Meet Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, the first trans actor to win a Golden Globe – 7 things to know about the Pose star who wants to make music like Beyoncé, Michael Jackson and Katy Perry
- Before starring alongside Billy Porter in FX’s Pose she loved Marvel comics as a child – so much that she took the initials of Spider-Man’s partner Mary Jane as a stage name
- Next seen in Apple TV+ comedy series Loot, co-starring Maya Rudolph, she told Stephen Colbert that she’s writing her own comic and looking forward to more varied acting roles
Michaela Jaé Rodriguez just made history as the first transgender actor to win a Golden Globe. She was awarded best actress for her role as housemother Blanca on FX’s Pose – also bagging the first Golden Globe for the series that focuses on New York City’s queer-and trans-led 1980s ballroom culture.
First appearing in the limelight at age seven – the same age at which she had “prayed to become female” – Rodriguez had already made history last year, when she became the first trans actress nominated for an Emmy in a lead acting category, also for Pose. The talented actress also debuted as a singer in 2021, and just turned 31 on January 7, but what else do we know about her?
I see my musical career lasting to the end of time … something that is etched in the brains of people. I want my music to last like Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Katy Perry
1. She fights for what she believes in
Born to an African-American mother and a father of half Puerto Rican and half African-American descent, Rodriguez has always been proud of her Afro-Latin side. She believes that everyone should be looked at equally as a person.
“I just pray that, at a certain point, people get to see the human being,” she told Refinery29, “that people get to see the person who is all types of intersectionalities – black, Latina, trans, a woman, all things encompassed in one – and not use it as a logline or a subtext title where it’s like, ‘This is what she is and look at what she’s done because she is trans’.”
2. Her stage name came from Spider-Man comics
As a fan of comic books, Rodriguez previously has used the stage name MJ – a nod to her love for Spider-Man’s partner Mary Jane. “I’m a comic guru. I love Marvel,” she told Broadway.com, “I saw her and then I saw the movie … and I was like ‘I want that name. Let’s see if I can find those initials in my name.’ I found them, and they’re mine now.”