Duke is a recurring character on Faking It. He has dreamed of being a professional MMA fighter since he was a kid, and this dream prevented him from coming out as gay. He had been discreet and in the closet for years until his ex-boyfriend Shane Harvey outed him.
Personality[]
Duke is a strong character, but with his relationship with Shane he shows his emotional side. He has stayed in the closet his entire life, except for with his father who is fully known to his son's sexual preference. He comes out of the closet on live television saying he is in love with Shane Harvey.
Physical Appearance[]
Duke is muscular and sports a buzzcut hairstyle. He has a tattoo on the side of his hip which helped Shane identify him in Present Tense.
Biography[]
Present Tense[]
TBA
The Ecstasy and the Agony[]
TBA
Date Expectations[]
Shane agrees to go on a casual "group hang" with Shane and his friends, simply as "trainer and client" as he still could not risk letting anyone know that he was gay and in a relationship with Shane. Shane, however, sets it up in hopes of making him comfortable enough around his open-minded friends to come out at least to them. During dinner, he and Shane get in an argument when Shane, pissed off by Duke's constant defensive by pointing out that he was just his trainer, starts flirting with the waiter. Duke flirts with Lauren, until Lauren's date, Theo, stands up to him and Lauren tells them that she knows Duke's gay and is with Shane. Annoyed, Duke leaves. Shane later goes back to the gym and apologizes to him, and Duke explains why he can't risk coming out: because he needs to land sponsors to launch his MMA career, and being gay may hinder that.
Zen and the Art of Pageantry[]
Duke's father meets Shane and has him sign a non-disclosure agreement to ensure that he would never leak anything about Duke's sexuality. However, Shane later breaks up with him after he accepts a sponsorship from Cluck-n-Go, an extremely conservative Christian company that would never allow him to come out.
Karmic Retribution[]
While Duke did not appear in this episode, Shane spent the whole day waiting for his text, and so desperately went to great lengths to get his phone back after it was confiscated, hoping he would try to get back together.
Busted[]
TBA
Stripped[]
TBA
Future Tense[]
TBA
Saturday Fight Live[]
Shane comes to Duke's first fight at Los Angeles with Liam Booker, Zita, and Karma Ashcroft. There, his publicist Joanna tells Shane that they should keep their relationship a secret because he's not an interesting enough partner for Duke, much to his annoyance. Shane confronts Duke about this and slips about being the one who outed him and cost him his first sponsorship. Duke angrily tells him that when Joanna told him to keep Shane a secret, he refused. Just then, Duke is called into the ring, also signalling the end of their relationship.
Boiling Point[]
TBA