Mark Indelicato Didn't Know What Playing a Gay Character on 'Ugly Betty ' 'Would Mean to So Many'

Mark Indelicato has made his return to TV!

In this week's issue of PEOPLE, the actor, 27, opens up about his career-changing role as Justin Suarez, the fashion-obsessed nephew of America Ferrera's title character in the ABC comedy Ugly Betty. Also, Indelicato shares why he decided to take a break from Hollywood and how he realized that acting actually was his calling.

"At the time, I don't think that I understood exactly what Justin would mean to so many people and the kind of legacy of the show in opening so many doors for subsequent projects and representation," he says of the character, who, like him, is gay.

"But I think that it took me until I was about 25 to really look back and be like, 'Oh, wow. I did that. I'm part of a larger kind of story,' regarding representation, especially among young queer people on television," Indelicato recalls. "Because I mean thinking back, 2006 to 2010, it was so taboo to have a young gay kid on TV, for a minor. It's interesting to see how so much has changed over the last 15 years partially because of Ugly Betty, and I'm really proud of that."

When the series wrapped after four seasons in 2010, the Philadelphia native went on to study international relations at New York University.

"I wanted to go and live as normal a life as I possibly could," he says. "I was challenged in a way that I'd never been challenged before and that just makes you a stronger person. I had never really been called out for being wrong about something before in my life."

Indelicato adds, "I think that sitting around a seminar table with kids that are way smarter than you — and that you're really at the bottom of the totem pole in that way, being challenged on your opinion, and thusly having to have an opinion — was really important for me."

Indelicato intended to go to law school and work for the United Nations, but in the end, he decided to return to Hollywood.

"I just felt this overwhelming sense of 'This is what I'm supposed do,' " says the star, who recently appeared alongside Jean Smart in season 1 of the Emmy-winning HBO series Hacks."This is my path. I think that I was so ready to give it all up just because it felt like I didn't really have a choice in the matter when I was a kid. But then at the end, I'm so grateful for it though, because I came around to realize that this is what I'm supposed to do."

Next, he will star as Jorge Diaz Jr. in With Love, an original romantic-comedy series on Amazon Prime Video premiering on Dec. 17.

Indelicato hopes to continue to be a force for LGBTQ+ representation in entertainment. "I want to accomplish playing as many gay men as I possibly can, in as many nuanced ways as I can," he says.