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10 Most Influential Transgender People In The World #ProudToBe

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Ten trans trailblazers, one YouTube countdown, and a #ProudToBe hashtag that says more than any press release could.

TheThings Celebrity dropped its “10 Most Influential Transgender People In The World #ProudToBe” video during Pride Month in June 2016, and the list reads like a snapshot of exactly how fast trans visibility moved in entertainment over the previous eighteen months. From a Netflix prison drama to a reality series about a teenage YouTuber, the countdown tracks how trans performers went from background punchlines to leads, models, directors, and advocates with real platforms.

The names on the list aren’t obscure — they’re the people who were already reshaping television, fashion, and film by mid-2016, several of them doing it in front of tens of millions of viewers at once.

• Laverne Cox earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series playing Sophia Burset on Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” and used the platform to campaign against violence targeting trans women.
• Caitlyn Jenner came out publicly via Vanity Fair in 2015 and chronicled her post-transition life on “I Am Cait,” turning her Olympic and Kardashian-adjacent fame into a vehicle for trans advocacy.
• Lana and Lilly Wachowski, the directing duo behind “The Matrix,” cast Jamie Clayton in Netflix’s “Sense8,” giving a trans actress a lead role in a series built by trans creators.

The Breakout Roles Changing Television

Laverne Cox tops the list for good reason. Sophia Burset wasn’t written as a punchline or a plot device — she was a fully realized character on one of Netflix’s biggest shows, and Cox’s Emmy nomination made her the first openly transgender performer recognized in an acting category by the Television Academy. She’s parlayed that into a recurring media presence pushing back on anti-trans violence, not just red-carpet appearances.

Hari Nef followed a similar path on the other side of the platform divide. She played Gittel in Season 2 of Amazon’s “Transparent,” and became the first transgender model signed to IMG, putting her in campaigns and runway shows that had almost never featured openly trans talent before. Candis Cayne got there earlier than either of them, landing a recurring role on ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money” that made her one of the first trans actresses with a steady primetime gig on network TV. Jamie Clayton, known for HBO’s “Hung” before “Sense8,” rounds out the group of performers who turned single roles into ongoing careers.

Laverne Cox’s Emmy nomination for “Orange Is the New Black” made her the first openly transgender performer nominated for a Primetime Emmy in an acting category.

From Reality Television To Advocacy

Caitlyn Jenner’s 2015 Vanity Fair cover was the moment — the transition from Bruce Jenner, Olympic decathlon gold medalist, into Caitlyn, played out with the kind of media saturation only a Kardashian-family name could generate. “I Am Cait” turned that saturation into something more deliberate: a docuseries built around Jenner navigating her new identity in real time, for better or worse, in front of cameras.

Jazz Jennings represents the other end of that same media strategy — a teenager rather than a 65-year-old former Olympian, documenting her own transition on TLC’s “I Am Jazz” instead of E!. Gigi Gorgeous did it without a network at all, building a following by chronicling her transition directly on YouTube, proving trans visibility didn’t need a TV deal to reach an audience.

Directors, Models, And Advocates Redefining Visibility

Lana and Lilly Wachowski were already two of the most successful directors in Hollywood before either sister came out publicly — “The Matrix” trilogy alone made that case. Their work on Netflix’s “Sense8” put them behind the camera on a series that cast Jamie Clayton as a lead, giving the list a rare example of trans representation built from the top down rather than cast after the fact. Buck Angel, an adult film actor and advocate, closes out the roster as one of the earliest openly trans men in entertainment to build a public advocacy career around his own visibility rather than around a TV role.

Taken together, the ten names show how far the needle moved in just a few years — from rare, often misrepresented trans characters to performers, models, and directors driving the projects themselves.