"Breaking Fast": Gay Muslim gets dumped, finds a new boyfriend, shows his d*ck. But are any of the actors actually gay and Muslim?

 

Link to the n*de photos

In the short Breaking Fast (2015), it's Eid-al-Fitr, the last night of Ramadan, and Mo (Ryan Shrime) runs into Cal (probably gay bodybuilder Tom Berklund).  They discuss the suicide of Cal's boyfriend.  

That's all I can gather from Tom Berklund's demo reel: the movie is not available to stream, and the trailer is stuck behind paywalls and Trojan-infested websites.  But a review says that Mo is a gorgeous Superman-obsessed doctor dealing with tragedy (because all short films are about dealing with tragedy, right?), and the guys fall in love.

We don't have a lot of actors who are gay, out, and Muslim, so I thought I would check Ryan Shrime out.

Ryan's  Instagram starts off with three photo dumps of Christmas decorations. Dude is Christian

Then he visits Portugal and Israel with his travel buddy, a miniature Jesus.  Dude is Christian and wacko.

Next there are about 3,000 photos hugging and kissing ladies and playing with kids.  Dude is straight.

Why are you playing a gay Muslim, buddy?  Are you the only Arab-American actor willing to do it?  

Sigh.  Let's check for gay roles and nude photos anyway.  

Ryan got his degree from Harvard, then studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.  

Theatrical credits: Macbeth, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Engine of Our Ruin, The Ants

Nothing overtly gay themed there.

He founded the Middle Eastern Comedy Festival and the New York Arab American Comedy Festival

61 acting credits on the IMDB: The Mindy Project, Sam & Kat, Revenge, Grey's Anatomy, Madame Secretary, On My Block, and a lot that I don't recognize.  He complains on Threads that casting agents constantly tell him, "You're so great! I'm just looking for the right role for you," then offer yet another terrorist role.

He is known for playing:

Lance Chambers on a 2015 episode of Gray's Anatomy: Meredith returns to Seattle to announce Derek's death (Patrick Dempsey) and gives birth; Amelia deals with her grief; April decides to stay in a war-torn country, upsetting Jackson (Jesse Williams); Ben and Bailey argue over an end-of-life decision. Oh, and Richard proposes to Catherine.  Lance is not mentioned in the plot synopses.  Would there even be room for him?

Ramjin Azizi on a 2017 episode of Madame Secretary, starring Tea Leoni as the Secretary of State: Blake comes out as bisexual, Stevie (a boy) misses a meeting with the Harvard Dean of Admissions when Jason gets sick, and Henry goes to Israel to retrieve the bio weapon, but ISIS agents steal it. Ramjin isn't mentioned in any of the plot synopses, but I'm guessing that he's not a terrorist.

Ryan is also known as the producer of Woe (2020): A brother and sister stumble upon their father's secret after his death. A review says that it's impenetrably art-noveau.  Well, the guy graduated from Harvard.  What do you expect?

At least he shows his d*ck (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).  Or is that misleading, too?

In 2020, writer/director Mike Mosallam released a feature-length Breaking Fast, with the parts recast.  It's not available to stream, either, but a review gives us a few more details:  Mo (Haaz Sleiman) got dumped by his boyfriend (Patrick Sabongui) on the first night of Ramadan, and is now emotionally closed off.  Until he meets Cal (Michael Cassidy), who is grieving over his dead boyfriend.  The two bond during the three nights of Eid al-Fitr.

Any actual gay Muslim guys here?

More after the break

Kowen Cadorath: Son of the three gay Krelboynes, a slasher Santa Claus, handsome orphan on the prairie. With some prairie hunks

 

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.  

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.

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.

More after the break

Deli Boys: Pakistani-American brothers learn a secret about their Dad. With lots of gay characters and some bonus Pakistani d *cks

 

Link to the bonus Pakistani d *cks

Deli Boys (2025), a new comedy on Hulu, features two Pakistani-American brothers, studious, hardworking Mir (Asif Ali, left) and irresponsible cokehead Raj (Saagar Shaikh), who find out a secret about their father's business activities after his death.  

