Is Ryan From ‘High School Musical’ Gay? Confirmed

We’re just a few years away from High School Musical‘s 20-year anniversary, but although 2006 feels like a lifetime ago, the rumors surrounding the cast and characters of Disney Channel’s most successful Original Movie are still running rampant. For a long time, it was believed that Ryan Evans — brother to Ashley Tisdale’s Sharpay Evans — was gay. Besides mere speculation, we never got any true confirmation as to Ryan’s sexual orientation… until now.

In the fourth and final season of the spin-off series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, we’ll be seeing a familiar face in Lucas Grabeel’s Ryan. After years of speculation that Ryan is gay due to stereotypes surrounding his flamboyant personality, love for theater, and supposed crush on Chad, it’s finally been confirmed in a teaser for HSMTMTS‘ fourth season that Ryan is gay (or at the very least bisexual).

As The Independent reports, the movie trilogy has never explicitly stated Ryan’s sexuality, and at the end of the third film, he’s in a relationship with classmate Kelsi, so it seemed as if all the rumors were put to bed. In the trailer, Ryan can be seen kissing another male, whom he appears to be dating.

Kenny Ortega, creator of High School Musical, addressed Ryan’s sexuality in an interview with Variety:

“The character of Ryan in High School Musical, Sharpay’s twin brother, we decided he’s probably going to come out in college. It was less about coming out and just more about letting his true colours come forward.”

We should have suspected that Ryan was attracted to males after Grabeel reportedly confirmed Ryan’s ‘confusing’ crush on Zeke, the character who takes his sister Sharpay to prom. The High School Musical fanbase were convinced that Ryan fancied Chad, but apparently, that was never the case.

We’ll have to see where HSMTMTS takes Ryan’s character, but this is one small step for Ortega and one giant leap for the LGBTQ+ community.

We’re just a few years away from High School Musical‘s 20-year anniversary, but although 2006 feels like a lifetime ago, the rumors surrounding the cast and characters of Disney Channel’s most successful Original Movie are still running rampant. For a long time, it was believed that Ryan Evans — brother to Ashley Tisdale’s Sharpay Evans — was gay. Besides mere speculation, we never got any true confirmation as to Ryan’s sexual orientation… until now.

In the fourth and final season of the spin-off series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, we’ll be seeing a familiar face in Lucas Grabeel’s Ryan. After years of speculation that Ryan is gay due to stereotypes surrounding his flamboyant personality, love for theater, and supposed crush on Chad, it’s finally been confirmed in a teaser for HSMTMTS‘ fourth season that Ryan is gay (or at the very least bisexual).

As The Independent reports, the movie trilogy has never explicitly stated Ryan’s sexuality, and at the end of the third film, he’s in a relationship with classmate Kelsi, so it seemed as if all the rumors were put to bed. In the trailer, Ryan can be seen kissing another male, whom he appears to be dating.

Kenny Ortega, creator of High School Musical, addressed Ryan’s sexuality in an interview with Variety:

“The character of Ryan in High School Musical, Sharpay’s twin brother, we decided he’s probably going to come out in college. It was less about coming out and just more about letting his true colours come forward.”

We should have suspected that Ryan was attracted to males after Grabeel reportedly confirmed Ryan’s ‘confusing’ crush on Zeke, the character who takes his sister Sharpay to prom. The High School Musical fanbase were convinced that Ryan fancied Chad, but apparently, that was never the case.

We’ll have to see where HSMTMTS takes Ryan’s character, but this is one small step for Ortega and one giant leap for the LGBTQ+ community.