Transgender actors face their own set of obstacles. A member of the class, Jamie Clayton, 32, said she doesn’t get sent to auditions for “regular female” parts, and yet although born a man, she passes easily as a woman and so rarely reads for characters whose transsexuality is more visibly apparent.
“I would get sent out on auditions early on, for ‘Law & Order,’ ” and other shows casting transgender roles, she said. “But I would show up, and it was like, this isn’t working. If I walk into a room, and people were supposed to pick the transgender girl, people aren’t going to immediately pick me.”