While the first season of "American Idol" is mostly remembered for the discovery of Kelly Clarkson, another one of that season's top 10 finalists has been steadily carving out a career for himself and is doing so as an openly-gay singer and actor.

His name is Jim Verraros, a 23 year old who boldy came out after his stint on the show. Fans will be able to see Verraros (who finished ninth), Clarkson and the rest all over again when Fox begins re-airing the first season of this pop culture phenomenon this fall.

"They want to show how it all started," Verraros told me recently. "I hope I get to rekindle old friendships with a lot of the cast while I'm doing publicity for it."

Verraros didn't run his plans to come out by "American Idol" producers but reports "they were pretty good about it. It wasn't their decision, I didn't clear it with them. But I was openly gay with the staff and crew since day one."

"I came out in January 2003 in "The Advocate" after touring with the other contestants.I wasn't thinking long-term or whether this would hurt my career. I was 19 and I did it because I felt like it was the right thing to do. Not enough people kind of step up. I think we are coming out younger and younger. You do it to be true to yourself."

Verarros released his first CD, "Rollercoaster" after his season on "American Idol" which he said has gotten great support from gay fans. But he wants his next recording to "have a more controlled sound, edgy and sexy. On the first CD, I was trying to find myself and wanted to do it all."

Verraros, who lives in Chicago and has a boyfriend, is also star of the a funny comedy with an awful name; 'Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds" which is being billed as the first gay comedy sequel...ever! The first movie, a big hit on DVD, also starred Verraros but mostly got attention because of cast member Ryan Carnes who went on to play the boyfriend of Bree's sociopathic son on "Desperate Housewives."

"We have a strong cast and a strong script and we are in great position to launch off the success of the first movie. Ryan Carnes is not back but the movie's phenomenal," Verraros says of the sequel which screened at Outfest last month but does not yet have a distribution date. "We see in independent films how degraded we can be as a community, a lot of negative aspects of how difficult it is, the feelings of isolation. But we also want to show how great we are as a community and that shows through comedy."

He said he "hopes to have the kind of career" that Chad Allen has carved out for himself. Allen, now one of the most well-known and respected openly-gay actors, was outed by a tabloid when he was just a teenager on the CBS series "Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman."
"I can't imagine how tough it was to be on 'Dr. Quinn' and to have this awful secret. He's made a 180 degree turn and used it to his advantage."