David Hyde Pierce

David Hyde Pierce is a four-time Emmy Award-winning actor best known for playing the fussy, lovesick Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier (NBC, 1993–2004), one of the most awarded and beloved sitcoms in TV history. He also won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for the comedic whodunit Curtains (Broadway, 2007). He confirmed he was gay in a 2007 interview when asked directly, noting matter-of-factly that he had been with producer Brian Hargrove for more than twenty years. Pierce and Hargrove married in California in 2008, shortly before Proposition 8 rescinded the right. Pierce has said he never hid who he was but also never felt the need for a public announcement — he was simply gay, and that was that. He has continued to work in theater, television, and voice acting and remains a beloved and quietly visible queer figure.