EastEnders will cast transgender actor for new storyline, says boss Dominic Treadwell-Collins

EastEnders

will cast a transgender actor for a new storyline.

Speakking at National Student Pride today (February 28), executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins confirmed that a storyline is currently in the early stages of planning.

“We are looking at a trans storyline,” he told the crowd during a talk on a main stage. “What I like to do on EastEnders… what we always do is do all our research first.

“We try and do our research and get it all in our heads – the way we want to go because we want to tell it properly.”

While Coronation Street and Hollyoaks have featured transgender characters, they have not been played by transgender actors, something Treadwell-Collins said that he wants to do.

“Also I would want to cast a trans actor as well. You have to – you have to cast a trans actor, but you also don’t want to mess up the story because EastEnders reaches so many people and a lot of our audience are quite traditional,” he explained.

“The power of EastEnders is we can change the world a little. You can change it gently and influence people who would be maybe quite bigoted.”

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