Shameless, Wedding Crashers Actress Diora Baird Comes Out

Mav Viola (left) and Diora Baird are officially out as a couple.

Actress and model Diora Baird is opens up publicly for the first time about her sexuality and relationship with comedian Mav Viola in the upcoming issue of The Advocate.

While she’s best known for her roles in Wedding Crashers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, and Showtime's hit series Shameless, Baird has also made a name for herself as a Hollywood bombshell, gracing dozens of magazine covers including Esquire, Playboy, and FHM.

Baird, who feels that she has finally embraced her true self, tells us, “It took me years to accept who I truly was. I tried to be what was expected of me, but I have reached the point where I don’t want to hide anymore. In all my relationships with men, I knew something was missing and I finally figured out what that something is … I am meant to be in a relationship with a woman. I met Mav on a dating app, Bumble, but she didn’t know that she was still on it. I reached out and messaged her and asked her on a date, which was filmed for a documentary I’m working on with Nikki Weiss based on the book Sexual Fluidity by Lisa Diamond. It was the first time I ever asked someone out. We have been in a relationship for six months, and I know without a doubt she is my person.”

Baird also talks to The Advocate about being a proud single mother of a 4-year-old son "who remains my top priority and most important job” even as her relationship continues to blossom. Baird is currently producing and starring in the horror thriller They Watch, with filmmaker Peter Dukes, and is working on a photo book with photographer Stephanie Vovas.

Read more in the August-September issue of The Advocate, which is available digitally June 29 and on newsstands July 25. See Baird in action in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, which also starred out actor Matt Bomer, below: