Hacks is back, and if the two new episodes that dropped this week on Max are any indication, the comedy about comedians hasn’t lost any of its luster three season in—in fact, its sharper (and gayer!) than ever.
Last season, after Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) comeback special became a huge hit, she fired her writer and confidante Ava (Hannah Einbinder), pushing the young comic to make a name for herself. We pick things up a year later, with both women enjoying successes of their own, but the two haven’t spoken at all since parting ways.
It’s not until the Just For Laughs comedy festival that Ava awkwardly bumps into Deborah again, quickly realizing she’s been replace by not one but two new writers, Miria and Logan.
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If these two look familiar, they should! Both are new to Hacks this season, but you’ll likely recognize Dylan Gelula as Miria, best known for her supporting role as Xanthippe in Netflix‘s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
As for Logan, he’s played by Jordan Gavaris, the out actor we’re always happy to see turn up on our screens.
The Ontario-born Gavaris first popped on most folks’ radars with the celebrated BBC America sci-fi series, Orphan Black, where he played the feisty Felix, foster brother to Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany)—and her many, many clone sisters.
Even though Orphan Black was a hit and Gavaris’ fan-favorite character was openly queer, the actor himself didn’t come out until after the show wrapped up its final season. So, why did he wait so long?
“Nobody ever asks me,” he told Vulture in October 2017. “I’ve never been asked. Like, the whole course of the series.”
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And while Gavaris admitted there was some fear over losing work—or flat-out not being considered for “hetero” roles—he was initially reticent to speak publicly about his sexuality because he believes that it simply shouldn’t matter.
“I hope that one day, the world gets to a place where you don’t need to politicize your sexuality,” the actor shared back in 2017. “And that no one’s afraid, maybe, to come out. But also that no one’s really hyper-obsessed with knowing whether or not someone’s gay. That would be an amazing world to live in, where people don’t feel the need to protect themselves and other people don’t feel the need to launch an inquisition.”
And it was that same interview that Gavaris first opened up about his partner, fellow actor Devon Graye (Dexter, Nope), who he met in 2013 between filming the first and second season of Orphan Black. Series star Tatiana Maslany had previously worked with Graye on another project and the two remained friends, so after Gavaris caught a glimpse of him on Twitter, he resorted to some light social media “stalking” before the two connected online.
From there, the pair squeezed in two quick but impactful coffee dates in LA before Gavaris had to fly back to set to shoot season two in Toronto, putting miles and miles between them. But even the distance couldn’t keep them apart.
“We talked every day, and he sent me a gift on my birthday a week later, and then I think we were exclusive a week from when we met,” Gavaris told Vulture. “We did a lot of it long distance. Skype saved us. Then I moved to LA as soon as the second season of the show wrapped and I got an apartment. This September will be four year.”
That was in 2017. Within the year, the two were married, and remain happily together to this day, and there’s plenty of adorable “evidence” on Instagram to prove it:
Since getting married, Gavaris’ first major role was the Canadian dramedy The Lake, where the actor plays a young father and recently divorced gay man who returns to the lakeside town he spent much of his childhood in, attempt to reconnect with the teen daughter (Madison Shamoun) he had given up for adoption years before.
For Gavaris, the project was so exciting precisely because it was so different from so many other queer roles he had seen or read for since coming out:
“You have this character that normally exists in the periphery of many other stories,” he told Complex in 2022. “But in this universe, he’s the lens. He’s the perspective. He’s our angle for the narrative. He’s right in the crosshairs story. That was very exciting to me because I just hadn’t seen a lot of that before.”
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Now, Gavaris has the opportunity to step into a new, unique role in one of the most acclaimed comedies currently airing on television. We have yet to learn whether or not his Hacks character, Logan, is queer, but we’re eager to see where his story goes regardless (likely some form of confrontation with Ava now that *spoiler* she’s back on team Deborah).
And, in the meantime, catch us swooning of Gavaris and Graye on Instagram. Dare we say “couple goals”?
The first two episodes of Hacks season three are now streaming on Max, with new episodes dropping every Thursday this month. The Lake seasons one and two are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and Orphan Black is available via AMC+.
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