Nava Mau has been nominated for her first Emmy for her heart-wrenching performance as Teri in Baby Reindeer. Following Laverne Cox’s 2014 nomination for Orange Is the New Black in 2014, this is only the second time a trans actress has been nominated in a performing category. It is the first nomination for a trans Latina.
For Nava Mau, receiving the monumental nomination was, understandably, emotional. Speaking to Deadline, she expressed her “overwhelming joy.”
“It has been a priceless experience being a part of this show,” she added. “Every step of the way, I could feel the way the experience was transforming me, my life, and what feels possible. To be recognised by my peers in the Academy is a celebration of that transformation.”
Mau added that she hopes her nomination will inspire more opportunities for other members of the trans community.
“We can see that when trans people are given the opportunity, we will grow into it and so far beyond any expectation,” she said.
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She also praised Richard Gadd, who wrote and starred in the show, for his empathetic, honest depiction of the trans experience.
“Reading the screenplay, I felt like it was the first time I’d ever read something that was written by someone who had actually known and loved a trans woman,” she said. “I don’t know that Richard had to reach too far because he just had to reach within.”
Aside from her work in Baby Reindeer, the Mexican-born Mau has been busy with her own short films as well as her much-celebrated work on HBO’s Genera+ion.
Speaking to GLAMOUR earlier this year, Mau spoke about her journey towards embracing performing as a trans woman.
“I have been blessed in my life to have been guided, supported, and simply held in times of great need by incredible women and amazing, queer and trans people who gave me the inkling of hope to believe that I could become who I want it to be, even if I didn’t really know what that was,” she said. “I needed people to tell me that so much, in a world that tells you the opposite, as a trans person, as a queer person, as a woman as a Latina. In a world that tells me that that I should stay small, that that I should say ‘well, this is it, this is enough’, I really, really, really needed people to push me. So it’s it’s really thanks to those educators, healers and mothers that I am who I am today.”
Well, Mau has certainly come a long way since her career began — and her historic Emmy nomination is proof that she is exactly where is supposed to be.