Rapper and actress Bre-Z got her first big TV break playing the role of Freda Gatz on Empire, but now the 31-year-old is changing the narrative of what being a gay teen in high school looks like on the CW series All American. Bre-Z plays Tiana Cooper, the character affectionately known as “Coop,” and when it comes to the humanization of the fan favorite, the Philly native says Coop’s portrayal is deliberate.
I don’t like the fact that every time we see a gay person, male or female, on TV it’s so sexually motivated,” she told us. “Everything they do has to do with sex. With Coop I just wanted to bring the normalcy to it because when you speak on a person of the LGBT community it’s always like ‘they’re gay.’ It’s like they’re not even a person.”
Check out the interview above as Bre-Z talks about drawing on her personal experiences to play the character of Coop and how she’s lending her voice to important causes.
