Trans actors Hollywood representation decline, Digi Mart USA News: Trans and non-binary actors say work has dried up in Hollywood, according to a Guardian report published on 15 November 2026. Trace Lysette, Vico Ortiz and Rebecca Root described sharp career setbacks, and Lysette said she has not had a lead role or major studio project since the film Monica.
The article cites several performers facing lost opportunities. Ortiz said the only big-budget network and movie roles they had auditioned for in the past two years were for white cisgender women, and Laverne Cox told the Guardian earlier this year that she had lost roughly 90% of her income over two years.
Glaad’s annual Where We Are in Film report, published in July, analysed 225 movies from ten major distributors and found zero included trans characters. The same organisation’s Where We Are on TV report, released this week, counted only seven trans characters among 369 LGBTQ+ characters on scripted television between 1 June 2025 and 31 May 2026.
That figure represents a 79% decrease from the 33 trans characters counted the previous year. Glaad said two of the seven were played by cisgender men, and none of the trans characters tracked will return next year, as three were on cancelled shows and four were in limited series.
Glaad’s associate director of entertainment research, Raina Deerwater, said the steep decline was the sharpest the group has recorded. Several actors told the Guardian they believe political rhetoric and backlash against trans people are contributing to fewer roles, though the article notes this is an argument made by many in the industry rather than a finding of the Glaad studies.
