The American Horror Stories star wrote a touching personal essay for TIME magazine
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE VIA INSTAGRAM (@MISSBENNY)
If you haven’t been watching Netflix’s new comedy-drama Glamorous, where have you been? Starring icons such as Kim Cattrall, the show centres around the aspiring makeup artists Marco who is played by Miss Benny.
In a touching personal essay for TIME, Miss Benny revealed that she has been living as a trans woman for the last few years. She opened the essay with: “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.”
“I’m a proud person, but admittedly it’s still a bit daunting to say those words publicly,” she continued.
Within the essay Miss Benny described her experience growing up in a religious household where “queerness was totally not the vibe”.
She wrote: “But by 8 years old I was praying every night to wake up and somehow be like my sisters. In the morning I would wake up in the same body, and cry.”
Before Glamorous, Miss Benny starred in shows like American Horror Stories, Love, Victor, and Fuller House. She didn’t transition until during the pandemic after she watched the show Veneno and saw herself in the characters.
“And so as time went by, I privately transitioned in my day-to-day life. It felt as if I had lived with a stuffy nose my whole life and then suddenly my breathing airways opened, and I discovered everybody else has been breathing freely the whole time,” she said.
However, after receiving the news that she had been cast in Glamorous as Marco – which was originally a male role – she was stuck. But after meeting with the creator of the show Jordon Nardino and its executive producer Kameron Tarlow, the trio created a new storyline for Marco.
“It was really important that Marco’s trans-ness was not the plot of the show,” Miss Benny explained. “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.”
You can watch Glamorous now on Netflix!
DIVA magazine celebrates 29 years in print in 2023. If you like what we do, then get behind LGBTQIA media and keep us going for another generation. Your support is invaluable.
