Star Trek is going where the 54-year-old sci-fi TV franchise has never gone before by introducing its first-ever transgender and non-binary characters. The characters will be played by actors who are trans and non-binary in real life.
In its upcoming season of Star Trek: Discovery, the series’ 2018 CBS spin-off, trans actor Ian Alexander will play Gray, a Trill, which are aliens who serve as hosts for symbiotic creatures that provides unique personality traits and skills.
Non-binary actor Blu del Barrio will make their debut by playing the non-binary character Adira, an intelligent and introverted teenage amnesiac whose coming-out story will mirror del Barrio’s own real-life coming out. They will befriend Discovery’s gay couple, Lt. Commander Paul Stamets and Dr. Hugh Culber, who are played by Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz.