Few television shows have generated as much buzz for binge-watchers as the second season of a hit Netflix comedy-drama, and much of the attention has centered on a Mobile native playing one of its standout characters, a transgender hairstylist at a women’s prison who was once a male firefighter before transitioning.
The actress, who grew up in Mobile, has become a prominent advocate for transgender awareness alongside her acting career, and became the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of a major national newsmagazine. This week, she is up for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy at a televised critics’ awards show in Los Angeles.
Sitting beside her at the ceremony will be her mother, who still lives in Mobile and has spent a lifetime supporting her daughter’s ambitions while avoiding the spotlight herself. The mother, a retired Mobile County public school reading teacher who taught for two decades, said she has always preferred to stay out of view, even at her children’s earlier performances, sitting in the back row to cheer quietly rather than draw attention.
Raising her daughter and her daughter’s identical twin brother, now a performance artist, as a single mother in Mobile’s Down the Bay neighborhood, she said she always encouraged her children to learn as much as they could, brushing off suggestions from friends that the kids should focus on part-time jobs instead of the arts.
Both children attended Council and Woodcock elementary schools, then Palmer Pillans Middle School, where her daughter served as vice president of the student council and became a familiar voice on the school’s PA system despite enduring bullying throughout her childhood for not conforming to gender expectations. Her mother said the other students recognized leadership when they saw it, even as they teased her.
Her daughter also developed public speaking skills as part of the Mobile City Federation youth group, traveling throughout the Southeast for engagements, and got an early creative start through a Saturday morning arts program at Bishop State Community College, where she impressed the program’s director enough to be invited to audition on the spot.
Now touring college campuses around the country and appearing on national television, the actress has spoken often in interviews about the challenges of growing up gender-nonconforming in Mobile, and about how her mother, navigating unfamiliar territory of her own, ultimately became one of her strongest supporters. Back home, that mother says she’s simply proud, even if she’d rather stay out of the photographs.