Trans actress Jasmine Davis is back in the cast of queer Emmy winner Lena Waithe’s hit drama The Chi for its 4th season on Showtime which starts on Sunday, May 23rd. The Show , co-created by Common (Selma) is a coming-of-age drama, centered on a group of residents on Chicago’s South Side who bond deeply, after connecting by coincidence. Joining The Chi was Davis’ major acting debut coming soon after she ‘came out to her family and was being considered the breakout performance of the season. She plays Imani, the show’s first transgender character, who is the loyal girlfriend of Trig (played by actor Luke James), and she is there by his side to help him right to some long-festering wrongs. Even as more television shows are finally casting trans actors, Davis said in a statement, “I don’t want to be looked at as a trans actor like one the way people talked about Black people back in the day. I’m an actor who happens to play whatever role speaks to me. “And I’m actually glad I’m on ‘The Chi’ because it’s a very real story and I was thrilled because so much of Imani is like me in my life.” There are still unconfirmed rumors that fellow actor Bartin Fitzgerald had quit the show as he hadn’t wanted to play Davis’s love interest, but that doesn’t seem to have fazed the tactfully discreet Davis. |
Labels: 2021, Jasmine Davis, The Chi, transgender
