Transparent creator: I will recruit a transgender writer for second season
The creator of Amazon comedy-drama series Transparent has pledged to recruit a transgender writer for the show’s second season.
The series, which launched on Amazon last month, features Jeffrey Tambor as trans woman Maura Pfefferman, and deals with her transition to female as she comes out to her grown-up children.
Creator Jill Solloway – who based the semi-autobiographical show on her own experiences after her parent came out as trans – had attracted criticism for casting Tambor in the lead role instead of a trans woman.
However, she has announced that she is committed to improving representation in the upcoming second season, and is accepting open applications from aspiring transgender writers who want to join the show.
Soloway and the show’s other writers will give the five best applicants a crash course on writing for TV – with one gaining the opportunity to work full time on the show.
She said: “No matter what we did, we were always going to be otherising Maura in some way.
“And in the same way where I wouldn’t want a man to say, ‘I can have a writers room full of men and we can write women just fine.’ I can’t say that I can create a show about a trans woman and not have a trans woman writing for me.
“We’re actually going to be helping make trans women TV writers by teaching them how to write.
“It’s absolutely necessary, and it’s gonna change the show.”
