See ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ star Conrad Ricamora accept HRC Visibility Award

He’s had me smitten since his first scene as Oliver during the first season on ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder.

He’s Conrad Ricamora and he received the Visibility Award at the Human Rights Campaign gala in Cleveland, Ohio, over the weekend.

The 37-year-old plays the only openly gay Asian American character on prime time television, and is a proud gay man of color himself.

‘I will say that it’s a little ironic to be getting the Visibility Award because so much of growing up as a kid was spent trying to be invisible,’ he said in his acceptance speech. ‘It was rough, not only being gay, but having the colored skin that I have. I was terrified that someone would see me as gay and I was also terrified that I would see myself for what I naturally was.’

He added: ‘I was taught by my environment that there was something wrong with me. And years and years of shame build up, and they weigh you down, and they make you wanna hide.’

Ricamora said that he’s ‘happy to be playing Oliver because of the visibility the character not only provides for gay men but also for gay men of color and for HIV positive people.

Ricamora thanked other out actors who have helped to blaze a trail in Hollywood:

‘There are some actors though who have chosen to live their lives with integrity, personally and professionally. From George Takei to Sean Hayes, to Sir Ian McKellen to Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and countless, countless others.

‘Your honesty and your openness in your public lives allows kids like me from Niceville, Florida, to see you on screen or online or in print and feel like there’s a place for us in the world, even when we’re scared for our own safety in the communities that we’re living.’