I doubt that a tv series written by and starring Pakistani-American guys will have any gay characters, but there's bound to be some beefcake.

Scene 1: I was right.  The brothers chase a guy in his underwear, with a bag over his head, and a bulge in his shorts, out of the deli.

Three days earlier: Baba Dar records a commercial for his investors.  He came to American in 1979 with three dollars in his pocket; he worked at a deli, and lived above the store with nine other guys, with six shirts between us  (we see a photo; four of the guys are indeed shirtless).  Today DarCo owns 40 delis around the Philadelphia area, plus Caca brand Achar (a Pakistani relish).  Next he wants to buy some golf courses.

Scene 2: Cokehead Raj in bed with the Shaman Prairie (yes, that's her name) and a clump of around ten people, mostly women but two other guys.   I'm going to guess that he is straight but curved around the edges. 

 They get up and smoke hashish, and then she applies leaches to his back, a sort of New Age thing.

Meanwhile, Drexel Grad Mir tells his father that he learned a lot about business from him, even more than at Drexel University (which he is very proud of), so he's ready for the top spot in the organization. The Girlfriend comes in and tells him that he's ready to give the speech to his father.  

Next he works out, straining with a triceps pushdown.  

Trainer: "I haven't even put the pin in yet."  Dude is weak, har har. 

The Trainer is played by Calvin Thomas (not the queer theorist, the model).

Scene 3: The guys head to the golf course.  They are arguing over who deserves to become president of DarCo when Dad Baba retires.  He shows up to play golf. 

He is upbraiding them for being immature when a golf ball hits him in the head!  He drops dead.  His Caddy, Matthew, screams

Scene 4: As the brothers put a sheet over their dead Dad, Lucky Auntie bursts in.  She was Dad's business partner for thirty years. 

They ask, "Are you going to take care of us now?"  An odd question for grown men in their 30s, but she agrees.

On to the funeral.  The brothers can't do the Muslim prayers right, embarrassing everyone.  

The Caddy ends with "Amen!", har har, and bursts into tears.  Was he, like, Dad's boyfriend?

At the reception afterwards, Ahmad Uncle (Brian George) and Lucky Auntie spar with each other.  Each thinks that the other is out to undermine them and seize control of the company.

I recall Brian George as Babu on Seinfeld, the one with the gigantic waggling finger, but he has 325 acting credits listed on the IMDB. 

Scene 5: While each brother is petitioning to the DarCo board about why each should be named CEO, the feds raid and start making arrests.  They were investigating Dad for fraud, inside trading, tax evasion, and so on, but he had powerful friends.  Now that he is dead, they are able to act.  Lucky Auntie is led off in handcuffs.

More after the break

"Slasher: A Gay Couple, the Other Lesbian, and a Muslim Last Girl. What More do You Want?

There are lots of movies and tv shows called Slasher, so it was hard to find the one that Netflix thinks I have a 93% match with.  Apparently it's an anthology, started in 2016, with the same actors playing different roles, as in American Horror Story.  I started the third season, thinking it was the first.

It's a huge cast, and they aren't good at throwing names around whten a character is introduced, so I have the cast list on IMDB handy, and I'll fill them in as I can.

Prologue: A rave.  Lots of gyrating bodies, hands in the air, glitter, strobe lights, drugs, and sex.  Kit (Robert Cormier), with devil's horns and a nice chest, kisses a guy but selects a girl for nude plowing.

Suddenly Kit is on the deserted street, presumably heading home.  A person in a black robe and glowing mask rushes up and stabs him.  He runs inside an apartment building and starts banging on doors while being stabbed about 100 times.  "Help, I'm being stabbed!" "No, you're a jerk!" "Let me in, I'm being stabbed!"  "No, I hate you!"

Finally Kit gives up and rushes out into the street, still being stabbed.  He is hit by a car, and after a few last words, dies.  Finally! Suddenly the street is crowded with people looking at him.  Where did they all come from?

