Tommy Dorfman (born May 13, 1992) is an American actress, best known for playing Ryan Shaver in the Netflix series ''

13 Reasons Why ''13 Reasons Why'' is an American teen drama television series developed for Netflix by Brian Yorkey and based on the 2007 novel ''Thirteen Reasons Why'' by author Jay Asher. The series revolves around high school student Clay Jensen (Dylan Mi ...

'' (2017).

Early life and education

Dorfman was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia to a Jewish family. Her cousin is Andi Dorfman, a former contestant on '' The Bachelorette''. Dorfman graduated from

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

's drama program in 2015 with a B.A. in theatre arts.

Career

After graduating from university, Dorfman was cast in the role of Ryan Shaver on the Netflix drama ''

'', which premiered in 2017. Also that year, she helped design a fashion collection with ASOS, and in October was honored with the Rising Star Award by

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

. In the spring of 2019, Dorfman made her New York theatrical debut in The New Group's production of Jeremy O. Harris' play ''Daddy'', directed by Danya Taymor.

Personal life

Dorfman is

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

. Dorfman and Peter Zurkuhlen became engaged in April 2015 and married in Portland, Maine on November 12, 2016. In July 2021, Dorfman revealed she and Zurkuhlen had divorced but remain friends. In November 2017, Dorfman came out as non-binary and began using '' they'' pronouns. On July 22, 2021, Dorfman came out as a transgender woman and began using ''

she She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

'' pronouns. She revealed in an interview that she had already been "privately identifying and living as a woman" for almost a year. She chose to retain her birth name of Tommy, to which she feels "very connected" and which honors her mother's brother who died when Dorfman was a month old. In April 2022, Dorfman identified as a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dorfman, Tommy Living people 1992 births Jewish American actresses Actresses from Atlanta American television actresses Fordham University alumni American LGBT actors LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state) Transgender actresses Transgender Jews LGBT Jews 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American LGBT people Female gender nonconformity 21st-century American women Alumni of The Paideia School