For Jess McLeod, authentic queer representation isn’t about creating perfect characters. It’s about creating honest ones.
After a breakout year that includes starring in Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, joining Season 2 of AMC’s The Audacity, appearing alongside Bob Odenkirk in Normal, and working to expand their acclaimed short film She’s Nonbinary into a feature, the actor, writer and filmmaker says they’re drawn to stories that embrace contradiction instead of certainty.
“I love that they’ve made this nonbinary character incredibly ethically dubious,” McLeod told Gayety of their role in the dark comedy series The Audacity. “I find that really fun because I feel like so often the representation of nonbinary people is that we’re the paragons of ethics.”
Created by Jonathan Glatzer, The Audacity takes aim at the oversized egos of Silicon Valley’s tech elite, following powerful executives whose personal lives begin to unravel as their influence over the future continues to grow. It stars Sarah Goldberg (Industry), Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover), Lucy Punch (Bad Teacher), and Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory).
McLeod said they’re especially excited to see a nonbinary character exist within that morally messy world rather than being portrayed as someone with all the answers.
“It’s cool to be playing a character that is nonbinary, but is also incredibly complicated in how they approach the choices they’re making,” they said.
That same embrace of nuance has shaped McLeod’s work behind the camera.
From Personal Story to Feature Film
Executive produced by Bob Odenkirk and Jane Schoenbrun, She’s Nonbinary is inspired by McLeod’s own lived experience. The short follows Max and their cisgender boyfriend, Jake, as their relationship begins to fracture following Max’s top surgery. McLeod wrote, directed and starred in the film, which premiered earlier this year before beginning its festival run.
It’s now in the works to be expanded into a feature version.
Looking back at the story months later, McLeod says their perspective has changed dramatically.
“I think I just have more perspective on my own shortcomings in that dynamic,” they said. “I think as I was editing the short, I was like, ‘Oh wow, I’m just as bad as he was.’”
Instead of simply extending the original premise, the feature takes the story in a new direction.
“Essentially it’s … a romantic comedy about these two people kind of trying to figure out how to define themselves outside of the relationship and then maybe also coming back together in a way,” McLeod said. “It’s a happy ending.”
Growing Stories
As McLeod revisited the story, they realized they were confronting assumptions they still carried about their own identity.
“I still think in a very binary way even though I’m nonbinary,” they said. “And so I’m trying to unlearn that.”
That realization has become one of the driving ideas behind the feature. McLeod hopes audiences, particularly queer people who are still navigating their own identities, feel welcomed rather than judged.
“I hope that the feature will be inviting to people who don’t have it all figured out yet because I certainly don’t,” they said. “The more honest I am about that, the more people are willing to be honest about their own insecurities.
“I think we’re all equally making mistakes, but trying.”
A Big Year for Queer Storytelling
McLeod’s breakout year has also included a memorable appearance in Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, the filmmaker’s campy queer slasher that premiered to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival. The blood-soaked horror satire stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson and reimagines a fictional slasher franchise through a queer lens, with McLeod joining a cast packed with LGBTQ+ favorites including Jasmin Savoy Brown and Jack Haven.
And if you’re a fan of AMC’s The Audacity, there’s good news. The dark satire has officially been renewed for a second season and is currently in production. While McLeod couldn’t reveal much about what’s ahead, they did offer one tease.
“If you thought the first season was dark, season two is so much worse,” they said.
Despite landing roles in some of the year’s buzziest queer projects, McLeod says the momentum still feels surreal.
“I hope they keep letting me do things,” they said with a laugh. “That’s the dream is they just keep letting me go out and do things and work with more cool people.”