Ezra Sosa didn’t exactly grow up imagining red carpets, televised ballroom floors, and a national audience cheering him on every week. In fact, for a long time, he wasn’t sure any of that world would even have space for him.
From Utah expectations to Ezra Sosa’s stage lights
Growing up in a Mormon Utah household, Ezra Sosa never thought he’d make it on Dancing With the Stars, let alone as an openly gay man. Now, he’s a role model to LGBTQIA+ youth all across the world. Growing up in a conservative Utah household, he could hardly imagine he’d one day become a world-famous dancer.
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The contrast between those two realities is doing a lot of heavy lifting here: on one side, a tightly defined upbringing; on the other, sequins, live television, and a career built on expression. Somewhere in between, he had to figure out how to exist honestly in both.
“I was shoved into a box.”
“I definitely feel like growing up,” the Dancing With the Stars pro told E! News in an exclusive interview, “I was shoved into a box.”
It’s the kind of sentence that doesn’t need much decoration. For Ezra, that “box” wasn’t just about identity—it was about expectations, silence, and what he was told was or wasn’t possible, especially in a place where visibility like his was rarely reflected back.
Dreams, doubt, and a very public stage
Landing a spot on Dancing With the Stars is already a high-pressure achievement. Doing it while navigating external judgment about identity adds a second, quieter competition behind the scenes.
“While beating the odds to land a coveted spot on the wildly popular ABC reality TV competition series was one major hurdle on his path to stardom, being honestly and authentically himself was another challenge he’d have to overcome.”
That second hurdle wasn’t hypothetical. It came with direct warnings.
“I was told by many people—not by anyone a part of the show—that I couldn’t be openly gay on Dancing With the Stars,” Ezra recounted. “That’s really hard to hear, especially when that’s your biggest dream. But if I listened to them, I wouldn’t be here today. So, it’s really important to keep those dreams going.”
There’s a blunt clarity in that: the choice wasn’t just career strategy, it was existence versus omission.
Dance as the escape hatch
Of course, growing up Mormon didn’t provide the 25-year-old with many queer role models in his immediate community. But while Ezra spent most of his childhood wrestling with the thought of coming out, he knew the one place he could truly express himself was in the ballroom.
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“Dance was my outlet,” he reflected. “The arts is something that’s so important, especially in the queer community, especially in queer youth, because when I was a kid and I couldn’t voice how I felt and I couldn’t even tell people who I was, I was able to go to a dance studio, play some music and I was able to express myself in ways that words couldn’t.”
Put simply, he added, “It was my lifeline.”
That word—lifeline—lands differently when you consider how often young people are told to “just be themselves” without being given anywhere safe to actually do it.
From contestant to visibility
Ezra—who has partnered with celebs like Jordan Chiles and Anna Delvey since he joined the show full-time for season 33 in 2024—now relishes being a gay role model for young queer people across the globe.
“To be able to go out on the road and see all the queer people that come to the show just to watch me is so, so, so special,” he gushed. “I don’t think there’s a greater full circle moment.”
It’s a different kind of spotlight now—not just performing for an audience, but also being recognized by people who see something of their own future in him.
Responsibility, not just recognition
But amid showing the world “how freaking awesome it is to be a gay man,” he takes his duties as a LGBTQIA+ role model very seriously.
“It is the biggest honor of my life,” he confessed. “I always dreamed of being in this position, not only just being on Dancing With the Stars, but also being a role model in our community. I’m so stoked and I know the impact that being on that show has. I really just hold that close to myself.”
There’s a carefulness in that framing—less about spectacle, more about awareness. Visibility, in his case, isn’t treated like a headline. It’s treated like something that carries weight.
Pride, and everything that came before it
And since June is Pride Month, he shared what celebrating the annual milestone means to him.
“I am very proud of the person that I’ve become,” he stated. “I definitely feel the things that I’m most proud of is my strength, my perseverance, my ability to adapt, my social media savvy skills. I definitely feel like if it wasn’t for those attributes, I wouldn’t have the career that I have right now.”
What stands out isn’t just the list itself, but the fact that it exists at all—an acknowledgment of the long road between a boxed-in upbringing and a life built in full view.
@gabby__guzy @Ezra Sosa is THAT girl ft. @Robert Irwin 🤭 (my third time trying to post this without the sound getting muted) #dwtstour #robertirwin #ezrasosa #dancingwiththestars
Dancing With the Stars returns with season 34 this fall. But in the meantime, get your tickets to see Ezra at DWTS Con 2026 in Palm Springs, Calif., July 31 to Aug. 2. And if there’s a throughline in all of this, it’s simple: Ezra Sosa didn’t just learn to dance on a stage. He learned to take up space on it.