“My So-Called Life” was the first TV show to portray teens having sex, drinking, doing drugs, and struggling with sexuality. Clair Danes and Jared Leto may have launched their careers with the show, but Wilson Cruz’s role as Ricky was admired for years to come for establishing a gay teen presence on TV long before shows such as “Glee” or “Shameless.”

Since the show, Cruz, who is of Afro-Puerto Rican descent, has devoted his life to helping gay at-risk youth and promoting pride events nationwide. He has also had some starring roles in gay television, such as “Noah’s Arc” on LOGO.

Want to see what drives Wilson Cruz? Check out his answers to our “What Drives You?” questions below!

1. What do you do  and why?

Sounds like an easy and straight forward enough question, doesn't it? For me, it's a bit complicated. I am an actor/singer/dancer/speaker/activist.

I'm an actor/singer/dancer because it's what I've always known I would do. It's what I longed to do for as long as I can remember.

I'm an activist because I am a gay man living in the world in this time in history and to ignore my responsibility to stand up for what I believe in and to speak when so many are unable, would be unacceptable.

I have been happiest when I've been able to use my art to speak for my cause. It's when I have felt most useful in my life.

2. Which quality or talent makes you most successful?

I think what's helped me most to be successful is a sense of fearlessness. I think you have to be fearless to constantly make yourself available to rejection (which comes hand in hand in my business). I think I have to have a sense of abandon when approaching my work. When I feel free of fear I know I can do my best work.  One must throw oneself into this work and let that passion take you where it will and you must be willing to ride that wave to its end.

3.Who are the 3 people who inspire you the most?

This is a long list. I really wish I could narrow it to 3. I will say this: I am inspired by people who see a need, a void, and in the face of great adversity, CHOOSE to fill that void. People like MLK, Roosevelt, Christ (the man, not the myth), Sirdenear Walker (mother of nine-year-old, Carl Walker Hoover who committed suicide after being bullied in school), Mohatma Gandhi, Caesar Chavez, and I could go on.

I meet people everyday who inspire me and make me feel like I need to learn and DO more. It's actually why I think we are here, in the world, to inspire each other to be better than we are, so that we may, in turn, inspire others to BE more. That's the only way I can answer the question.

4.What are you most passionate about?

The answer to this question has varied in degrees from year to year, but what has always been a constant has been my passion to ensure a safer world for LGBT youth, whether that be in their schools or in their homes. I don't have any children of my own, and at this point, I probably won't, so I view the youth of our community as my kids and I feel a real responsibility to leave them a safer, more informed, and loving world than the one I knew and the one they were born into. I will take every and any opportunity to speak for them, if I must, or to avail them the opportunity to speak for themselves.

5. What drives you to succeed?

I began my career as an artist as an openly gay man in the 1990s. At the time, I made the choice to be out because I wanted to prove that a person could begin his/her career openly and honestly and find great success and longevity in the entertainment industry. I continue to want to prove that and I feel like I still am. I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunities to do what I've done, but even more excited about what lies ahead as I approach my 20th year as an openly gay Latino actor.

I'm also driven by my own need to push myself beyond what I THINK are my limitations. I'm driven by trying things I may fail in. I'm driven by my need to see just how much I can do. I plan on using this body and life and leaving it wasted and pushed beyond its limits by the time I leave it.