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Laverne Cox

Acting

Born May 29, 1972 · Mobile, Alabama, USA

Biography

Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBTQ 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 nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer Angela Morley in 1990. In 2015, she won a Daytime Emmy Award in Outstanding Special Class Special as executive producer for Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, making her the first trans woman to win the award. In 2017, she became the first transgender person to play a transgender series regularly on U.S. broadcast TV, as Cameron Wirth on CBS's Doubt. Cox appeared as a contestant on the first season of VH1's reality show I Want to Work for Diddy and co-produced and co-hosted the VH1 makeover television series TRANSform Me. In April 2014, Cox was honoured by GLAAD with its Stephen F. Kolzak Award for advocating for the transgender community. In June 2014, Cox became the first transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine. Cox is the first transgender person to appear on the cover of a Cosmopolitan magazine, with her February 2018 cover on the South African edition. She is also the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure of herself at Madame Tussauds. Description above from the Wikipedia article Laverne Cox, licensed under CC-BY-SA, is a full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Awards & recognition

  • GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award · 2014
  • Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series · 2014 · nominated

Filmography50+ titles

Bottomless Brunch at Colman's

as Self

Savage X Fenty Show

2019as Self

Curb Your Enthusiasm

2000as Laverne Cox

Celebrity Family Feud

2015as Self - Contestant

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999as Candayce

Disclosure

2020as Self - Actress

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

2014as Self

MTV Video Music Awards

as Self - Presenter

The Advocate Celebrates 50 Years: A Long Road to Freedom

2018as Narrator (voice)

Orange Is the New Black

2013as Sophia Burset

The Blacklist

2013as Dr. Laken Perillos

RuPaul's Drag Race

2009as Self

Promising Young Woman

2020as Gail

Law & Order

1990as Minnie

Amend: The Fight for America

2021as Self

Celebrity Wheel of Fortune

2021as Self - Contestant

A Black Lady Sketch Show

2019as Kiana

The $100,000 Pyramid

as Self

Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

2020as God (voice)

Inventing Anna

2022as Kacy Duke

Who Do You Think You Are?

2010as Self

Freak Show

2017as Felicia Watts

Faking It

2014as Margot

The Stroll

2023as Self (archive footage)

Jolt

2021as Detective Nevin

Grandma

2015as Deathy

Clean Slate

2025as Desiree

Can You Keep a Secret?

2019as Cybill

Charlie's Angels

2019as Bomb Instructor

The Kelly Clarkson Show

2019as Self

Lip Sync Battle

2015as Self

The Daily Show

1996as Self

Match Game

as Self - Panelist

Visible: Out on Television

2020as Self

Project Runway

2004as Self - Guest Judge

A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

2025as Stacy

Animal Farm

2025as Snowball (voice)

The Mindy Project

2012as Sheena

Weird City

2019as Liquia

The Trans List

2016as Self

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

2014as Self

Uglies

2024as Dr. Cable

Bad Hair

2020as Virgie

To Tell the Truth

2016as Self - Panelist

LIVE with Kelly and Mark

1988as Self - Guest

The Jennifer Hudson Show

as Self

Outcome

2026as Virginia Allen-Green

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

2003as Self - Guest

Late Night with Seth Meyers

2014as Self - Guest

Musical Chairs

2012as Chantelle