A graduate of England's prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Billy Harris acted in commercials and on stage prior to being cast on the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso as soccer player Colin Hughes. "It being my first TV show, it was quite daunting," he admits.
The Emmy-winning comedy follows Ted Lasso (played by series cocreator Jason Sudeikis), an optimistic former U.S. football coach, who moves to England to lead a soccer team — or football, as it's known in much of the world.
Harris, who hails from Southend-on-Sea, a coastal town in southeast England, was intimidated to work with Sudeikis, whom he knew from Saturday Night Live, and series cocreator Bill Lawrence, who had produced Scrubs, one of his favorite shows.
But Harris worked hard to impress them. "I really wanted to show them that I was invested in my character. So I would, every now and then, add a line in rehearsals," he says, noting that the cast is encouraged to improvise.
"It was so scary. My heart was pounding before I said a line. And then, lo and behold, I saw a lot of the lines that I'd been putting in there made the cut in season one. So I was really proud of myself," Harris says. "And then, in season three, it was time for a big storyline."
In the third (and likely final) season, it is revealed that Colin is gay and in a relationship with a man named Michael (Sam Liu). At the time of the reveal Colin is not out to his AFC Richmond teammates, though he does come out to them later in the season. Fans actually began to speculate about Colin's sexual orientation on Twitter during season two of Ted Lasso, when the character made mention of Grindr, the LGBTQ dating app.
"It was almost like an exhale of relief for so many Colin Hughes fans," Harris says. "They were like, 'We were right! This is brilliant!'"
For Harris, it has been gratifying to discover that his character has a life outside of sports.
In another season three episode, on a team trip to Amsterdam, Colin confides in journalist Trent Crimm (James Lance), who is also queer. "I don't want to be a spokesperson," Colin says. "I don't want a bunch of apologies. All I want is for, when we win a match, to be able to kiss my fella the same way that guys get to kiss their girls."
"In that scene in Amsterdam, he just spoke his truth. I think that was really beautiful. That is what probably a lot of [LGBTQ] athletes are going through," Harris muses. "They're having the same struggle."
