Top-rated Venezuelan actor Rafael De la Fuente first found fame playing Diego Forlan in Grachi, a Spanish-language fantasy series that became Nickelodeon Latin America’s most successful series ever, not to mention one of Nickelodeon’s biggest live-action hits. After recurring roles in Every Witch Way and the first two seasons of Empire, De la Fuente can currently be seen playing Sammy Jo Jones in the CW reboot of iconic 1980s soap opera Dynasty.

De la Fuente was born in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas in 1986. He made his on-screen debut in 2009, playing Jorge Giraldo in Mas Sabe el Diablo, a Spanish-language telenova made for the American Telemundo network. He followed that with a similar telenova role in Aurora before landing the part of Diego Forlan in Grachi. The series follows the life on everyday teenage girl who happens to discover she has magical powers. It became a massive hit across Latin America, winning no fewer than 47 awards during its original two-year run. De la Fuente himself was nominated for Favourite Actor in a TV Series at the 2012 Kids’ Choice Awards Mexico. He went on to appear in all but three of the show’s 205 episodes, becoming a most recognisable figure across Latin America and gaining a huge fanbase that continues to grow today — he has over 1.1 million followers on Instagram alone.

With roles in Empire, ABC LGBTQ+ miniseries When We Rise, and now Sammy Jo Jones in Dynasty (who, in contrast to the original character, is gay), De la Fuente has made the leap from kids’ TV star to prominent champion of LGBTQ+ people in television.