Jen Richards

Jen Richards is a transgender writer, actress, producer and activist.

Jen Richards

Jen Richards is a transgender activist, writer, actress, and producer. Richards was born in Mississippi and resides in North Carolina. She graduated from Shimer College with a BA in Philosophy, and studied at Oxford University.

Nashville Cats!

Transgender actress and activist Jen Richards is on the road to Nashville!

Richards (Her Story) has joined the country music drama in a recurring role for season five, it was announced Tuesday.

She will play Allyson Del Lago, a tough but understanding physical therapist who helps one of the series' main characters through one of their most difficult challenges. Richards' casting marks the first transgender character on CMT and the first out transgender actor on the network. 

CMT, along with Hulu, resurrected Nashville in June one month after it was canceled by ABC after four seasons.

Richards recently nabbed an Emmy nomination for co-creating, writing and producing the digital series Her Story. She also starred in the Los Angeles-set romantic as Violet, a trans woman who must confront her attraction to women when she meets a cute reporter named Allie (co-creator Laura Zak) while also worrying that her attraction to women makes her less trans. 

"Richards also appeared as herself on the E! docuseries I Am Cait, which centered on Caitlyn Jenner's post-transition journey. Although I Am Cait was axed last month after two seasons, transgender TV has continued to prove popular. Transparent, which centers on a man's transition to a woman, has won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for star Jeffrey Tambor. Laverne Cox, best known for her breakout role on Orange Is the New Black, will next headline Fox's Rocky Horror Picture Show remake in October, before making history as the first full-time transgender character on a broadcast television with CBS' Doubt. Richards also is slated to appear on the midseason legal drama, in addition to co-producing the forthcoming docuseries More Than T.

In addition, Richards is an activist and advocate who works with national organizations and media projects.

Nashville's fifth season premieres Thursday, Jan. 5, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CMT."

Go here for more.

Her Story

From the "Advocate."

Arguably one of the most important pieces of media created by transgender women, the web series Her Story has been making headlines and garnering praise since its release in 2015.

Earlier this month, the groundbreaking show earned yet another honor: an Emmy nominationin the newly-created category of Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama. The award nomination is not only a win for the Her Story's incredible cast and crew. It should also serve as confirmation to the greater creative media community of the importance of transgender voices and faces in the portrayal of trans narratives.

With the commercial and critical success of TV series like Amazon's Transparent and films likeThe Danish Girl, the lives of transgender people have entered mainstream media consciousness. However, the bulk of these trans stories so far are written by and are portrayed by cisgender people. When Her Story premiered in January, it smashed through those paradigms. It stars two talented trans actresses, Jen Richards and Angelica Ross, and was co-written and co-produced by Richards.

The series focuses on the dating lives of two trans women, Violet (Richards) and Paige (Ross).

For more, go here:

We've Been Around

I happened across this set of five short transgender videos you may want to check out called "We've Been Around" 

Which leads me back to a point I have been wanting to make for awhile. At our last Trans Day of Remembrance planning meeting, the subject came up about how many more transgender people were there. Maybe not organized - but there.

If you watch any of these video's it turns out we have always been somewhere in the shadows waiting for our turn.

I have also began to follow another very wordy blog whom I think was trying to explain away any transgender movement.

I would argue she doesn't read much other than her own blog or doesn't get out much.

As I have always said, it matters not how beautiful you are or aren't, or how rarely you do get out of the closet, unless you are a complete ass, you are part of a larger transgender movement.

Candis Cayne

There is much more to this link including Jen Richards, co-writer, star, and producer of "Her Story," who then used the example of transgender actress Candis Cayne who 
became a positive role model. Cayne, when she came to national attention in 2007 starring in the ABC drama, Dirty Sexy Money. She was the first transgender actress to play a recurring transgender character in primetime, said Richards.

Growing up, Richards said she didn't see people like her on television. They were usually "the dead prostitute or the punch line," she said.

The next generation of trans people will have the advantage of seeing "trans people speaking in their own voices" onscreen in programs like "Her Story," said Richards."

Maybe it's just me, but this just might be a transgender movement?