Glamorous Star Miss Benny Comes Out As Trans

Glamorous star Miss Benny has officially come out as transgender, telling the world that she’s finally “breathing freely.”

The Netflix star shared the news with the public in a personal essay published in Time magazine on Monday.

“The gap is quickly closing between now and June 22: the day that my television series, Glamorous, will come out on Netflix. And along with it, I too will come out as the transgender woman I’ve been privately living as for the last few years,” the actress wrote.

Miss Benny posted the article to Twitter, thanking Time for letting her write about her experience with transitioning for the first time. Miss Benny added that her preferred pronouns are “she/her” and stated that she was “overwhelmed with hard-earned joy” to be able to share this story with the public.

Growing Up In Texas

The actress shared her experience of being raised in a religious Texas household where queerness was not accepted, recalling how she would pray every night as an eight-year-old to “wake up and somehow be like my sisters.”

“In the morning, I would wake up in the same body and cry. Over time, I became highly aware of how unwelcome LGBT topics would be in my hometown. And so, I kept my head down and looked for an immediate escape,” Miss Benny wrote.

Miss Benny landed the role of Marco for Glamorous in 2019, a character who was initially written to be cisgender and used he/him pronouns at the beginning of the show.

Following the Covid pandemic, she “[became] painfully aware of how much time I felt I had wasted by not transitioning sooner.”

“My gender dysphoria was getting brutal, and I couldn’t run from myself anymore,” she said.

Real To Reel

Following the show’s acquisition by Netflix, which occurred several years after Miss Benny’s initial audition, the actress had a meeting with creator Jordan Nardino where she proposed adjusting the show’s premise to align with her own identity.

In her personal essay, Miss Benny shared that she met Nardino at a bar in Silver Lake and shared her transition journey with him, stating that she believed it was possible to include her real-life transition into the show by depicting Marco’s transition alongside her own. The idea was met with support from Netflix and the writers, leading to adjustments in the show to authentically reflect Miss Benny’s story.

She emphasized the importance of Marco’s transgender identity not being the central focus of the show, noting that it wasn’t meant as a surprising twist for the audience.

Once Miss Benny began privately transitioning in her day-to-day life, she described finally feeling free to breathe in the world and be comfortable with her gender identity. “I discovered everybody else has been breathing freely the whole time. And now, I too can breathe and enjoy my life the same way everyone else does.”

No Twists

Miss Benny wanted the narrative arc of Marco to feel authentic and for his trans-ness to not be the main feature of the show or a surprise “twist” for 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 wrote.

The actress credited other transgender actors and personalities, including Elliot Page, Gigi Goode, Dylan Mulvaney, and Kim Petras, for showing her what trans “excellence and celebration” could look like.

Amidst a rising wave of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in the United States, Miss Benny acknowledged her uncertainty about being vulnerable. However, she recognized that this fear was the reason behind her desire to include Marco’s transition in Glamorous.

“I know that when I was a terrified queer kid in Texas, it was the queer joy I found in droplets online that guided me to my happiness. And if someone like me is out there feeling the weight of being othered, I want them to have a place they can see someone like us thrive and be celebrated,” Miss Benny wrote.

Glamorous is available to be streamed on Netflix.