Qween Jean Becomes First Openly Trans Tony Award Winner, Takes Best Musical Costume Design
Jean won Best Costume Design of a Musical for Cats: The Jellicle Ball and became the first openly transgender Tony Award winner.
- On Sunday, costume designer Qween Jean made history at the 2026 Tony Awards as the first openly transgender person to win a Tony Award, receiving Best Costume Design of a Musical for 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball.'
- The musical reimagines the feline characters of the original 'Cats' as voguing contestants in queer ballroom competitions, with Jean creating around 500 costumes including tributes to trans revolutionaries like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.
- Jean, a co-founder of the Black Trans Liberation movement, studied ballroom history at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to inform her design work. She explained she wants to 'express the beauty and innovation' of her community through her work.
- In her acceptance speech, Jean said, 'We have to shift the paradigm,' while host P!nk addressed the political climate, noting that 'our trans siblings began to lose even more rights' this year.
- Jean's win follows recent milestones for nonbinary and trans performers at the Tony Awards, including last year's historic win for Cole Escola as the first nonbinary winner in Best Actor in a Play category.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Costume designer Qween Jean becomes first out trans people to win a Tony Award
Costume designer Qween Jean made history this week when she became the first out transgender person to win a Tony Award. The win came after Jean’s first season on Broadway, which saw her design costumes for ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ and ‘Liberation’. She was nominated for Tony Awards for both projects, in the ‘Best Costume Design of a Musical’ and ‘Best Costume Design of a Play’ categories, respectively. Jean took home the win for ‘Cats: Jelli…
The Advocate
Gay Pride - LGBT & Queer VoicesQween Jean makes trans history at the 2026 Tony Awards
This story originally appeared on Out.Qween Jean made history at the 2026 Tony Awards as the first openly transgender person to win a Tony Award, taking home Best Costume Design of a Musical for her work on Cats: The Jellicle Ball. The political activist and designer was also nominated in the Best Costume Design of a Play category for Liberation. She took home her award before the night's festivities and delivered an impassioned speech on stage.…
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