When We Rise: Meet 7 Real Activists Who Are Portrayed in the New Miniseries

Austin P. McKenzie (left) and Guy Pearce (middle) play Cleve Jones (right).

Just as it's briefly shown in the miniseries, Jones was mentored by the iconic gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk until Milk's death in 1978. Jones went on to cofound the AIDS Foundation in 1983, and years later, he led the National Equality March in 2009. Jones wrote When We Rise, the book that inspired the miniseries.

He currently lives in San Francisco and works for the hospitality workers' union UNITE HERE.

Emily Skeggs (left) and Mary-Louise Parker (middle) play Roma Guy (right).

Though dramatized in the series, much of Guy's storyline stays true to her story. She worked in Africa for years before moving to San Francisco with her partner, Diane Jones, another civil rights activist who is also shown in When We Rise. They cofounded San Francisco Women's Building and served on various boards throughout the '80s and '90s.

Eventually, Guy became the director of the nonprofit that seeks to help the homeless in San Francisco.

Jonathan Majors (left) and Michael Kenneth Williams (middle) play Ken Jones (right).

Just like you see on the show, Jones began his career in the Navy, as he completed two tours of duty in Vietnam. While there's not as much information available about Jones, Majors did get to work directly with him to prep for the role, learning that Jones ran a clean needle exchange during the AIDS epidemic.

Jones currently works as a wedding officiant in San Francisco. As he states in his unofficial profile, he still "take[s] some pride in using the arts to foster activism in a world that can sometimes be as painful as it is joyous."

Ivory Aquino (left) plays Cecilia Chung (right).

Chung, who is introduced in the second part of the miniseries, is one of the pioneers of the LGBTQ movement. She has served as the chair of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and continues to fight for the rights of those living with HIV.

As of 2017, she is the senior strategist for the Transgender Law Center.

Todd Weeks (left) plays Tom Ammiano (right).

Ammiano, who is portrayed in a few episodes of the series, went down in history as the first openly gay teacher in San Francisco in 1975. He worked with Harvey Milk on the Briggs Initiative (aka No on Prop 6) and went on to serve on several boards before being elected to the California State Assembly in 2008.

As the series touches on in the third episode, Ammiano is also known as The Mother of Gay Comedy, having established the gay comedy night at the Valencia Rose Cabaret in 1980.

Carrie Preston (left) plays Sally Gearhart (right).

Gearhart lived all over the country before settling in San Francisco and becoming the first openly gay woman to be granted tenure at a major university. She taught at San Francisco State University for decades, finding her voice as a writer an an activist.

She is now a professor emerita at San Francisco State.

T.R. Knight (left) plays Chad Griffin (right).

While politician Griffin spent his early career campaigning for stem cell research, he focused on LGBTQ equality when Prop 8 was passed in California in 2008. He cofounded the American Foundation for Equal Rights, fighting for marriage equality for all.

Griffin is now the president of the Human Rights Campaign.