MJ Rodriguez has become the first transgender actor to earn a Emmy nomination in major acting category.
The actor – who stars in FX drama Pose as Blanca Rodriguez of the House of Evangelista – is nominated in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the 2021 ceremony, it was announced on Tuesday (13 July).
Speaking about her nomination, Rodriguez said that the nomination had left her feeling “more accepted than I have felt in a long time”.
“I felt like my colleagues now see me, my acting colleagues see me, and the people who are surrounded by the arts see me, and how much I want to give the world the love to my craft and my art,” she said.
Only two trans actors have previously been nominated for Emmys – Laverne Cox for Guest Actress in a Drama for Orange is the New Black in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2020, and Rain Valdez for Actress in Short-Form Comedy or Drama for Razor Tongue last year.
Rodriguez’s nomination is the first for a trans actor in a lead role, as well as in a major genre category.
She will compete against Uzo Aduba, Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin, Elisabeth Moss and Jurnee Smollett.
Ryan Murphy’s drama Pose is set in New York in the 1980s and 1990s against a backdrop of ballroom voguing culture and the HIV epidemic.
The show’s third and final season aired in the US earlier this summer and is expected to come to BBC Two in the coming months.
