Dino Petrera is a talented American actor best known for his performance in the Netflix show Never Have I Ever. In the coming-of-age comedy-drama series, he portrays the role of Jonah Sharpe.
In addition, he has been a part of a couple of known television shows, including Disposable Teens, Shameless, and Chicken Girls. Talking about his film credits, he has appeared in movies like BearCity 3, High School Noir, Everyone You Hate Is Here, Captain Hagen’s Bed & Breakfast, and Squirrels.
With his rising popularity, more people are getting to know him and want to learn more about him, especially his personal life.
Is Dino Petrera gay?
As mentioned earlier, Petrera gained the limelight for his portrayal of Jonah, an openly gay character, in Never Have I Ever. Since his performance as a gay character was amazing, the viewers were left to wonder if the actor playing the role is gay in real life.
And those who were wondering the same, you all are correct as Petrera is openly gay in real life. Petrera has been open about his sexuality from a young age and has never hidden it from the outside world.
That said, does the actor have someone special in his life? Is he dating a boyfriend? The answer to these questions is currently unknown as Petrera has always managed to keep his love life low-key.
For now, it could only be said that he is relishing his singlehood while also focusing on and navigating his acting career to greater heights.
Dino Petrera’s coming-out story
There was once a time when Petrera wished that he wasn’t gay. But it was way back in the past, and he has now accepted his sexuality. But what’s his coming-out story?
Petrera was a quick learner as a child, and his parents probably expected him to be a doctor or lawyer. But as he had already connected with acting, he went forward with it. And it was this decision that helped him come out to his friends and family.
During his exclusive interview with The Advocate in May 2020, Petrera said, “When I was a senior in high school, the teacher directing took a chance and cast me as the Nathan Lane character in Guys and Dolls, and that ignited the idea for me to go full force into acting.”
Dino Petrera is out and proud (Photo: Instagram)
Petrera was already a fan of the veteran actor Nathan Lane as he always admired Lane’s acting talent and that he was openly gay. “Seeing him work helped me to become more positive as a gay person and actor and helped liberate me from what I perceived as my weaknesses, the fact that I was hearing impaired and gay,” he added.
Finally, he muttered all the confidence and came out to his friends in his last year of high school. However, he was yet to come out to his family, which he did in his first year of college. And his family was supportive of his sexuality.
Later, in the same interview, the actor talked about how thousands of people connected with his gay character of Johan in Never Have I Ever, with everyone saying, “everybody should have a friend like Jonah.”
“It also has made me realize that I should have come out earlier in my life rather than try and deal with my self-imposed shame, namely because I thought my family would not accept me, and that turned out not to be the case at all.”
Dino Petrera as seen on the National Coming Out Day on October 11, 2021 (Photo: Instagram)
As he continued, Petrera mentioned that he hopes “that Jonah coming out on the show as a gay teen can help younger people who are struggling with being gay to come out and be proud of who they are.”
“Hopefully, Jonah inspires gay teens to lean into it and helps those who are not gay have emotional insight into other people’s circumstances,” he concluded.
Dino Petrera is hearing impaired
For those who might not know, Petrera is hearing impaired, and so is his older sister. Thus, his parents immediately recognized when he was unresponsive as an infant.
When his parents took him to consult a doctor, the doctor told his parents that Petrera’s hearing loss was moderate to severe and that he would most likely never speak clearly. However, Petrera managed to defy those odds.
In the same interview with The Advocate, the actor opened up about how his mother took it upon herself to help him. He said, “My mom took it upon herself to read to me and include me in conversations and just treated me as a normal child, allowing me to develop in a loud Italian household.”
“Then she enrolled me in a local community theater Shakespeare production when I was around 10 years old. That’s when I first learned to connect with people emotionally,” he added.
As of now, Petrera uses a hearing aid to help him hear. But the hearing aid has never come in between his rise to fame. Besides, the cast and crew of Never Have I Ever were never bothered by the fact that he had a hearing aid.
Nonetheless, Petrera was kind enough to ask if his hearing aid bothers in the scene, a thing he always does. “I always check with the crew before shooting because I don’t want the hearing aids to distract from the story. I don’t try to hide them, but I just want to make sure that I’m respectful of the project.”
And when he said that to the production team of Never Have I Ever, the crew discussed it for a while and told him to keep his hearing aid in. And at that point, Petrera knew he was really part of a special ensemble.
