Brian Michael Smith

Brian Michael Smith publicly came out in 2017, the same year his role on Queen Sugar introduced one of TV’s first Black trans masc characters. He later made network‑TV history as the first openly Black trans man cast as a series regular, playing Paul Strickland on 9‑1‑1: Lone Star, and has continued to champion authentic trans representation through work on The L Word: Generation Q and the documentary Disclosure.