The actress, who currently stars in Netflix’s comedy-drama Glamorous, came out as a transgender woman in an op-ed for Time Magazine.
“The gap is quickly closing between now and June 22: the day that my television series Glamorous will come out on Netflix,” she wrote.
“And along with it, I too will come out as the transgender woman I’ve been privately living as for the last few years. I’m a proud person, but admittedly it’s still a bit daunting to say those words publicly.”
Benny plays Marco Mejia on Glamorous, a gender non-conforming queer person who lands a job at a renowned cosmetics company – led by Kim Cattrall’s Madolyn Addison.
Originally a pilot for the CW, Benny was cast as the lead character in 2019. A stressful bout of development hell soon followed and the series was shopped around, before Netflix snatched it up with a new cast.
Ahead of filming, Benny revealed that she confided in creator Jordan Nardino about her gender identity, and they decided to adjust Marco’s narrative in the show to reflect her own.
“I met him at a bar in Silver Lake, and I told him about my transition. I knew this was different from the original plan, but I felt we could include this journey in the show by having Marco transition alongside my transition in real life,” she said.
“It was really important that Marco’s trans-ness was not the plot of the show. It’s not a ‘twist’ to surprise the audience.
“Instead, we get to watch a young queer person experiencing first love and heartbreak, career success and failure, and everything else that comes with being a young adult… while also discovering their identity in the background of life.
“Because being transgender is not something you do, it’s who you are.”
You can read Miss Benny’s op-ed for Time here.
In a Glamorous cast interview with GAY TIMES, Benny shared that Marco’s arc across season one ‘frightened’ them because of the similarities with their own queer experience.
“With Marco, people will see that when you’re a feminine queer person who is assigned male-at-birth, you have to navigate the world in a very specific way,” she said.
“I would’ve loved to see that I’m not the only queer person who wears lipstick and is struggling with the fact that not everyone wants me to wear lipstick. So, I really identified with Marco’s struggles with identity.”
Glamorous also stars Zane Phillips, Jade Payton, Michael Hsu Rosen, Ayesha Harris, Graham Parkhurst, Damian Terriquez, Diana-Maria Riva, Kaleb Horn, Lisa Gilroy, Mark Deklin, Nicole Power and Ricardo Chavira.
Season one is now available to stream on Netflix.