Country of Birth

USA

Industry

Entertainment

Top Achievements

Laverne Cox is an American actress and LGBT advocate, who achieved a number of firsts as an openly transgender woman in the entertainment industry. A trailblazer for the transgender community, she is a four-time Emmy-nominated actress, Emmy-winning documentary producer, prominent equal rights advocate and public speaker.

Early Life and Education

Laverne Cox was born on May 29, 1972, in Mobile, Alabama. Assigned male at birth, she was bullied as a child for being feminine. Cox and her twin brother were raised by their mother, Gloria, who was a teacher.

Cox began taking dance classes in third grade and continued her dance training through high school with a scholarship to the Alabama School of Fine Arts. She then attended Indiana University at Bloomington for two years before transferring to Marymount Manhattan College, New York, and graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. While at Marymount Cox began acting in student-directed films and Off-Broadway shows, and also started her medical transition.

Early Career

In 2008 Cox appeared in two episodes of Law & Order before becoming one of the contestants on the reality television show I Want to Work for Diddy. In 2010 she produced and co-hosted the VH1 makeover television series, TRANSform Me, before landing her breakthrough role in 2012 as Sophia Burset, a trans woman sent to prison for credit-card fraud, on Netflix television drama, Orange Is the New Black.

Achievements in Her Field

After Orange Is the New Black ended in 2019, Cox continued to take on acting roles in movies and on television. Her later credits include Charlie’s Angels (2019), the Oscar-winning film Promising Young Woman (2020), and the action-comedy, Jolt (2021). Cox is the first transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy Award in the acting category, and also the first to appear on the cover of Time magazine (2014), Cosmopolitan magazine (2018) and British Vogue (2019).

Recognition

Cox received GLAAD’s Stephen F. Kolzak Award in 2014 for her work as an advocate for the transgender community. She won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2015 as executive producer for the documentary Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 2017 for her performance in Orange Is the New Black. Other accolades include a Critic’s Choice nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and consecutive NAACP Image Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

In May 2016, Cox was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New School in New York City for her progressive work in the fight for gender equality.

Additional Facts

• Cox is the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure of herself at Madame Tussauds.
• Her twin brother, musician M Lamar, portrayed her as pre-transition Sophia in two episodes of Orange Is the New Black.