- Laverne Cox is an Emmy-nominated actress and trans rights activist.
- She is best known for her role as Sophia Burset on Netflix's Orange Is the New Black.
- Cox helped bring the trans rights movement to the forefront thanks to her iconic 2014 Time magazine cover, titled "The Transgender Tipping Point."
- The 48-year-old actress is the executive producer of the new Netflix documentary Disclosure, which was released on June 19.
Laverne Cox has become a household name over the past several years—and deservedly so.
Recognized for her Emmy-nominated performance as Sophia Burset on Orange Is the New Black, she's opened doors for LGBTQ folks not only in Hollywood, but across the globe. Memorably, Cox graced the cover of Time magazine in 2014 with a headline that read "The Transgender Tipping Point." Not that she was the first, but the story itself paved the way for trans Americans to have further visibility in the media at large. In addition, she's starred in other projects such as 2016's TV remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and season 3 of Dear White People.
After she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an acting category at the Primetime Emmys in 2014, Cox has stayed busy, between nabbing her first solo cover of Out Magazine, co-hosting iHeartRadio's Can't Cancel Pride virtual benefit concert, and executive producing her new Netflix documentary Disclosure.
In honor of her long list of accomplishments on and off screen, here's everything we know about the trailblazer.
Laverne Cox is from Mobile, Alabama.
She was born on May 29th in Mobile, Alabama, and raised by a single mother and her grandmother. In 2014, she opened up about being bullied as a child, and how after being called a sissy and the F-word, she attempted suicide at age 11.
"I was bullied and I internalized a lot of shame about who I was as a child," Cox said during an interview on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. "Bullied because I didn’t act the way someone assigned male at birth was supposed to act. And so I was called sissy, I was called the F-word. I was chased home from school practically every day. There was always a kid or groups of kids who wanted to beat me up."
Things eventually got better and the actress studied creative writing and dance while at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, then at Indiana University Bloomington before finally switching to Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, where she studied acting.
She is best known for playing Sophia Burset on Netflix's Orange is the New Black.
Laverne Cox was one of the original cast members on Orange Is the New Black, playing the trans woman Sophia Burset who was in prison for stealing credit cards and using them to finance her transition. Cox's character showed just how many injustices trans women, in particular, face.
However, Burset does eventually find a happy ending after she is selected for early release in the show's penultimate season. She ends up working in a salon in the final season, presumably living a happy life after also reconciling with ex-wife Crystal and son Michael.
In addition, Cox played Candace in a 2008 episode of Law & Order: SVU; Adele Northrop in a 2014 episode of Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce; Sheena in three episodes of The Mindy Project; Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a 2016 remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; Cameron Wirth in 2017's short-lived CBS series Doubt; Cynthia Fray in an episode of the newest season of Dear White People; and appeared in a recent episode of A Black Lady Sketch Show.
She has a twin brother you may recognize from OITNB.
On the show, Burset's pre-transition persona, Marcus, was played by Cox's twin brother, M. Lamar (a musician in his own right). In an interview back in 2014 with Conan O'Brien, Cox talked about her brother playing the pre-transition Marcus on OITNB and their funny exchange when M. Lamar was mistaken for Cox in public.
Unsurprisingly, the experience brought the twins closer. Though Lamar is not an actor, the two still share that oh-so-special bond that so many identical twins have.
"I love my brother so much … in so many ways, he's been my moral compass over the years. Like, I run things by him and he's … we're twins, so we've literally known each other our entire lives," Cox said in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment. "And there's a wonderful bond that we share, and there's a tremendous amount of respect that we have for each other as artists and as human beings. So I'm really grateful that I got to share a little bit of this show and this moment with him."
Her 2014 Time magazine cover is iconic.
In 2014, Cox made headlines all across the world for being the first transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine in a story titled, "The Transgender Tipping Point."
In that story, Cox opened up about her childhood and the first moment she knew she might be transgender. "I tell this story about third grade. My third grade teacher called my mom and said ‘Your son is going to end up in New Orleans wearing a dress,'" she told Time. "Up until that point I just thought that I was a girl and that there was no difference between girls and boys. I think in my imagination I thought that I would hit puberty and I would start turning into a girl."
