Doctor Who’s first transgender actor, Bethany Black
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isibility in the GLBT community has been growing, especially in the area of sci-fi genre programming. First with the introduction of such sexually adventurous characters such as Captain Jack Harkness, all the way to the transgendered character Nomi Marks in Sense8. Now Doctor Who will finally see its first transgender actor, and her name is Bethany Black and she is appearing in Mark Gatiss’ upcoming “scary” episode.
She had originally appeared in the GLBT created show Tofu, Cucumber and Banana which was created by former Doctor Who and Queer As Folk producer, Russell T. Davies. Now what is interesting is that according to The Independent, “Black’s character is not transgender, and she was considered the best actor for the role.”
Not much else has been announced for the Gatiss penned story, except that it will co-star Reece Shearsmith from The League of Gentleman. Shearsmith also has one other notable “Who connection,” and that is he played Patrick Troughton in the docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time. The only other thing we know is that this episode is reported to be unlike any other previous episode of Doctor Who.
