Transgender actress Josie Totah lands lead role in ‘Saved By The Bell’ reboot
The reboot will air from April on NBCUniversal's streaming site Peacock
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
Transgender actress Josie Totah has been cast as the ‘most popular girl’ in the Saved By The Bell reboot.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Champions actress has been cast as Lexi who is described as ‘a beautiful, sharp-tongued cheerleader and the most popular girl at Bayside High who is both admired and feared by her fellow students’.
The new series – which will see original stars Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley reprising their roles of A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano – will air on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming platform from April.
Totah is best known for starring in the short-lived Champions as well as having appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Glee.
Back in 2018, the actress revealed she is transgender and opened up about how she always knew “on some level” that she was female and asked to wear dresses as soon as she was able to speak.
But during her child acting career, she was constantly asked how it felt to be a “young gay man” and she would be introduced that way at LGBT+ rights organisations.
“I almost felt like I owed it to everybody to be that gay boy,” she added.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t be accepted, that I would be embarrassed, that the fans who knew me from the time when I acted in a Disney show would be confused.
“Like many trans people, I developed serious anxiety as I hid who I was. In some ways, I felt like I was lying by letting people believe I was that gay boy.”