More than anything, the Time cover story opened up the transgender perspective for millions of Americans who didn't know much about the community's struggles. Cox said, "There’s not just one trans story. There’s not just one trans experience."
Since then, Cox has felt both proud and frustrated by the need to represent the trans community—explaining that marginalized individuals are often forced to be educators to the bigger public.
"When Orange is the New Black really took off, we were in a really different place, so we had to educate," Cox told OprahMag.com earlier this year. "I felt a huge responsibility and burden of representing my community. And I still feel that burden, but the difference is that there’s more of us now with a platform, and so I feel like the burden isn’t just on me and a few other people. I feel compelled because there’s so much injustice. I feel compelled to try and educate as much as possible."
She's made history (many times) as an openly transgender woman.
Cox also became the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan thanks to a February 2018 cover of the South African edition. She is also the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure at Madame Tussaud's.
In 2015, she also became the first trans woman to win a Daytime Emmy as executive producer for Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word.
In 2019 Laverne Cox split from her longterm boyfriend.
After nearly two years together, this summer Cox announced on her Instagram account that she and Kyle Draper decided to split ways.
"After much soul searching and tears from both of us, we have decided it's time for us to go our separate ways," Cox wrote about her relationship with the Mateo Sound CEO. "We know our relationship meant so much to so many people, especially trans folks, giving them hope that this kind of love is possible for them as well. That hope, the hope for love has not waned for me in the face of this breakup but rather is fortified. Knowing that we are both capable of giving and receiving love with this level of kindness, respect, trust, affection, depth, and intensity has been so healing and life affirming for us both."
Cox openly discussed her relationship in the post, also stating that she is "so grateful" for "every moment we had together."
"We have both grown in innumerable ways as a result," she continued. "Now it's just time to move on separately. We both want a breakup that honors and respects the quality of our relationship and the love we shared. It's possible."
She turned heads at the 2019 Met Gala.
Cox caught everyone's attention while on the pink carpet thanks to the Christian Siriano design she wore, which was inspired by 1950s and 60s architecture. That ruffled shoulder and teal headpiece? It certainly added to the wow factor.
"I was obsessed with Susan Sontag's essay in college, I read it in college and I was like... this whole idea of surfaces, and this sensibility that is historically very queer, excited me to no end," Laverne told E! News about her Met Gala outfit, referencing the "Camp" theme. "And then, there's another book I read in college called Camp: The Lie That Tells the Truth, and I love that title and I love that sentiment that camp is this thing that is sort of exaggerated and making fun of and commenting on, but that can reveal something that's very truthful about our culture, our society, about humanity."
She uses her social media and interviews to promote the LGBTQ+ rights.
Her activism isn't just relegated to magazine covers and awards shows. Cox constantly constantly uplifts trans folks from all walks of life on social media. Other examples of her activism? She delivered a rousing commencement speech earlier this year at Pitzer College, and also pushed for IMDB's birth name policy to be changed (it since has!). She advocated for the trans actors in Pose to score Emmy nominations. And Cox additionally received an honorary degree from New York City's The New School in 2016 for her trailblazing work for the transgender community and for her progressive work in the fight for gender equality.
Cox also stays up to date in the latest political and legal advancements in transgender rights. In a June 2020 interview with The View, she explained the importance of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on LGBTQ worker rights, noting that she was present for oral arguments last year. “It’s a really beautiful thing that in the United States of America we can affirm once more that it should be illegal to fire someone from their job simply for being who they are," Cox said.
She is the executive producer of Netflix's new documentary Disclosure.
Released on June 19, 2020, Cox's new Netflix documentary tells the story of Hollywood and the media's evolving view of transgender people over the years, the violence that the trans community faces, as well as movies and shows that have opened up opportunities for trans people to appear on screen. "I think for a very long time the ways in which trans people have been represented on screen have suggested that we are not real, have suggested that we are mentally ill, that we don't exist," Cox said in the documentary's trailer. "And yet, here I am. Yet here we are, and we've always been here."
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Irina Gonzalez is an editor and a freelance writer based in Colorado, covering parenting, recovery, and Latinx culture. In her spare time, you can find her exploring her colorful state with her husband and spunky toddler. Follow her on Instagram at @msirinagonzalez.
