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This profile is part of Queerty’s 2022 Out For Good series, recognizing public figures who’ve had the courage to come out and make a difference in the past year, in celebration of National Coming Out Day on October 11.
Name: Johnny Massaro, 30
Bio: Massaro is a prolific Brazilian actor and filmmaker who grew up in the public eye. He landed his first major role at the age of 13 in the telenovela Floribella, but his big breakthrough came a few years later when he joined the long-running teen soap Workout (“Malhação”). Since then, Massaro has kept busy with a steady mix of Brazilian film and television roles, and even directed a play and a handful of short films.
Over the past year, he’s received international acclaim thanks to his stirring performance in The First Fallen (“Os Primeiros Soldados”)—a historical drama about the early days of the AIDS crisis in Brazil—which has played at film festivals across the globe, introducing an even wider audience to this exciting young talent.
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Coming Out: Massaro’s work in The First Fallen inspired him to come out publicly as gay. In director Rodrigo de Oliveira’s film, the actor plays Suzano, a university biology student who becomes the first person to be diagnosed with AIDS in his hometown of Vitória. Though Suzano’s story is one of pain and grief, it also guides him toward a newfound sense of community, speaking to the film’s theme of queer resilience.
With that message in mind, Massaro made the decision to come out ahead of The First Fallen‘s premiere at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival last fall.
“I couldn’t talk about this film if I couldn’t speak publicly about my sexuality,” he told Brazil’s POPline at the time, adding that “it wouldn’t make sense” for him to play a gay character and promote the film while hiding his true self.
Massaro revealed he’s had plenty of support from his film’s cast and crew, as well as his friends and family. He shared that coming out was a “beautiful process” for him, and that having his parents at the premiere was a “very powerful” experience that they were all able to learn from.
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“It was necessary for me to have patience because, unfortunately, we live in a world that is still very prejudiced.”
Despite Brazil’s large queer population, the country has seen a rise in anti-LGBTQ violence under its right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro. By living out and proud in the face of adversity, Massaro’s story—both on-screen and off—is an inspiring one, in his country and across the globe.
Boyfriend Reveal: But it was a few weeks prior to The First Fallen‘s premiere that Massaro officially came out, revealing on Instagram that he’d been dating law professor and poet João Pedro Accioly since early 2021.
In his post, the actor shared two photos: The first was of a young Massaro and Accioly at a birthday party—looking totally ’90s—the second was of them in the present, showing off their swimwear. His caption read: “24 years of partnership; a lifetime to go.”
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Wait a minute, 24 years? How long have these two been dating?
Accioly cleared things up in his post from that same day. Apparently that old photo was from his cousin’s birthday party in 1997—the day he met Massaro for the first time. They’d stayed in touch over the years, but it wasn’t until early 2021 that they went on their first date during the last Saturday of Carnival.
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As Accioly tells it in his caption, the rest is history: “On Ash Wednesday, we drove to Bahia. The following Saturday, we were already introducing ourselves as boyfriends and, 8 months and many kilometers later, here we are.”
Ever the poet, Massaro’s partner summed up their lifelong connection beautifully: “There are encounters and connections that are so profound and immediate that they take time to understand.” Aww.
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Cam
Congratulations to him!
SDR94103
who?
MISTERJETT
Johnny Massaro!!! can’t you read???
Den
Your self absorption is awfully amusing! More people around the world know who he is (while he is still in the early stages of his career) than will ever know or care who you are.
Maybe (to be charitable) you are simply one of those folks who don’t understand there are thriving societies and cultures outside the US.
barkomatic
To date your childhood sweetheart is a dream. They are both super handsome and I’m super jealous!
bachy
Beautiful. My childhood sweetheart is still around and I do see him occasionally. But he’s married, with 2 kids.
storm45701
Gorgeous inside and out. His partner is a dream, too. Put me in the middle of that sandwich.
Kangol2
Congrats to him and I’m looking forward to seeing this film.