Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa shared with IndieWire how he feels his character, Eric, helps young LGBT Black viewers feel more self-assured and comfortable in their own skin.

“It’s really nice to have a gay character, a Black character, be at the forefront of this story on a show like this that has the reach it does on Netflix,” he said. “It matters, I hope, that other little Black boys around the world can be like–‘Oh, Eric is like this, and it’s cool.’ It’s important that we allow different people to occupy these spaces. Eric is a driving force in his own story as well, which I’m really proud of.”

He also discussed how the series has expanded on its inclusivity in the second season without quota-filling.

“When people talk about diversity and inclusion, sometimes there’s a bit of an eye-rolling mentality of ticking boxes,” he said. “But I feel like that’s kind of necessary at times because the playing fields are not level in the first place. Not a quota as such, it’s not as if we had one, but that is kinda necessary, ’cause we need to level the playing field.”

“When we do that, we can show other people’s lives and other people’s experiences and show like–‘see? It’s not that scary!” he continued. “It’s important that we show all these things, and sometimes you do need to be like–‘Has this voice been heard? No.'”

Sex Education is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Photo credit: Sam Taylor/Netflix

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