Aneesh Sheth (born January 5, 1982) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

actress and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

activist.

Biography

Aneesh Sheth was born in India, but moved to the United States when she was little. Her parents were "very supportive" of theatrical arts and Sheth chose to pursue a career resulting in acting on stage starting at the age of 7. In 2008, Sheth went through her transition after she chose to help

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

kids by joining

The Trevor Project The Trevor Project is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1998. Focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, they offer a toll-free telephone number wher ...

and The Stigma Project. After hearing transgender people speak, Sheth realized that she too was trans and decided to begin the process. On coming out to her family, she faced both support and opposition. "Nearly everyone said that they weren’t surprised. I did experience some loss in certain relationships, but it strengthened some others. You learn that life is short and you don't have time to waste on people who aren't going to fully accept you for who you are." Her first major acting role was as Kami Sutra in the short lived

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

sitcom '' Outsourced''. She only appeared in 2 episodes, but considered it a turning point in her career stating, "I should not limit myself because of who I am". Sheth was cast as Gillian in the third and final season of ''

Jessica Jones Jessica Campbell Jones Cage is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos and first appeared in ''Alias'' #1 (November 2001) ...

'', which is part of the highly successful

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...

franchise. She liked that her character being trans was not a major issue and was treated like a regular thing adding, "there’s no mention of

illian ''The Wheel of Time'' is a series of high fantasy novels by American author Robert Jordan, with Brandon Sanderson as a co-author for the final three novels. Originally planned as a six-book series, ''The Wheel of Time'' spans 14 volumes, in ad ...

being trans within the show, nor a narrative around her identity. Which I think is wonderful because trans people exist in the world and it’s not always about their ransnarrative."

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheth, Aneesha 1982 births 20th-century Indian LGBT people 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American LGBT people 21st-century Indian actresses 21st-century Indian LGBT people Actresses from Pune American actresses of Indian descent American film actresses American LGBT people of Asian descent American television actresses American transgender actresses Indian emigrants to the United States Indian film actresses Indian television actresses Indian transgender actresses Living people