NySocBoy's Beefcake and Buddy-Bonding: Sam Lerner: Is the "Goldbergs" star gay-teasing, coming out, or from a parallel world? Is that really his tree trunk? Is that really his boyfriend's backside?

May 28, 2026

Sam Lerner: Is the "Goldbergs" star gay-teasing, coming out, or from a parallel world? Is that really his tree trunk? Is that really his boyfriend's backside?

Link to the n*de dudes

I'm having a bad, bad day. First I hurt my back lifting weights, and I wasn't even doing squats. Then I spent an hour going through a teen idol's social media and acting credits, looking for gay hints, only to discover that at the bottom of his IMDB page, he identifies himself as straight. Then I spent two hours researching Sam Lerner, and things got bizarre.

Sam was born into a show biz family. His Dad and Uncle Michael have hundreds of acting credits, ranging from Laverne and Shirley to Barton Fink. He expressed an interest in acting at age five, but his parents didn't think he was talented enough, not even when an agent friend offered to represent him, and the jobs started pouring in: episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, Two and a Half Men, Oliver Beane, and The King of Queens, and the movie Life with Men.

Tell me more about those men...

Finally, at his Bar Mitzvah, Sam took the stage and performed a comedy roast of his younger sister, and the parents relented. Dad even offered to become Sam's acting coach.

Can I get an invitatiion too your J*zz Fest, buddy? Spoiler alert: It ain't "jazz."

42 acting jobs followed. Sam states that his best work is in:

Envy (2004): Stick-in-the-mud Tim (Ben Stiller, backside on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) becomes so envious of the success of his chaotic friend Nick (Jack Black) that his wife and son (Sam) leave him, and he harms a horse. It's a comedy.

Monster House (2006): a sentient haunted house bedevils DJ (Mitchel Musso), Chowder (Sam), and The Girl of His Dreams.

Project Almanac (2015): A found-footage film about a high school student (Jonny Weston) who builds a time machine, along with his buddies (Allen Evangelista, Sam). He wins The Girl of His Dreams.

Plus two tv comedies:

Suburgatory (2011-14): Sam appears in six episodes as Evan, a stereotypic nerd with a crush on cool girl Tessa.

The Goldbergs (2014-23): Sam appears in 175 episodes as Geoff, a stereotypic nerd who dates a variety of girls before settling down with the Girl of His Dreams. Fun fact: Geoff's Dad is played by Sam's real-life Dad. Ken Lerner.

Looks like it's straight guys all the way down. I don't even see any projects with gay characters played by other people.

Maybe there are some gay hints in the movies Sam has produced?

Drop (2025): A "widowed mother" goes out on her first date since her husband died, and things go terribly wrong. Brandon Sklenar plays her date-with-a-terrible-secret.

Sauna Dreams (2024). A mockumentary about sauna athlete David Roffman (Ephraim Rimsky) on his way to the 2023 World Sauna Championships in Detroit. Were you expecting a gay sauna? Me, too.

Well, is Ephraim at least gay? In 2018, he celebrates his second anniversary with this guy, and says "Mazel tov on five years." Which is it? Maybe they've been together for five years, but only married for two?

But in 2024, Ephraim tells us that he has moved in with his girlfriend.

So, is he bi? Was he just pretending to be married to this dude? Or are they writng partners who didn't think there would be any confusion because gay men don't exist, and what else could they be?

This may be relevant to Sam, as I check his social media.

Sam shows us his backside several times, often in a femme pose. Maybe once or twice, you're just fooling around, but over and over, you are obviously signaling your interest in doing gay bedroom stuff

Sam compliments Monster House co-star Mitchel Musso on his attractiveness. That's usually the statement of a gay man.

Curioser and curioser.

More after the break

Sam and his buds ready to go. Most straight guys don't pose like this.

Sam is tree-trunking on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends. But it look like the one I used to illustrate Ride Overshare.

Here Sam is hugging and grabbing at actor/producer Cameron Fuller. They are together a lot on his social media posts. They hug, attend an event where they have to wear suits, travel to Hawaii together. Can there be any doubt that they are boyfriends?

How about now? A follower comments: "You're glowing!" One sweats when it is hot outside; one glows when one is in love.

But...

According to Wikipedia and Google AI, Sam has a lady partner, actor/dancer Olivia Sui. They met in 2018 on the set of The Goldbergs, and bought a house together in 2020.

Then what's with the gay stuff? A tease? Platonic buddy bonding? Or I looking at Sam Lerners from two parallel worlds?

Sam does not mention Olivia once on his Instagram, and she does not mention him. Maybe they broke up, and purged their social media of each other.

In two photos from May 2026, Sam tells us that he is "discovering himself." Has our boy come out, at age 33?

Seems odd to wait that long in the 21st century, but it beats the parallel world theory.

On RG Beefcake and Boyfriends: Cameron Fuller's backside Except this Cameron Fuller is black and Sam's boyfriend is white. The possibility of two guys, about the same age, both actors, with the same unique name? A billion to one.

It's been a bizarre morning.