'Modern Family' to guest star transgender child actor
Transgender child actor Jackson Millarker, left, will guest star on "Modern Family" on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016. Here, he appears with the ABC sitcom's director Family director Ryan Case in a photo Case shared on Instagram on Monday, Sept. 26. Credit: Ryan Case
In an episode airing Wednesday, five-time Emmy Award-winning best comedy series “Modern Family” will feature broadcast network television’s first openly transgender child actor.
After the website NewNowNext.com reported that the ABC hit will guest-star transgender actor Jackson Millarker as a friend of Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell’s (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) daughter Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons), episode director Ryan Case posted an Instagram photo of herself with the young actor. “This is Jackson Millarker. He’s 8 years old, from Atlanta, and just happens to be transgender,” Case wrote. “He plays Lily’s friend Tom in this week’s ‘Modern Family’ and he’s wonderful. One of the many reasons I love being a part of this show.” The episode is titled “A Stereotypical Day.”
In addition, Case tweeted, “So proud to have directed this amazing kid.” Shadi Petosky, co-creator of the Amazon animated short “Danger & Eggs,” replied, “this is great! — gotta challenge ‘first’ erasure [sic] though. The Fosters, Transparent, various indies cast trans children.” Case responded, “I didn’t write article but love this kid.”
On Friday, the Amazon streaming series “Transparent” broke ground with 12-year-old transgender actor Sophia Grace Gianna playing the child version of lead character Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) in a flashback. However, the basic-cable series “Faking It” (MTV) and “The Fosters” (Freeform) this year featured transgender actor Elliot Fletcher, who is not a child actor but a young adult born in 1996.
Transgender author-activist Jazz Jennings, 15, stars with her family in a TLC reality show, “I Am Jazz.”
Aidan Daley Mitchell, a child actor who is not transgender, played Sam, the transgender daughter of Wayne and Dahlia Malloy (Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver) on the 2007-08 basic-cable series “The Riches” (FX).