Scene 1: A year later.  It's morning (the first episode is entitled "6 to 9 am"), and a lot of people get up.  I can't keep track of them all, but there's a gay guy, a homophobe, and a well-dressed guy with a handlebar moustache.  We zoom in on Saadia (Baraka Rahmani), a Muslim girl whose parents caution her to be careful at the party tonight.  It's been exactly a year since...you know.

I don't know if Saadia's dad will be important, but actor Saad Sidiqui is in the top photo.

Saadia lives in the very same apartment complex that Kit the Dead Guy was getting stabbed in and knocking on doors.  On her way out, she runs into the homophobe, who is drunk and trying to get into the wrong apartment.

Scene 2: We switch to  a boy and a girl talking about her final exam today, and finally getting Amber to sleep.  Their baby?  I thought they were boyfriend and girlfriend because one is black and the other Hispanic, but according to IMDB, they are brother and sister, Connor (Gabriel Darku, left) and Jen (Mercedes Morris).

But who's Amber, who she finally got to sleep?  There's a guy sleepng on Jen's lap.  Could that be her?  A transman, or a masculine-presenting nonbinary person?

Scene 3:  I'm getting the idea that everyone lives in the apartment building where Kit kept knocking on doors and screaming for help.  So they're all guilty of "not my problem" selfishness.

Next up:  Frank  (Paulino Nunes) is being abusive to his wife, but not his daughter, who also has finals today.  Then he drives off.

He stops to yell at someone and use racial slurs. The robed figure rushes up  and tries to decapitate him.  It take several blows, and Frank is alive for almost all of them.

Wait -- is the figure stabbing people at random?  If they  wanted Frank, how did they know that he would be stopping at that exact spot?

Scene 4: Cassidy (Genevieve DeGraves) is in bed, mounting a guy with long hair and tattoos (maybe Garrett Hnatiuk?):"Don't you dare go soft on me!".

Aftter they finish, Long Hair asks Cassidy out to breakfast, but she is already on Tinder, looking for the next guy.  Rude!.

Scene 5:  Dan (Dean McDermott), who may be the homophobe from Scene 2,  is writing an anti-Muslim diatribe on his blog.  Suddenly the door opens, and  Long Hair and Cassidy come out!  She is Dan's daughter!  Long Hair didn't know that she was in high school.  Dan yells, Long Hair scrams, Dan continues to yell:

Dan: "You disgust me!  You'll open your legs for any cock!"
Cassidy: "No, only the big ones."

Scene 6: Saadia is at a coffee house, where the barista, Handlebar Moustache from Scene 1, is flirting with her.  She meets up with Jen (who finally got Amber to sleep in Scene 2).  They interrogate each other on history in preparation for their final exam., and discuss the summer solstice party tonight (do high schools get out in late June?).   Handlebar likes Saadia, but hates Jen.  Go figure.

Scene 7: The police have discovered Decapitated Frank from Scene 3.  Newbie Detective Hanson (Lisa Berry) clashes with Detective Singh (Ishan Davé) and yells at the bystanders furiously texting photos of Decapitated Frank to all their frineds.  She remembers interviewing him  last year.

The slasher is named the Druid, by the way.

Scene 8: At the coffee house, Cassidy (the homophobe's daughter) is complaining about her Dad.  Well, he is the worst.  She and her friends discuss whether Handlebar Moustache is creepy or hot ("He's at least 30! Ew!).  Suddenly everyone gets texted a photo of Decapitated Frank -- including his daughter, Erica (Romy Weltman), who freaks.

Scene 9: Saadia and Jen are at school.  Deserted hallway -- they must be early.  Suddenly Cassidy and her Bitch Friends appear and yell at Saadia about Decapitated Frank: "Your people did this!"

Size queen and a bigot? So no black, Hispanic, or Middle Eastern guys?  Poor thing!

