Baby Reindeer star Nava Mau says script was what 'I needed to see' as a trans woman

Baby Reindeer star Nava Mau has said the show’s script was “what I needed to see” because she had “never seen a trans woman represented quite in that way”.

The 32-year-old played Teri in the hit Netflix drama, the girlfriend of Donny, played by its creator Richard Gadd, whose relationship falls apart when Donny is targeted by stalker Martha (Jessica Gunning), and said she felt emotional while reading the show’s script for the first time.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan, she said: “It makes me emotional still.

“I just remember there was a moment reading the script for the first time, and I was like, ‘oh, he really loved her’.

“Donny’s love for Teri is in the form of awe, and I had never seen a trans woman represented quite in that way. It was this weird, transcendental experience of it being what I needed to see, and what it did to heal my own wounds.”

She added: “There is such a fixation in society and in the media on trans people and who is dating us, and who is attracted to us, and who is even consorting with us.

Mau was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the Netflix drama (Florence Mann/Cosmopolitan UK/PA) PA Media

“It’s strange, because that fixation presupposes that trans people should be responsible for explaining and answering any questions and curiosities that cis people have, but it also presupposes that trans people must also have this fixation.

“But it’s like, I’m not a curiosity to myself. We’re just living full lives, real lives, just like everyone else.”

Mau went on to speak about trans representation on TV, and said trans people were struggling to obtain roles in stories without a trans narrative.

She explained: “I think there are some people who have this imagined belief that there’s a trans takeover. And it’s like, we’re such a small population – a tiny fraction of the world’s population – and we’re barely getting to make headway into the kinds of roles that are available to us.

“Trans people should be considered and invited to be a part of projects that do not revolve around a trans narrative, and that’s because trans people are so much more than our gender identity.

Nava Mau on the cover of Cosmopolitan (Florence Mann/Cosmopolitan UK/PA) PA Media

“It’s a matter of seeing trans people as human, and valuing us for our humanity, and not as a token simply because we are trans.”

The Mexico City-born star was nominated for an Emmy for her Baby Reindeer performance, having previously won one for her role in comedy series Generation (2021). She has also appeared in the film Waking Hour (2019).

The full interview with Mau can be read in the February/March issue of Cosmopolitan UK, on sale from January 14.