Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

Michaela Jaé Rodriguez is a transgender actress who has made history at every major awards institution in Hollywood. She became the first openly transgender woman to receive an Emmy nomination in a lead acting category (2021, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series) and the first transgender actor ever to win a Golden Globe (January 2022, Best Actress in a Television Series Drama), both for her portrayal of Blanca Evangelista in Ryan Murphy's FX drama Pose (2018) -- a series set in the New York ballroom scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s, featuring the largest cast of transgender actors in television history. As Blanca, an HIV-positive ball competitor who leaves her ballroom "house" to build a new one from scratch, Rodriguez delivered a performance of extraordinary warmth, authority, and grief that redefined what trans women's stories could look like on prestige television. She has spoken about the significance of Pose in giving trans women -- particularly trans women of color -- narratives of dignity, joy, and survival rather than tragedy and victimhood. Rodriguez subsequently starred in Apple TV+'s Loot (2022) alongside Maya Rudolph. She is a singer as well as an actress, and has advocated consistently for trans women of color in Hollywood.