TOMMY DORFMAN WAS A TEEN TEARAWAY WHO ENDED UP IN REHAB. BUT HE’S TURNED HIS LIFE AROUND AND NOW HAS A STARRING ROLE IN THE NETFLIX SERIES, 13 REASONS WHY

WORDS: CLIFF JOANNOU PHOTOGRAPHS: LEIGH KEILY

LOCATION: THE STANDARD, WEST HOLLYWOOD

Tommy Dorfman

The new Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, which boasts Selena Gomez as an executive producer, follows the story of how the discovery of box of tapes following schoolgirl Hannah Baker’s suicide turns the lives of those she blamed for her death upsidedown. Tommy Dorfman plays one of the characters who find themselves in the spotlight.

In the real world, Dorfman, 24, has had his own tumultuous life story that could easily make its very own gritty TV drama. Born in Atlanta, Georgia — the “gay Mecca of the south” as he puts it — he struggled through school, bullied for his more femme characteristics.

As with many gay men, he buried himself beneath a veneer of “straight-acting” masculinity, suppressing himself until he found release in the city’s queer club scene, where he began partying. He moved to New York, aged 18, to study acting. By then he was on the early steps down a path of drink and drug addiction that would lead him into a cycle of self-destruction. It wasn’t until he met his now-husband Peter Zurkuhlen that he found the strength to pull himself from the grip of addiction.

Now sober and with his career in the ascendance, he’s ready to take on Hollywood — and the world — as an out gay actor.

Congratulations on the new role. But aren’t you supposed to struggle for years before you make it?

Yeah, so it’s confusing in some ways, and obviously I’m filled with gratitude and it wouldn’t be happening I guess if I wasn’t ready, but there is this element of almost imposter syndrome, where I’m like, “Is this my life, what’s going on?” And I’m meeting so many new people, doing interviews and just shooting with all these high-powered people at Netflix, so it was a funny first day on set. I was like “What?” I’m suddenly surrounded by Paramount trailers.