Zachary Quinto looks back on ‘Heroes’, ‘So NoTORIous’, & his emotional journey as an out actor in Hollywood

Photo Credit: Peter Kramer/NBC

On NBC’s new medical drama Brilliant Minds, the doctor is out.

Zachary Quinto plays Dr. Oliver Wolf, a gay NYC-based neurologist who, along with a team of interns, uses some unorthodox methods to tend to patients dealing with peculiar matters of the mind.

The character is heavily inspired by the real-life Dr. Oliver Sacks, a revolutionary medical professional and author whose research thoroughly changed the way we understand and treat neurological disorders.

Sacks was also gay, though it’s not something the public knew until he addressed it in his autobiography, On The Move, which published just a few months before he passed in 2015. Set in the present day, Brilliant Minds is clearly taking some creative liberties with the late doctor’s life story, but it’s a decision that allows us to understand him as the queer trailblazer he always was—and one with a special significance to Quinto.

Now recognized as one of our most prominent out actors, the series marks Quinto’s return to NBC, the network that made him a household name with Heroes. Of course, he was still closeted (at least professionally) when the hit superhero saga premiered in 2006, so he sees the fact that he’s now playing “the first gay lead of a network medical drama” as an indication of positive evolution, both for himself and the industry at large.

But that’s not the only reason Quinto feels Brilliant Minds is a “full circle” moment for his career. In conversation with Queerty, the actor opens up about…

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