20 Years After 'Mean Girls,' Jonathan Bennett Is Finding New Ways To Make Fans Swoon

The actor is thrilled to help the Hallmark Channel boost its queer representation by appearing in a new film trilogy and hosting a Christmas reality series.

To a generation of viewers, Jonathan Bennett will forever be known as Aaron Samuels, the dreamy jock who won the heart of Lindsay Lohan’s character in the 2004 teen comedy classic “Mean Girls.”

The actor, who is gay, has more recently been finding creative ways to reflect his lived experience through his work. This fall, he’s one of the principal stars of Hallmark’s “The Groomsmen” trilogy, in which he portrays Danny, a gay athlete who supports his two straight friends (Tyler Hynes and B.J. Britt) as they prepare for their respective weddings ― while holding out hope for a fairy-tale ending of his own.

In the series’ second installment, “The Groomsmen: Second Chances,” Danny grapples with a “My Best Friend’s Wedding”-like conundrum when he’s asked to be the best man for a longtime pal, Zack (Alexander Lincoln), who is preparing to tie the knot in Greece. What Zack doesn’t know, however, is that Danny has been suppressing his own feelings for him.

“I got married two years ago [to television personality Jaymes Vaughan] and I had a bunch of my best friends as my groomsmen, and I’ve been in a bunch of my friends’ weddings as their groomsmen,” said Bennett, who is also a co-creator and co-producer on the trilogy. “Half my friends are straight, half my friends are gay, and we’ve always been a wolf pack.”

“Those friends are there for you when you need each other,” he continued. “But they also have an innate ability to call you out on your crap when you’re not being your best self. So I thought there was an interesting story that hasn’t been told of that male squad in the romantic comedy space.”