PHOTOS: 25 childhood heartthrobs from Disney Channel who sparked our gay awakenings

How did you know you were gay? Maybe it was walking through the underwear aisle and seeing the models on the packaging. Maybe it was your first crush on a boy in school. Or maybe it was seeing a heartthrob on TV — on, say, the Disney Channel — and thinking, “Yep! That confirms it.”

Disney’s track record with gay representation is… questionable, to say the least. It’s taken the company a painfully long time to embrace queerness in its media, with the first character on Disney Channel to say the words “I’m gay” being as recent as 2019 on the prematurely canceled Andi Mack.

Then there’s the impossibly high number of “first openly gay character”s in Disney movies, most recently and explicitly the teenage Ethan Cade in Strange World, whose story revolves around his crush on another boy.

But even with Disney taking its sweet time making queer characters, they couldn’t help us little gay boys from crushing on their casts. From Disney Channel Original Movies (aka DCOMs) like High School Musical and Camp Rock to sitcoms like Wizards of Waverly Place and Good Luck Charlie, the Disney Channel had no shortage of material to inspire us to discover our true selves.

Now, take a trip down memory lane with these Disney Channel actors who did more for the gay community than they’ll ever know…

Zac Efron

Nowadays, he’s beefing up for his upcoming role in wrestling flick The Iron Claw, but Efron’s big break came in 2006 with the role of Troy Bolton in Disney Channel’s High School Musical trilogy.

Corbin Bleu

Bleu played Chad, another member of the East High basketball team in High School Musical, as well as a boxer-turned-jump-roper in Jump In!

David Henrie

Wizards of Waverly Place is best known for launching Selena Gomez’s career, but her co-stars made quite an impact too. Henrie played Justin, the eldest brother of the Russo family.

Gregg Sulkin

Meanwhile, Sulkin played Mason, Gomez’s werewolf boyfriend. The British actor also starred in the Arthurian DCOM Avalon High.

Dan Benson

Wizards also gave us the only Disney Channel man to launch an OnlyFans: Benson, who played lovable goofball Zeke. Benson is straight, but he told E! News that the majority of his subscribers are gay men. “I don’t know what it is about me, in particular, but I don’t question it,” he said.

David DeLuise

Another member of the Wizards cast, DeLuise played Jerry, the dad of the Russo family. He made headlines in 2018 when his nudes were leaked online. Now, he hosts a Wizards retrospective podcast with co-star Jennifer Stone.

Tyler James Williams

Williams made a resurgence in 2021 with a leading role on sitcom Abbott Elementary, but back in 2012, he also starred as an aspiring rapper in the DCOM Let It Shine.

Adam DiMarco

Before he was the poster boy for “nice guys” in the second season of The White Lotus, DiMarco got his start in the Disney Channel movies Radio Rebel and Zapped.

Ross Lynch

Lynch rose to fame on Disney’s Austin and Ally as a hopeful teenage rockstar. Now, he’s known for his shirtless shows as frontman of The Driver Era, which have inspired more than a fair share of thirst tweets.

Garrett Clayton

Clayton co-starred with Lynch in Teen Beach Movie, and is one of the few Disney stars to be out and proud after moving on from the brand. In 2016, he starred as an up-and-coming gay porn star in the erotic thriller King Cobra.

Jordan Fisher

Fisher was another star of Teen Beach Movie, and he also held a recurring role on Liv & Maddie. He’s since made a name for himself on Broadway and even won a season of Dancing with the Stars.

Joe Jonas

Joe Jonas and his brothers are still such big stars, it’s easy to forget they first rose to fame on Disney Channel in the Camp Rock movies and in their own series Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream and Jonas. They’re still making music as The Jonas Brothers and showing off their bulges on Saturday Night Live.

Nick Jonas

Nick’s career isn’t too different from his brothers’, but he does have the distinction of sporting the best legs in the trio.

Kevin Jonas

Kevin may not have the clout of his brothers Nick and Joe, but he still inspired quite a few crushes in his Disney days.

Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse

The Sprouse twins ruled Disney Channel in the 2000s, leading two series (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Suite Life on Deck) and a spin-off movie (The Suite Life Movie). Both are still actors, with Cole best known for his role on the so-bad-it’s-good mess that is Riverdale.

Sterling Knight

Knight played the narcissistic Chad Dylan Cooper on Sonny With A Chance opposite Demi Lovato.

Eric Allan Kramer

Kramer played dad Bob Duncan on Good Luck Charlie. Are exterminators in real life that buff, too?

Shane Harper

Harper was also on Good Luck Charlie as Duncan, the on-again, off-again boyfriend of Bridgit Mendler’s Teddy.

Jason Dolley

Dolley rounds out the cast of guys on Good Luck Charlie, where he played eldest Duncan sibling PJ. Dolley’s time with Disney was prolific: he also had main roles in Cory In The House, Minutemen, Read It and Weep, and Hatching Pete.

Booboo Stewart

Stewart played Jay, the son of Disney villain Jafar, in the Descendants film series.

Blake Michael

On Disney, Michael starred in Lemonade Mouth and Dog with a Blog. Now, though, he’s a marketing executive and a business analyst.

Spencer Boldman

Boldman played a superpowered dumb jock as Chase on Lab Rats. More recently, he played exotic dancer Lance McCrae on Hulu’s Welcome to Chippendales.

Billy Unger

Unger was also on Lab Rats, playing Boldman’s younger brother Chase, another teen superhero with superintelligence. 

Jason Priestley

Priestley is best known for starring as Brandon Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210, but his first main TV role was on Disney Channel as a teenage guardian angel in the short-lived drama Teen Angel. Now, he’s a full-blown DILF.