Writer, actress, and producer Jen Richards is a trans woman who has been pushing hard for greater trans inclusion in Hollywood. Her web series Her Story, which follows the lives of a host of queer men and women, has been nominated for an Emmy, and she recently got the attention of Mark Ruffalo when she called him out for casting cis actor Matt Bomer as a trans woman in the new movie Anything, when there are plenty of trans actors available to play such roles. It seems that CMT heard Richards’s pleas for trans representation, because according to Deadline, she has just been cast in season five of Nashville as a trans woman named Allyson Del Lago, “a tough but understanding physical therapist” who works with one of the main cast members during “one of their most difficult challenges.” She will be the first transgender character on any CMT show and the first out transgender actor on the network. You can see more from Richards with her upcoming docuseries More Than T and its accompanying series Trans 102; she will also being appearing in the new CBS drama Doubt alongside Laverne Cox.
