Another young actor has just joined the growing list of celebrities who have decided to go public about being gay.

Rick Cosnett, known to fans as Eddie Thawne on “The Flash,” Wes Maxfield in “The Vampire Diaries, and Elias Harper in “Quantico,” came officially out of the closet on Thursday evening with a brief, no-nonsense announcement on his Instagram.

“Hi everyone,” says the 36-year-old Cosnestt in the clip. “Dramatic pause. Um, I’m gay and I just wanted everyone to know because I’ve made a promise to myself to live my truth every day and sometimes that is a really hard thing to do when you have all these subconscious things that you don’t even know about from childhood and society and from just life. There you go. I’m sure most of you probably knew anyway. And … um yeah. That’s actually all I wanted to say.”

He closed by quipping, “I also have a stye on my eye which really adds to the drama of the whole thing.”

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A post shared by Rick Cosnett (@rickcosnett) on Feb 13, 2020 at 3:24pm PST

Cosnett was born in Zimbabwe, where he was raised on a farm in Chegutu by theatre-loving parents who gave him the acting bug. At seventeen, the family moved to Australia, where he studied at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, eventually receiving a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Acting He launched his career with roles on Australian television before being cast on “Vampire Diaries” in 2013.

As an unexpected piece of trivia, his cousin is actor Hugh Grant.

Cosnett teased his announcement with another Instagram post earlier in the week, posting a photo of himself in a white dress and multi-colored scarf with a caption thanking friends for “helping me find and experiment with my self expression.”

“Feels good, and terrifying,” he added, and finished with a quote:

“’So those bars I see that restrain your wings,
I guess you won’t mind
if I pry them open.’ ~ Rumi”

Judging from the comments on Cosnett’s announcement, his fans are overwhelmingly supportive.