On Sunday (Jan. 09, 2022), Michaela Jaé “Mj” Rodriguez, 31, took home a Golden Globe for best actress in a TV drama for her role as house mother and nurse Blanca on the FX show Pose. It marks the first time in history a trans actress has won a Golden Globe.
This is also the first Golden Globe win for Pose, which premiered in 2018.
Rodriguez made history for the first time in summer 2021 after becoming the first transgender performer to be nominated for a lead acting Emmy. Rodriguez did not end up winning that award.
“OMG OMGGG!!!!” Rodriguez said in an Instagram post on Sunday after her Golden Globes win, which was announced at a private, pared-down ceremony that wasn’t open to the public. “@goldenglobes Wow! You talking about sickening birthday present! Thank you! This is the door that is going to Open the door for many more young talented individuals. They will see that it is more than possible. They will see that a young Black Latina girl from Newark New Jersey who had a dream, to change the minds others would WITH LOVE.
“LOVE WINS,” she continued. “To my young LGBTQAI babies WE ARE HERE the door is now open now reach the stars!!!!! @goldenglobes. To the nominees we are Queens. I’m so happy to share space with you! Each and every last one of you women are phenomenal.”
The third and last season of Pose premiered in May.
Rodriguez — who formerly went by Mj Rodriguez — played Blanca Evangelista, a house mother in New York’s underground ballroom scene during the AIDS crisis. The show, created by Steven Canals, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, starts in the 1980s and continues in the ‘90s.
“I think people finally see Michaela Jaé for who she really is,” Rodriguez told NJ Advance Media last year. “Mj has matured a lot. And now she’s grown into this strong Afro-Latina woman who is still fighting against the grain so that a lot of trans women don’t get typecast or get put into this box of how they’re supposed to act, whether it be in the world or on a television screen. We’re all human beings, we all have different personalities … I think it takes a person not only like myself, but many who are like me, to constantly go against the grain and scratch the surface.”
The Jersey actor, who can also be seen in the Lin-Manuel Miranda movie Tick, Tick…Boom! — for which Andrew Garfield won the Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy — won the Golden Globe over Uzo Aduba of In Treatment, Elisabeth Moss of The Handmaid’s Tale, Jennifer Aniston of The Morning Show and Christine Baranski of The Good Fight.
Rodriguez’s co-star Billy Porter, who played ballroom emcee Pray Tell, was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actor in a TV drama, and the series was nominated for best drama.
Rodriguez’s win arrives in an unconventional year for the Golden Globes. The awards show was not televised and winners were announced at a private ceremony, then shared on social media Sunday night.
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