Jameela Jamil

Jameela Jamil is a queer British actress, radio presenter, and activist who publicly came out as queer on Twitter on February 5, 2020. The announcement came amid criticism of her casting as a judge on the ballroom competition series Legendary, with critics questioning whether a straight woman should preside over a culture born in Black and Latino queer communities; Jamil responded by explaining that she had been private about her identity out of fear, particularly as a South Asian woman for whom queerness is not easily accepted within her community. She has since spoken candidly about the process of accepting her own queerness and the specific difficulty of coming out as a public figure. Best known internationally for playing the aristocratic, name-dropping Tahani Al-Jamil in The Good Place (2016), Jamil is also known for her advocacy around body image, diet culture, and mental health through her "I Weigh" campaign. Her combination of LGBTQ+ visibility, feminist activism, and comedic talent has made her one of the more prominent queer British voices in Hollywood.