Duluth native Odin Biron, who has quickly become one of Russia’s best known actors, has come out as gay in an interview with the New York-based magazine Vulture.

Biron stars in Interns, a Russian version of the NBC hit Scrubs which aired from 2001 to 2010. Interns debuted in 2010 and has quickly become one of Russia’s most popular shows. It the show, Biron plays an American named Phil Richards, an international student studying medicine.

Richards is an East Coast raised son of two gay fathers. Vulture describes the show’s gay themes and Richards’ character:

Interns’ treatment of the gay topic is hardly what one might call progressive. The setup alone reinforces one of the more preposterous tenets of mainstream Russian homophobia: that homosexuality is a product of Western moral decay, a decadent import that doesn’t exist naturally in Russia. (Phil even has two gay uncles.)
But audiences love Phil. Even as he picks up more and more traits of his Russian cohorts—issues with drinking, a pervasive sense of distrust—he remains the only male character on the show who generally has good intentions. (Even if he smiles too much for his colleagues’ liking.) In a lot of ways, Phil—inexperienced, overly credulous, American Phil—has become the show’s unlikely moral compass.

Odin grew up in Duluth until he was 15 then moved to Ann Arbor. He moved to Russia on a study abroad at age 20. He currently splits his time between Russia and Minneapolis where he’s been studying culinary arts, according to Vulture.

Biron also spoke with Vulture about what the future holds for him after coming out in a country that has harsh anti-LGBT policies:

Biron doesn’t know what the repercussions will be when the Russian public learns he’s gay. But talking about it now, he feels, is “forcing my hand, and maybe that’s a good thing.”

But it’s also something else, something that goes to the core of his life in Russia. Aggressive confrontation is “just not the way I want to operate,” he says. “That’s the way things operate in the States. That’s not what this country needs. This country needs dialogue.” What good would it do if he quit Interns or left Russia in protest, he wonders. Better to stay and keep building relationships and hopefully use that foundation to help foster change. A stronger Russian gay-rights movement, Biron believes, is going to develop slowly, organically, in part through things like Interns. It’s going to happen when beloved public figures—like Biron—step out of that deep Russian closet.