Congratulations to musician and Glamorous star Miss Benny, who just revealed that she identifies as transgender.
via: EW
The actress, who stars in Netflix's Glamorous alongside Kim Cattrall, came out in an essay in Time published on Monday. "The gap is quickly closing between now and June 22: the day that my television series Glamorous will come out on Netflix," the popular YouTuber wrote, sharing on Twitter that her pronouns are she/her. "And along with it, I too will come out as the transgender woman I've been privately living as for the last few years. I'm a proud person, but admittedly it's still a bit daunting to say those words publicly."
Miss Benny previously featured on Fuller House, American Horror Stories, and Love, Victor.
Miss Benny had not come out when cast as the Glamorous character Marco, who is gender non-conforming but uses he/him pronouns as the show begins. The star described her journey landing the role and said the character shifted along with her own identity.
After the show was picked up by Netflix (several years after Miss Benny initially auditioned), the actress met with creator Jordan Nardino and pitched tweaking the premise to fit her identity. "I met him at a bar in Silver Lake, and I told him about my transition," she wrote. "I knew this was different from the original plan, but I felt we could include this journey in the show by having Marco transition alongside my transition in real life."
Netflix and the writers were supportive of the idea and thus the show was adjusted to reflect Miss Benny's authentic story. "It was really important that Marco's trans-ness was not the plot of the show," she noted. "It's not a 'twist' to surprise the audience. Instead, we get to watch a young queer person experiencing first love and heartbreak, career success and failure, and everything else that comes with being a young adult… while also discovering their identity in the background of life. Because being transgender is not something you do, it's who you are."
Miss Benny recently spoke to EW and detailed how the Glamorous audition was the first place she felt the space to truly be herself in a casting situation. "I was so used to the way I had to audition before, where I would go in as myself and I'd be told to tone myself down," she said. "So I went into the Glamorous audition toned down already, in anticipation of that. The only note they gave me for my callback was 'we want you to be yourself.' They knew me to be a very flamboyant and vibrant person. That's something they were looking for, so the next audition I didn't hold back at all. It felt like the first time in a casting office I'd ever been told that I wasn't doing too much, and it was validating."
After watching Glamoruous I kind of suspected that Miss Benny might be trans. Glad to see she's finally comfortable enough to live her truth.
You can read the full essay in Time.