Trans Film & Video 7/19/21

Welcome to our transgender characters and actors in film and video column. Let us begin!

More Roles for Us, Please

Carmen Carrera

Carmen Carrera got her first big break, going from modeling to appearing is a television series, on Season 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2011. By 2014 she was a W magazine cover girl, and there was a growing campaign by fans to make her the first trans Victoria’s Secret angel. Carrera has said that when she was starting out as a model there weren’t many opportunities in an already tough business for trans models and actors. Since 2014 landmark shows such as Orange Is the New Black, The L Word: Generation Q, and Pose have included trans characters. Carrera would love to see writers and directors take it up a notch and write trans characters who just happen to be transgender. Let them be seen as regular people rather than the exotic sex worker or a victim in the plot. As Carrera puts it “Ideally, I’d love to see a storyline of a trans woman that has already made it past the transition and has transitioned socially and with her family.” Learn more about Carmen Carrera from Insider.

Mj is up for an Emmy!

Mj as Blanca.

Speaking of the expanding appearances of trans actors in TV and film, we must mention that Mj Rodriquez, star of Pose, has been nominated for an Emmy. She is the first transgender performer nominated in a lead drama category. She reacted to news of the nomination for her role as Blanca on Pose saying, “I felt represented and I felt seen,” Rodriguez told the Associated Press. “And … more accepted than I have felt in a long time. I felt like my colleagues now see me, my acting colleagues see me, and the people who are surrounded by the arts see me, and how much I want to give the world the love to my craft and my art.”

Josie Totah on iCarly Reboot

Totah as Willow in iCarly.

Another trans actor who has been lighting up screens lately is Josie Totah. Totah most recently was appearing in the reboot of Saved by the Bell portraying the school’s most popular “mean” girl, and also acting as a producer on the project. Her newest role is Willow in the reboot of iCarly. The original show ran from 2007 to 2012. Totah’s character on the new show is one of the new cast additions added to bring the show into 2021. Totah hasn’t been resting on her laurels since Saved by the Bell. She can also be seen, or in the case of Big Mouth, heard, in projects like Good People and Moxie. Learn more about her role in iCarly from Newsweek.

You Didn’t Hear it From Me But. . .

Zión Moreno

While we’re talking about reboots, Gossip Girl is back and can be viewed on HBO Max. The original show debuted in 2007 and ran till 2012. Teens living with their wealthy parents on the Upper East Side of New York City were being harassed by a ruthless blogger (the gossip girl) who spilled all the tea on what the teens were up to. The new Gossip Girl also focuses on the doings of a group of wealthy private school teens and, wait for it, there is another social media gossip monger complicating their lives. Why is this show being featured in this column? One of the stars of the new series is Zión Moreno, a trans model/actress and activist. Her character is  Luna La, one of the wealthy teen’s stylist . Moreno got into acting in 2019 when she starred in K-12 as Fleur. Her next appearance was in Control Z, a show originally  produced in Spanish but has been dubbed in English and is available on Netflix. The plot is similar to that of Gossip Girl, but the characters are not rich. Moreno also appeared in a Mexican version of the show titled Gossip Girl: Acapulco.

The Loki Variant Surmise 

The character Loki has been around long before the Marvel Universe was imagined. He is the god of mischief in the Norse pantheon. Since Loki was known to have powers that allowed him to transform into anything or anyone he wanted to become (like that time he transformed into a female horse and became pregnant after romping with a stallion) it has been speculated that the character in the Disney+ Marvel show off Loki’s shape shifting. [Spoiler Alert] While a lady Loki (who really doesn’t like that name) does factor into the show’s plot in a big way she is not a female transformation of Loki from another timeline. In her original timeline she was born female. And her name is Sylvie. If you haven’t seen the show all the episodes are now available on Disney+.

I Need a Digital Dollar

The digital currency bitcoin has been getting a lot of publicity lately. Celebrities have partnered with the digital dollar business to promote the idea of virtual currency. One of those who is a fan of bitcoin, and is making some old fashioned dollars for producing a bitcoin promotional ad, is Spike Lee. The ad is for a company called Coin Cloud which operates digital kiosks where users can invest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The ad stars Mj Rodriquez, who was just nominated for an Emmy, and the drag performer Shangela along with a large number of diverse people who L would have us believe would benefit from using bitcoin instead of “old money”. This is all reported in Bitcoin magazine and they say the spot has yet to air but we have it for you right here.

Tags: actress, featured, Transgender

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment