Updated August 26, 2021 9.7K votes 1.4K voters 177.7K views
This list contains information about the greatest fictional trans characters. Several award-winning films and TV series feature transgender characters. Some trans characters are seen in a comedic light while others illustrate the difficulties that come with transitioning. One famous actor even won an Academy Award for playing a trans woman.
Who is the most famous fictional transgender character? Roberta Muldoon is one of the notable fictional transgender characters listed here. In the 1982 film The World According to Garp, John Lithgow plays a trans ex-football player named Roberta Muldoon. Lithgow was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
In the 1985 film, Kiss of the Spider Woman, William Hurt plays Luis Molina, a gay man who is likely transand is in prison for having sex with an underage boy. The film was nominated for four Oscars and Hurt took home the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.
Who is the best transgender character on this list? Cast your votes below, then check out our list of the best transgender films.
In "Orange is the New Black," Laverne Cox plays Sophia Burset, a transgender inmate who has trouble connecting with her young son. In real life, Cox is openly transgender and a strong advocate for LGBT rights.
In the 2015 biographical drama, The Danish Girl, Eddie Redmayne plays Lili Elbe, one of the first known women to receive gender reassignment surgery in Copenhagen in the 1930s. Elbe's wife, Gerda Wegener, is supportive at first, but their marriage becomes strained when she realizes that Elbe is no longer the person she married.
Redmayne was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.
In the 2001 film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell plays Hedwig, a transgender punk-rocker who is repeatedly betrayed by her lovers. Mitchell was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance.
Appears In: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
In the 2015 film, About Ray, Elle Fanning stars as Ray, a transgender teenager who realizes his true identity as a male, and begins the process of transitioning.
In the 2005 film Transamerica, Felicity Huffman plays Bree Osbourne, a pre-op transgender woman who is looking to reconnect with her long-lost son. Huffman was nominated for an Oscar for the performance, for which she also won a Golden Globe.
In the 1992 film The Crying Game, Jaye Davidson plays Dil, the transgender love interest of an IRA soldier named Fergus. Davidson was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance.