Cassidy attacks, pulls off Saadia's hijab, shoves her to the ground.  The principal intervenes and tells them "Back to class!"  Um...class hasn't started yet, right?

Scene 10:  Detective Hanson interviews Decapitated Frank's wife and daughter. She flashes back to the night of the previous murder.  That night, Frank told her that he was sitting in his car, when he saw Kit running out of a building, chased by the Druid, who raised a bloody knife.  Frank raised a gun, and the Druid left.  But he tells the Detective that he didn't have anything to help with except his "tiny fists."

So Frank could have easily intervened, and now he's dead.  Got where this is going?

Scene 11:  The principal gets creepily white-guilt about Saadia having to go tthrough Islamophobic crap. Anyway, the says, you don't need to worry: Cassidy and her ilk will be gone soon.

Is that a threat, Principal Druid?

The final exam starts, but Saadia can't concentrate.  She flashes back to the night a year ago, when Kit the First Murder Victim knocked on her door, but her parents kept her from letting him in.

Scene 14: Aha! Amber was the "guy" asleep on Jen's lap.  She's the Other Lesbian, presenting as male, and now she's dragging around a container of gasoline. Joe (Ilan Muallem, left) and his wife Valerie  look down from a window.  Joe yells "Don't kill yourself!  I'm coming down!  I can help!".  But she douses herself with gasoline -- um, actually water -- while Valerie records his reaction for her vlog.

It was a joke at Joe's expense?  A guy tries to help, and he's made out to be a fool?  Valerie and the Other Lesbian are definitely slasher fodder.  

Scene 15: Joe goes to see another guy.  "I can't keep doing this!" he complains.  They kiss. and hug.

The only male cast member I couldn't identify is Angel (Salvatore Antonio), so that must be the boyfriend.  He doesn't look much like him.

Meanwhile, Violet starts her daily vlog.  It's  one year anniversary of the murder of "bisexual rent boy Kit Jennings."  And now, Decapitated Frank means that the Druid is back!

Scene 16: Saadia lost her cell phone during the fight with Cassidy, so she roams the deserted hallway of the school, looking for it.  She's being followed y a mysterious dark figure, but when she stops for a drink of water, it rushes past her.

On the way to kill Cassidy, Principal Druid?

Scene 17: Yep -- Cassidy isin the restroom, cybersexing with a hookup.  Suddenly the Druid rushes in and dunks her head in a toilet full of acid.  Very gross closeup of Cassidy with her face eaten off.  The Druid leaves.  The end.

Gay characters: Jen and Amber the Other Lesbian.  Joe and his boyfriend, gay but on the downlow.  Probably some others.

Ethnic Diversity:  Lots.  Black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and a few white people.  It's nice to see a Muslim character doing things other than being Muslim.  Now, if only she turns itno a badass who saves the day.

Beefcake: A bare chest here and there.

Gore:  Lots.

Will I keep watching:  I already know who is druiding, and why.  Do I want to watch people getting sliced up in order of their culpability for Kit's death?

Wait --  Cassidy wasn't as culpable as the Homophobe, who is still around.  Could she be a red herring?  Maybe there are two Druids, working independently.

We can only hope?

Two teenage boys are "Eaten by Lions" in this 2018 British comedy

In Eaten by Lions (2018), hunky teenage Omar (Antonio Aakeel) and his half-brother Pete (Jack Carroll) who has cerebral palsy and a penchant for shoplifting, are orphaned when their parents are...well, eaten by lions.

At first they live with their grandmother, and then with Pete's racist aunt and uncle (Kevin Eldon, Vicki Pepperdine).  They treat Pete nicely, but Omar is "eaten by lions," dismissed and ignored, forced to sleep in a a cupboard under the stairs, a la Harry Potter.

  But then the boys discover that they're not entirely orphaned -- Grandmum left them a cryptic note about Omar's biological father, living in Mecca.  So off they go on a road trip to find their new dad.

She didn't mean Mecca, the Muslim holy city.  She meant Mecca-by-the Sea, Blackpool, the sleazy, tacky, tawdry tourist trap.  Americans, think of Atlantic City or Coney Island.  Or Branson, Missouri.

