Celebrity Traitors’ Sebastian Croft outed as gay at school by boy he was secretly seeing
Sebastian Croft in Netflix show Heartstopper (Netflix)
Sebastian Croft has said he was outed as gay at boarding school by a boy he was secretly seeing, describing the period as “really lonely”.
Speaking to The i Paper, the 24-year-old actor and singer said it happened at a private boarding school in Oxfordshire, and that being outed ultimately led him to quit education at 16.
Celebrity Traitors star Croft said: “I had a really difficult few years.” He added that he does not blame the other boy involved, “because he was obviously just also trying to navigate the fact that he was getting chipped for being gay”.
The queer activist continued: “But it was a really lonely and difficult time in my life.”
Sebastian Croft’s difficult time at school
Croft explained that his life at school was completely different to his life as a blossoming actor.
“I would leave school and be an actor and be doing the thing I loved the most, and be with other like-minded people, and feel so liberated in myself, and then I go back to school and be bullied and ostracised,” he said.
He wouldn’t know at the time, but his situation would mirror that of his character’s in Heartstopper.
In the Netflix series, he played Ben, who has a secret relationship with Joe Locke’s Charlie.
And it was during his time on the YA show that he came out publicly. Croft said: “I got to go back and redo what would have been my sixth form, but with the most supportive group of people, doing the thing I loved in a show that celebrates that.”
Where viewers know Sebastian Croft from
Croft is best known for Heartstopper, but has been acting from a young age. His television debut came in Game of Thrones, on which he played Ned Stark, though he had been acting on stage before that.
He found himself the subject of criticism from the LGBTQ+ community when he was a voice actor on the video game Hogwarts Legacy. Croft apologised for the “hurt” caused by joining a project linked to JK Rowling. He said: “I know far more now than I did three years ago and hope to learn far more in the next three. I’m really sorry to anyone hurt by this announcement. There is no LGB without the T.”
Croft is also the co-creator of “Queer Was Always Here” alongside fellow actor Connor Jessup. The community is “dedicated to queer lives, queer art and queer history”.
He’s also a singer, under the name Bash Croft, and recently released his latest single, “Good Light”.
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