BREAKINGOUT

IN THE HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD, THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AN ACTOR QUITE LIKE AMIN EL GAMAL. THAT MIGHT SOUND LIKE A PRETTY RADICAL STATEMENT, BUT THEN EL GAMAL IS A PRETTY RADICAL ACTOR: HE’S OPENLY QUEER, HE’S PROUDLY MUSLIM AND HE’S ABOUT TO MAKE A SPLASH AS THE BADDIE IN A NEW SEASON OF PRISON BREAK

AMIN EL GAMAL

WORDS: ADAM DUXBURY

PHOTOGRAPHER: VALENTINA SOCCI

GROOMING: JEFFREY PAUL FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS MANAGEMENT

STYLING: CAMILLA GABRIELLI & JORDAN GROSSMAN

Right before I auditioned for the show there was a pretty well-known director — who is actually radical herself — and she told me that until you start working more, don’t tell people that you’re queer because that will limit the way they see you.” Amin El Gamal is on the other end of the phone and straightaway we’re getting stuck into the hypocrisy at the heart of Hollywood’s problem with queer and ethnically diverse actors.

It’s an issue that goes right to the core of the 30-year-old actor’s identity and he has plenty to say on the subject. While the director’s advice sounds like the kind of classic “don’t ask, don’t tell” tactic hundreds of actors will have been fed since the dawn of silent movies, it wasn’t a piece of advice El Gamal was about to follow, especially after he’d spent some time working with a star who was in the closet yet “acting all the time, in a weird sort of prison.”