Omar and Pete run into many colorful characters on the way, most played by recognizeable British actors.

Ray (Johnny Vegas) runs a tawdry bed and breakfast.

Jason Redshaw plays a drag queen named Tooty Fruity. Ok, that's homophobic.

Tom Binns plays a crazy fortune teller.

They finally discover that two brothers on holiday had sexy time with Omar's mother, so either could be his father:  the wealthy, conservative Malik (Nitin Ganawa), or Irfan (Asim Chaudry), who runs a tacky seaside souvenir shop.

Now it's Pete's turn to be "eaten by lions," dismissed and ignored by Omar's new family.

Both of the boys find love, or at least sex, with the horny daughters of their various encounters.  But there's still a strong gay subtext coming from their obvious chemistry.

Not a lot of beefcake. Jack Carroll,who is not very impressive in the physique department, gets most of the shirtless and nudity scenes, played for humorous effect.

Of course, Antonio Aasif is so handsome that he has to be careful covered up.  If he took his shirt off, no  one would pay any attention to the plot.  .

Antonio got his start on the teen soap Skins.  He played a gay teenager in Waiting for Garbo, and the best friend of a transitioning boy on Doctors.  He states: "To think we still live in a world where attitudes toward sex, gender, orientation, and identity can be so prejudiced is shocking."

The Homophobic Gay Ally of "The War at Home"

All in the Family hit the heights of television glory in the 1970s with bigot Archie Bunker.  He hated blacks, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, Poles, women's libbers, gays, and just about everyone else, to the consternation of his easygoing wife and radical-hippie daughter and son-in-law.

Everybody loved him, right?  So why not try it again 30 years later?

Enter The War at Home (2005-2007), starring Michael Rappaport as obnoxious jerk Dave Gold, who hates blacks, Puerto Ricans, Muslims, women's libbers, liberals, and gays (not Jews because he's Jewish).

He has an easygoing wife and three teenage kids: horny Hillary (Kaylee DeFer), obviously not named after Hillary Clinton; feminine Larry (Kyle Sullivan); and teen operator Mike (Dean Collins, left).

Most storylines involved Dave's obnoxious prejudices, his hatred of sex (no matter who has it), or a combination of the two:
Hillary dates a black man!
Hillary has sex with a black man!
Mike has sex!
Larry starts to masturbate!
Larry wears women's clothes!
Larry kisses a boy!  (Actually, a girl in men's clothes).

It was impossible to watch, vulgar, obnoxious, horrible.

The problem is: you felt sorry for Archie Bunker.  He was a product of the 1930s, when white heterosexual male supremacy was practically unquestioned.  (Remember the theme song, "Goils were goils and men were men").  He was a relic of the past, lost in a rapidly-changing world.

Dave Gold is a product of the 1970s, when Civil Rights, Gay Rights, and Women's Rights were already underway.  He lives in an ultra-liberal Long Island milieu.  There is no reason for his prejudices.  They exist just so the character can say outrageous things, like Peter Griffin on Family Guy (which aired immediately afterwards).

After a year of groaning critics and bad ratings, it became obvious that Dave Gold had to clean up his act, become kinder, gentler, less obnoxious.  So Larry's school friend Kenny (Rami Malek) comes out, gets kicked out of the house by his conservative Muslim father, and moves in with the Golds.

 Dave dives head-first into the problem of gay kids being rejected by their families, even serving up a PSA for the Trevor Project at the end of some episodes.  He also dives into Kenny's love life, buying the embarrassed kid a copy of The Joy of Gay Sex and quizzing him on lubricants and dildos.

Wait -- was this the guy who hated Muslims, gays, and sex last year?  It was completely out of character -- and Dave looked positively aghast during the Trevor Project PSAs.  After winning a GLAAD Award for a portrayal of the only gay Muslim on tv, The War at Home was cancelled.

See also: Dean Collins.