‘Glamorous’ Star Miss Benny Comes out as Transgender in Touching New Essay: “I Couldn’t Run From Myself Anymore”

By Radhamely De Leon

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Glamorous (2023)

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Glamorous (2023)

Glamorous star Miss Benny has come out as transgender. The actor penned an emotional essay published Monday (June 26) about her journey and her experience transitioning while working on her Netflix show.

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

In Glamorous, Miss Benny plays Marco Mejia, a gender-nonconforming queer person who gets the chance to work with makeup mogul Madolyn Addison, played by Sex and the City actor Kim Cattrall.

The essay, which was published in Time just days after Glamorous premiered on Netflix, follows her path to Los Angeles from a religious Texas household, where Miss Benny moved out at the age of 14. She wrote that she got the opportunity to audition for Glamorous during a period of time when she felt like she was “stuck and figuring out what to do next.”

“At my first audition, I arrived as a diet version of myself so as not to subject myself to the usual rejection I’d faced,” she wrote. “But this time, I was met with the encouragement to be myself and let my full femininity shine.”

Miss Benny described landing the lead role on the show as “the first time in my life somebody looked at me and said, ‘Yes, it’s time for you.'”

The actor said that discovering the queer drama series Veneno during the pandemic spurred her to begin transitioning privately in her day-to-day life. But once she got the call that Glamorous had been ordered to Netflix, Miss Benny was faced with the idea of having to play a gender-nonconforming male character on the show, while knowing she identified as a woman. The character “was no longer me,” she wrote.

After a series of successful meetings with the show creator Jordon Nardino and executive producer Kameron Tarlow, the trio found a way to incorporate her transition into the show, with Netflix’s blessing.

“I knew this was different from the original plan, but I felt we could include this journey in the show by having Marco transition alongside my transition in real life,” Miss Benny explained. “I braced myself for the worst, but instead we bonded over our love for Veneno and expressed how we both wanted to make something with that kind of importance.”

In the essay, Miss Benny wrote that making Mejia’s transition feel “authentic” was a priority, writing, “It was really important that Marco’s trans-ness was not the plot of the show. It’s not a ‘twist’ to surprise the audience.”

What resulted is a frothy summer comedy that puts a queer spin on the formulas we’ve seen successfully executed in glossy shows like Ugly Betty.

The breakout actor also took a moment in her essay to thank prominent trans actors and figures such as Elliot Page and Michaela Jae Rodriguez for “showing me through the years what trans excellence and celebration can look like.”

Miss Benny’s new series Glamorous is now streaming on Netflix.