Hit ABC comedy Modern Family will become the first television show to feature a transgender child actor in an episode slated to air this week.
In the eighth-season episode “A Stereotypical Day,” gay parents Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) invite their daughter Lily’s transgender friend Tom over for a playdate, according to Variety.
“Both parents are filled with pride that they have done well in raising an accepting and open-minded child. But that pride quickly diminishes when Lily insults her friend, which they use as a teachable moment,” the outlet reports of the episode’s synopsis.
Transgender actor Jackson Millarker, 8, will reportedly play Lily’s friend.
Transgender characters have increasingly appeared on television in recent years, though none have been played by a transgender child actor.
Perhaps the most famous transgender character on television is Transparent‘s Maura Pfefferman, played by male actor Jeffrey Tambor (who has won two Emmys and a Golden Globe for the role). Transgender actress Laverne Cox has played Sophia Burset in Netflix’s Orange is the New Black and is set to become the first transgender actress to play a transgender lead role in a television series when the CBS legal drama Doubt debuts this year.
Other transgender actors on television include 15-year-old Jazz Jennings, star of the TLC reality series I Am Jazz, and former Olympian-turned-reality TV star Bruce Jenner, whose reality series I Am Cait about his transition to become Caitlyn Jenner was recently cancelled by E!.
Modern Family‘s “A Stereotypical Day” airs Wednesday, September 28 on ABC.
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