Modern Family casts transgender child actor

The show is thought to be one of the first major shows to cast a transgender child actor

The cast of Modern Family (Getty)

A transgender child actor is to star in an episode of the hit show Modern Family.

Eight-year-old Jackson Millarker will join the Emmy-winning show for an episode called ‘A Stereotypical Day’ which will be broadcast in the US this week.

The show’s director Ryan Case announced his inclusion on the show on Instagram, writing: “This is Jackson Millarker. He’s eight-years-old, from Atlanta, and just so happens to be transgender. He plays Lily’s friend Tom in this week’s Modern Family and he’s wonderful. One of the many reasons I love being a part of this show.”

In the show, Lily, played by Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, is the adopted daughter of Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet) in the long-running sitcom.

The show will be the first major television programme to feature an openly transgender child, according to multiple reports. Other hit American sitcoms feature transgender actors and actresses such as Orange Is The New Black who cast Laverne Cox to play Sophia Burset. Cox too shared the news or Jackson’s inclusion in Modern Family on Twitter.

The call for more trans people to play trans characters has garnered momentum over the last few years. Last week at the Emmy awards, Jeffrey Tambor who plays a transgender character in the award-winning show Transparent said: “I would not be unhappy if I were the last cisgender male to play a female transgender on television.”