matters" about her "gay brother Connor Monroe," and someone by that name mentions having a husband. 

Jake also began television work in 2025.  In Episode 1.8 of The Agency, Martian (Michael Fassbinder), a CIA agent working undercover, walks in on his daughter  Poppy and her boyfriend Daniel (Jake), both naked.  Danny Boy strikes a pose, planning to fight the "intruder"; but upon realizing that it's just Dad, he settles for covering up.

Martian is nonchalant about his daughter getting busy.  Later he praises her for growing into a "cool person."

More after the break

Rooster, Episode 1.8: Are Rooster and Tommy boyfriends or father-son? Is Eli having a gay romance with a girl? With Jonah's butt and Noah's dick

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OMG, some jaw-dropping queer codes on "Chad Powers." Russ and Danny are in love! With Zahn butt, Clayne cock, and random Tennessee dudes

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Ibrahim Eloouhabi: The "I Killed a Kid" kid tells us his pronouns, models some Liberace outfits. With nude Moroccan dudes

 

I felt like I should profile one of the actors from In the Hand of Dante, to get something of value from it (other than picking up my bilingual edition of The Inferno again).  So  I checked the actors who played teenage Dante, the murdered Bartender, the guy who killed his father,  the boy with a big knife (who was killed), and Mephistopheles, but none of them were suitable.  How about the boy who tells his uncle, "I just killed a kid"?  It's not clear in the movie (nothing is), but he grows up to be focus character Nick (Oscar Isaacs, right).

Ibrahim Elouahabi gives his pronouns (he/his), and speaks Arabic.  That's enough for a profile. 

Not just Arabic.  He also speaks Turkish and Darija (Moroccan Arabic) and he is studying French. 

Left: Moroccan guy.

Darija is not intelligible with Modern Standard Arabic: it has reduced the number of vowels, adapted its grammar to Tamazight (Berber), and borrowed much of its vocabulary from French: forshita (fork), tabla (table), boulis (police).

Ibrahim's family is from Morocco, but he was born "on the vibrant streets of Brooklyn," according to his hyperbolic IMDB bio.  He began his career in 2019, as a fashion model for Zara, Nike, and Macy's.  Soon he was performing in commercials for Brawny paper towels, Magic Spoon (upscale cereal), and Marriot Vacation Club.

His on-screen performances begin with two shorts, The Prescription (2020), no description available, and Roque (2022), about Salvadorean poet Roque Dalton.  Ibrahim plays Roque as a boy, and Jaden McKnew (left) as an adult.

Next came a small role in Audrey's Children (2024), a biopic of Dr. Audrey Evans, who developed "revolutionary treatments" for sick children.

In Ebenezer the Traveler (2024), the ghosts of Scrooge, his sister, Jacob Marley, and a grown-up Tiny Tim are assigned to help an aspiring singer in modern-day Oklahoma.  I think Ibrahim plays her son.

More after the break