Famous Transgender People

Although best known for her surreal and digressive stand-up comedies, Eddie Izzard is also a popular film and television actor. Born as Edward John Izzard, she began her career as a street performer, eventually making her first stage appearance at the age of twenty-five, quickly drawing larger and larger audience with her stream-of-consciousness delivery, achieving fame both home and abroad.

Kim Petras is a German singer-songwriter currently based in USA. She was assigned male at birth and underwent medical gender transition as a teenager. Interested in music from a young age, she began recording music as a teenager. Her debut single topped several viral music charts on Spotify. Since then, she has released many hit albums and singles. 

Bruce Jenner, who changed her name to Caitlyn Jenner after coming out as a trans woman in 2015, is an American TV personality and former decathlete. Jenner won a gold medal for the USA at the 1976 Olympics. Often referred to as the most popular transgender woman in the world, Jenner serves as an inspiration to the LGBTQ community.

English singer Anohni is a talented chamber cabaret/ambient electronic musician who has gained attention both for her singing style and her androgynous looks. A transgender icon, she gained an Academy Award nomination for the track Manta Ray from Racing Extinction. She previously led the band Antony and the Johnsons.

iO Tillett Wright is an American photographer, author, activist, TV and podcast host. He is credited with founding the now-defunct international street art magazine Overspray for which he served as the editor-in-chief until 2009. His podcast The Ballad Of Billy Balls was counted among the best of 2019 and was considered for television development.

Born Richard Raskind, a boy, Renée Richards became an LGBT icon after winning a landmark case against the US Tennis Association and acquiring the right to compete in women’s tennis events in spite of her sex-change operation. She is also a qualified ophthalmologist and has trained the likes of Martina Navratilova.

Australian comedian, singer, and digital content creator Jordan Raskopoulos is best known as the lead vocalist of the comedy music act The Axis of Awesome. She also gained fame with The Ronnie Johns Half Hour and has hosted the podcast This is About. Openly transgender, she is also an LGBTQ icon.

Born Laura Dillon, a girl, in Britain, Michael Dillon later became the first trans man to undergo a female-to-male sex-change operation by phalloplasty. A qualified doctor, he also served as a naval surgeon, penned books such as Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology, and later deviated to Buddhism.

Daniel Mallory Ortberg is an American author, podcast host, and editor. He is credited with co-founding a website called The Toast for which he also serves as writer and co-editor. In 2015, he was named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work in the media.