A lot can happen in a year or a month or even a minute so, looking back at the past three years, it's natural to feel a seismic shift. Three years ago, the trans community found their breakout moment when Laverne Cox made history as the first trans woman nominated for an Emmy for Orange is the New Black and they found a home in Jill Soloway's breakout series, Transparent.
It was on Soloway's show, about the Pfeffermans and their transgender matriarch Maura, that a the television landscape finally began to change. Despite an initial outcry about the trans character Maura being played by the cisgender actor Jeffrey Tambor, the show became a haven for trans talent on and off screen, and there may be no better example of that than Maura's best friend, Davina.
Related | Transparent Releases Season Four Trailer, Issues Statement on Transgender Military Ban
Over three seasons we've watched Alexandra Billings play Davina as she grew and became a mentor to Maura and now, in the upcoming fourth season, she's finally getting her own time to shine. Yes, Davina is finally getting her moment with a backstory that's as heartbreaking as it is inspiring, and for Billings, whose career as a transgender actress spans decades, it's a breakout moment in an acting career full of them.
Over the season, we'll finally find out where Davina comes from and how she became the way she is today, creating a chosen family through Maura and the other transgender women she surrounds herself with. As Billings explained, "I think what's resonating [on Transparent] is the sense of family. It's a very fractured, complicated, chaotic, hilarious, insane group of humans who are just thrown together in this pot and I think that's true of all of us."
Ahead of the season four premiere on September 22, here's a preview of what to expect when Davina literally takes the spotlight and finds her own fractured, complicated, chaotic, hilarious, and insane family.
