In the final moments of “Exodus,” the penultimate episode of Entourage's second season, Rex Lee's character, the openly gay Lloyd, proves his loyalty to his recently fired boss, Ari, by continuing as his assistant despite Ari's termination.

A failed in-office coup had rendered Ari--a bombastic superagent better known for bigoted barbs than sensitivity--a jobless, drunken, tearful mess until Lloyd delivered an impassioned speech that both exalted Ari as the agent among agents--or “the end game,” in Lloyd's words--and summoned up Ari's courage to continue on representing Hollywood elite, with or without an office to back him up.

Aside from being a crucial moment in the development of the show's plot, this scene transformed the character of Lloyd for many viewers.

Before, he had been Ari's “gaysian,” the new assistant who replaced first season's Gal Friday, played by Samaire Armstrong. This one call to arms, however, turned a lot of viewers onto the fact that Lloyd is a character to watch.

Not only does he enjoy a classic Odd Couple-type relationship with Jeremy Piven, who plays Ari, but Lee's character has depth and ambition. Most importantly, the guy who played him could deliver a speech with the finesse of an actor who truly understands how to say something and make the audience remember.

“It was a big, wet kiss from God to me,” Lee recently told AfterElton about the scene that no doubt sent many viewers scrambling to IMDb to find out just who plays that Lloyd guy. “Someone powerful decided to give Lloyd more to do in that episode and see if Rex can handle it. And I was overjoyed that they were filling in who Lloyd was. It solidified that relationship. Made it interesting.”

Lee said the show has granted him an increased visibility, though the responses he gets from fans sometimes puzzle the openly gay actor, who plays a character that is debatably the most prominent gay Asian ever on television.

“Even now, I'm on this show, I play a gay character, I talk about being gay in real life. But I'm shocked at how many people don't get it,” Lee said. “They're like ‘Hey! Bet you're really reeling in the women now that you're on this show!' And I'm like, ‘Do you live under a rock?'”

Nonetheless, Lee said such reactions have not deterred him from being anything other than open about himself.

“It's strange because I'm confronted at that moment with the fact that this person doesn't know what's going on and, if I want to be truthful to myself, I have to come out of the closet, right now. I've never been in the closet in the industry. And to be confronted with that moment where you have to come out of the closet is very odd.”

Ohio-born but raised in southern California, Lee appeared as Lloyd in ten of the fourteen episodes of Entourage's second season and is currently appearing in the third, which began airing on HBO in June. It's a show that attempts to make the inside of Hollywood accessible for those on the outside. And according to Lee, what Entourage offers as it's version of Hollywood isn't too far from the truth.

“A few minor things are exaggerated for the sake of comedy sometimes, but in the long run it's pretty dead-on,” he said.

Before his breakthrough role on the show, Lee worked as a casting director. Perhaps it's this background that has allowed him to blend so gracefully with the cast of the show, most of whom have been appearing regularly since the first season. Lee said he had enjoyed watching the first season before HBO began casting the character of Lloyd--and that joining Entourage was exciting if initially physically painful.

“When I first auditioned, I was really excited. I said, ‘Wow, I'm auditioning to be on this show that I love.' And I cannot express what a big thing that was. And then I got the job, which was an even bigger deal,” he said.