Laverne Cox Biography: Laverne Cox born May 29, 1972 is an American actress and advocate for the LGBT community. She gained widespread recognition for her portrayal of Sophia Burset on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category, and the first nominee since composer Angela Morley in 1990. In 2015, Cox won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Special as the executive producer of Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, making her the first trans woman to win the award. In 2017, she made history again by becoming the first transgender person to play a transgender series regular on U.S. broadcast TV, portraying Cameron Wirth on CBS’s Doubt.
Laverne Cox Biography
Laverne Cox is a four-time Emmy-nominated actress, Emmy-winning documentary film producer, and a leading advocate for equal rights. She gained global recognition for her portrayal of Sophia Burset in the critically acclaimed Netflix series Orange Is The New Black, a role that made her the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for a Primetime acting Emmy. Beyond her acting career, Laverne is an artist and activist with a powerful message about moving past gender expectations to live authentically. She made history as the first openly transgender person to appear on the covers of TIME Magazine, Cosmopolitan, British Vogue, and Essence, among other major publications. In 2014, she was honored as one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year. Laverne has also received two SAG Awards, which she won alongside her Orange Is The New Black castmates.
Laverne Cox is an American actress and LGBT advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, becoming the first transgender person to be …
Born: 29 May 1972 (age 52 years), Mobile, Alabama, United States
Parents: Gloria Cox
Siblings: M Lamar
Height: 1.8 m
Education: Fashion Institute of Technology; Indiana University Bloomington; Marymount Manhattan College
Early Life
Cox was born in Mobile, Alabama, and was raised by her single mother and grandmother in the AME Zion church. She has an identical twin brother, M Lamar, who portrayed the pre-transitioning Sophia (as Marcus) on Orange Is the New Black. Cox has openly shared that, at the age of 11, she attempted suicide after enduring bullying and realizing she had romantic feelings for her male classmates, feeling pressure to conform to societal expectations of behavior for those assigned male at birth.
Cox is a graduate of the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, where she initially studied creative writing before switching to dance. She spent two years at Indiana University Bloomington before transferring to Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, where she shifted her focus from classical ballet to acting. She also studied Fashion Merchandising Management at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
