10 Facts About Jonny Beauchamp That Will Make You Even More Excited For Katy Keene

Though he was born in the Bronx, Jonny and his first-generation Puerto Rican mother spent 10 years in Rockland County so Jonny could attend a private school before moving back to NYC. Moving around was tough for Jonny, because he was shy as a kid, but eventually, he learned to overcome that shyness. “I was shy, but I never really got far being shy,” he explained to Out Magazine in August 2015. “And once I started saying ‘f*ck it’ and just living my truth and being myself, I found strength in that.”

After graduating from Marymount Manhattan College, Jonny struggled to land acting roles, and he resolved to wholeheartedly commit himself to pursuing acting for one year. As he explained to Interview Magazine, “I thought, ‘Was I really trying as hard as I could? Was I doing everything I could to pursue this?’ And I wasn’t. I wasn’t doing everything I could. So I decided to give myself a year. That meant to me, if you’re an artist, you’ve got to be an artist every day, you can’t just be an artist when it’s convenient.”

Playing Penny Dreadful‘s Angelique, who’s a transgender woman, was a learning experience for Jonny, but the role also forced him to face something he’d always avoided as an actor: nude scenes. “I was a bit nervous because I knew this was the first thing people were going to see of me,” he told Backstage during a June 2015 interview. “But John Logan said something really helpful: ‘It’s not you. It is Angelique, it is the character.’ It was actually the best thing I ever did because it was my biggest fear. It’s a really personal thing.”

Jonny’s breakout role gave him the confidence to take on any role afterward, as he’d never imagined stepping so far out of his comfort zone and pulling it off. “Nothing will shake me up after this,” he told TV Insider in May 2015. “Now I just feel so free and I will always owe that to Penny Dreadful. It has made me a better actor in so many ways. Hey, I’m a Puerto Rican boy from the Bronx. I never, ever imagined I’d find myself in Victorian England.”

If Jonny has any advice to give his fellow actors, it would be to step out of their comfort zone and play roles that scare them, as he believes those intimidating roles are often the ones that are the most important. “I would tell any [actor] out there working to really consider what they’re saying no to and why,” he explained to Out Magazine, “and I hope I can inspire people to take on more risky roles. I think we should constantly push our boundaries and bring more visibility to equality. For whatever reason, I have a true connection to these characters, and to me it’s not only about their gender or sexual orientations – it’s about the stories and the social commentary. Because the truth is, if they weren’t homosexual, or transgender, or prostitutes, we might not be having this conversation.”