Laverne Cox Changes History As First Transgender Actor To Be Cast In A Lead Role

Laverne Cox just changed history after becoming the first transgender actor to play a transgender lead character in the trans legal-drama series, Doubt.

CBS president Glenn Geller’s had been grilled at the Television Critics Association on the network’s lack of diverse lead actors causing the bossman to choose Cox for the role.

The show’s creators Tony Phelan and Joan Rater revealed during the TCA panel that, “the show’s case-of-the-week storylines will touch on violence and hate crimes against transgender people, along with rapes on college campuses.”

Rater also divulged that in the first season of the show, Laverne Cox’s character would have a love interest “that I think people will be interested in”.

In Doubt, which is a legal drama, Cox plays the Cameron Wirth, a trans Ivy League-educated lawyer.

Cox humbly stated during the panel, “I’m really, really grateful to have a job as an actor. Four years ago, I was standing in February of 2012 in New York City with an eviction notice in my hand…so I’m just really happy to have a job.”

Speaking about being chosen for the show she added, “What’s so exciting about Cameron for me and being on CBS is that I’m an avid TV watcher…and growing up, I didn’t see people like me on TV.”

On her history-changing role, Cox said, “That piece is really wonderful that folks can have someone like Cameron who is Ivy League educated. It’s wonderful to get to play a character and to be a black transgender woman in that position on CBS is really special.”

She said proudly, “I visualized it, I dreamed it. I think you have to begin to manifest things before they happen and so I dreamed about it and I worked towards this moment for a really long time. I’ve been really lucky. As Oprah Winfrey reminds us, ‘Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.’ So maybe I’m just prepared,”

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