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Zachary Quinto, best known for starring on the TV series “Heroes” and as Spock in the most recent “ Star Trek” movie, has come out as gay in an interview with New York magazine.

Quinto, who recently wrapped an eight-month stint in an Off Broadway restaging of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer prize winning play “Angels in America,” discussed one of the play’s main topics, the AIDS epidemic n the 1980s, and how he feels lucky to not have witnessed it firsthand.

“As a gay man, [the play] made me feel like there’s still so much work to be done, and there’s still so many things that need to be looked at and addressed,” Quinto said in the interview.

Though Quinto, 34, has never formally addressed his sexuality in the press, there has been much speculation across the Internet since he rose to fame as the villainous Sylar on “Heroes” and in 2009's “Star Trek” reboot.

Though his filmography lists a diverse array of roles, he has portrayed several gay characters on television shows like Tori Spelling’s short-lived “So NoTORIous” and on the new FX series “American Horror Story.”

In the interview Quinto discusses how he feels living in a word where in the same summer New York State can pass a law legalizing gay marriage and 14-year-old gay high school student Jamey Rodemeyer is bullied to death.

“Again, as a gay man I look at that and say there’s a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say ‘Why? Where’s this disparity coming from, and why can’t we as a culture and society dig deeper to examine that?’ We’re terrified of facing ourselves,” Quinto said.

After the story hit the Internet, Quinto posted on his website a message discussing Rodemeyer and his decision to publicly acknowledge his sexuality:

‘In light of Jamey’s death — it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it — is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality.”