Laverne Cox Biography

Fast Facts

• A several-time nominee and one-time winner of a GLAAD media award, she has attended the awards ceremony and publicly advocated for fair treatment of gay, lesbian and transgender people
• For her role in "Orange is the New Black," she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2014
• Was the first African-American transgender woman to produce and star in her own TV series, "TRANSForm Me․"
• Was the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine in June 2014
• Has a twin brother, musician M․ Lamar, who played her "Orange is the New Black" character pre-surgery, when she was a New York City fireman named Marcus Burset
• Her appearance on VH1's "I Wanna Work for Diddy" in 2008 made TV history, as she was the first African-American transgender woman to appear on a reality TV show
• Quote: "I watch a lot of television․ I go to mainstream films․ And I want to see myself ․․․ We should have representations that humanize our experiences and tell the diversity and the complexity of our experiences․"
• Quote: "The preoccupation with transition and surgery objectifies trans people ․․․ The reality of trans people's lives is that so often we are targets of violence․ We experience discrimination disproportionately to the rest of the community․"
• Mirroring her real-life activism, she has portrayed multiple transgender characters to great critical acclaim, most notably Sophia Burset in "Orange is the New Black․"
• Has been a regular contributor to The Huffington Post