The "Malcolm in the Middle" Krelboynes are all gay on the show, but what about real life? Plus Rami Malek and gay kid Kowen

 

Malcolm in the Middle (2000-06) starred Frankie Muniz (far left) as Malcolm, a genius in a family of underachievers.  In school, he is placed with the Krelboynes, the gifted and therefore constantly bullied students. 

His best friend Stevie (Craig Lamar Traylor, in the wheelchair) is absurdly girl-crazy, but the lesser Krelboynes are all gay coded:

Dabney (Kyle Sullivan, in his underwear), has an obvious crush on Malcolm.

Lloyd (Evan Matthew Cohen, in blue), enjoys feminine activites like tea parties, and is suicidal ( a common gay stereotype).

Kevin (Victor J. Isaac, far right) is in love with his mother, another gay stereotype. 

In Life's Still Unfair, the Malcolm in the Middle reunion miniseries (2026),the Krelboynes all come to the 40th Anniversary Party of Malcolm's parents, Lois and Hal.  The previously girl-crazy Stevie (Craig Lamar Traylor) has come out; he has a husband (Erik Gow) and young son.  Stay far away from the Malcolm subreddit: it's overrun by howls of  "why do they want every single tv character to be gay????"

The three minor Krelboynes attend together (Dabney center, Lloyd left, Kevin not shown).  They hint that they are in a three-way romantic relationship -- which gets vociferous howls of "they're obviously straight!"  in the fan reddit. 

In other news,  they have a son named Hubert (Kowen Caderath, left).

"With a surrogate?" Malcolm asks.

"Um...yeah sure," Dabney says, hinting that they acquired the child some other way, maybe through an advanced cloning procedure. 

The potential clone Hubert appears in three scenes.  First, he corners an ant that was crawling across the floor, to save the group from the wild beast.  Next he looks extremely embarrassed at his dads' awkward but enthusiastic dancing.  Finally, Lois tells her granddaughter Leah to make friends with him, because he "looks lonely,"  reflecting Malcolm's high school relationship with Stevie.

I'm conducting research to determine if any of the Krelboynes (plus Hubert) have played gay characters since Malcolm, or are gay in real life.

Craig Lamar Traylor (Stevie), who does not actually use a wheelchair or have a missing lung, has nine acting credits, mostly small roles like "Bookstore Customer" and "Child in Classroom."  He retired from acting in 2012, but returned for Renner (2025), starring Frankie Muniz as a AI developer who meets the Girl of His Dreams.  

According to a "where are they now?" article, Craig is an artist specializing in tattoos.  He doesn't say a word about romantic relationships, which suggests that he may be gay and closeted. 

Kyle Sullivan (Dabney) was a well known child star before Malcolm, with roles in Mad about You, The Hugleys, Unhappily Ever After, and Tuesdays with Morrie.  Afterwards, he starred in The War at Home (2005-07), with Michael Rappaport as a macho man struggling with the existence of gay people and Muslims -- then he has to take in a gay Muslim boy (Rami Malek).  Kyle plays his son, who is also assumed gay, but eventually comes out as straight.

After War, Kyle retired from acting.  There are many, many guys named Kyle Sullivan with social media pages, even when you specify that they have to be actors.  At least one is gay, but I don't know if it's our Kyle or not. 

Evan Matthew Cohen (Lloyd), not to be confused with actors Evan Cohen and Matthew Cohen, had three acting credits before Malcolm: an episode of Encore! Encore!, Soccer Dog: The Movie, and the Fox animated series Fillmore!  (Exclamation points were very popular at the turn of the millennium!)

After Malcolm, he retired from acting.  I'm not sure if this is our Evan, or another of the many Cohen actors.

Victor Z. Isaac (Kevin), not to be confused with Victor Isaac, has 16 acting credits, including episodes of Will and Grace, Pushing Daisies, Everwood, and Criminal Minds (left: he's being arrested for stalking).  

His last role was in The Social Network (2010), about Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) creating Facebook.  Victor plays Stuart Singer, who tells Mark "I'm in your O.S. lab. You're doing an awesome job with Facebook."

Then, like the other Krelboynes, he retired from acting.  There's a Victor Isaac actor who's gay, or at least plays gay, but he's in Spain.

Hubert, you're my last hope (after the break)

Kowen Cadorath (Hubert) has an unusual name, like a sword-and-sorcery hero, so I tried to look up its etymology.  Not much luck: various "name meaning" websites claim that it is derived from Old English, Breton, Occitan (Provencal), and Venezuelan Spanish.

17 years old as of this writing, Kowen lives in Winnipeg, but often visits Vancouver for auditions.  Dad Cory works in construction, but has an acting resume; little sister Paisley has appeared in Nobody, Nobody 2, and Harland Manor; and Uncle Matthew teaches at the Expressions Film Studio.

With that sort of heritage, you'd expect acting to be in Kowen's blood, but in an interview he states that he started because he had nothing to do during the summer, so his uncle suggested that he take a class in film. 

His acting career begins with an episode of the hospital drama Skymed (2022), and moves into a Christmas romcom, The Jinglebell Jubilee (2023): after the death of his wife (of course),  the staggeringly blond Nate (Marshall Williams) moves back to his small home town.   His old friend Hope and her boyfriend offer to help him "find love.,"  but it's obvious to everyone, including the boyfriend, that he should really be with...you guessed it.  

Kowen plays his  teenage son Brandon, who has a sort of femme affect and mentions "buddies" but no girl.  That's enough for a queer reading.

In the remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025), the young Billy (Kowen) sees his parents murdered by someone wearing a Santa suit, and grows up to become a Santa Slasher (now played by Rohan Campbell).  This jeopardizes his relationship with the Girl of His Dreams.  

Plus Kowen has three upcoming or stalled projects:

Always with You: Mom is "always with" the boy dying of leukemia (Kowen).

The short Brotherly Love: he's expressing brotherly love to a sibling played by the nonbinary star, Ryan David Younes.

The upcoming reboot of the 1970s angst Western, Little House on the Prairie, will star Luke Bracey (left) as patriarch Charles Ingalls.  I can't wait to see how they intend to top the dozens of tragedies that befell the original Charles and his family.  

Kowen plays Caleb, "a skinny, prairie handsome orphan who doesn't say much."  Emily, who runs the general store, takes him in and gives him a job.

That's one gay-vague, one heterosexual by default, one nonbinary-adjacent, and Caleb.   Come on, buddy, you're my fifth Krelboyne.  I need a win.  Bring on the guy-hugging posts.

Kowen's social media is noncommittal: no guy or girl-hugging photos.  In interviews, he says that he watches a lot of movies (for his career) and likes to play the guitar.  

Finally I just googled "Kowen Cadorath" and "gay."  Results included:

Contestants on RuPaul's All-Stars,

An extremely closeted gay man

Little House on the Prairie nonbinary character

A gay bar across town. I don't know if any of those are accurate, but I'll take them.  The last of the Krelboynes is gay.

See also:  Life is Still Unfair: "Malcolm in the Middle" returns, with a super-jerky Malcolm, a n*de Hal, and a nonbinary sibling. Plus Francis and Alex d*cks .

Travis Turner: Short Guy Brigade, gay subtexts, cutesy cartoons, Christmas romcoms, and hip-hop. With n*de photos and Drake Bell

The top 10 "Little House on the Prairie" hunks face fire, flood, disease, disaster, murder, and angst

The Homophobic Gay Ally of "The War at Home"