Laverne Cox is set to star in the upcoming CBS legal drama Doubt, making her the first trans actor to play a trans main character in a broadcast series. In the legal drama, she will play an Ivy League-educated transgender attorney, Variety reported. The role was specifically created to be filled by a transgender actress, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Doubt released a pilot last season, but the network didn't pick it up, Deadline reported. But the second pilot, which added Katherine Heigl and Steven Pasquale as its co-stars, has the green light to become a series.
The show, produced by Grey's Anatomy's Tony Phelan and Joan Rater and directed by 30 Rock and Breaking Bad's Adam Bernstein, stars Heigl as a lawyer who falls for a client with a questionable past. Cox is the third character billed, right behind Heigl and Pasquale.
Cox, best known for her performance in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, is also about to star in Fox's The Rocky Horror Picture Show as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Things appear to be moving forward both for Cox's own career and for the visibility of the transgender community.
