Josie Totah

The girl Disney couldn't pigeonhole

Josie Totah didn't ask permission to enter the industry. She was ten years old when she started working on Disney Channel productions and barely twelve when Ryan Murphy cast her for the final season of Glee in 2015. Back then, the public knew her under another name and an identity that wasn't hers.

And the system accepted her quickly.

In 2016 she took part in the film Other People. It was a key moment for her career in independent film. Sundance critics praised her ability to carry the dramatic weight alongside veteran actors. But her real break from her past didn't happen on a film set.

In August 2018, she published an article in Time magazine. In it, she explained that she is a trans woman. She didn't seek readers' sympathy or use a melodramatic tone. She simply made it clear that from then on, she would only accept roles that respected her real identity.

That piece changed her career immediately. Casting directors had to update their files. Because Totah didn't want to be a footnote on screen (she wanted to be in charge of it).

Total Control of Production

In 2020 she led the return of Saved by the Bell for the Peacock streaming service. She didn't limit herself to playing Lexi, a sharp-tongued, moneyed cheerleader. She served as executive producer of the series and made sure the script handled her transition with complete normalcy. The series ran for two seasons and ended its broadcast in 2022.

The industry stopped seeing her as a promising newcomer.

Her work behind the camera picked up after the show ended. She began developing her own projects and voicing characters in animated series such as Big Mouth. In 2022 she also appeared in Mr. Mayor, the comedy by Ted Danson, proving her quick-witted comic timing was still sharp.

But her ambition went beyond American sitcoms. She was looking for projects with a different visual style. So she decided to cross the Atlantic for a shoot that would change her on-screen look.

Scotland and period drama

In 2023 she joined the cast of The Buccaneers on Apple TV+. She plays Mabel Elmsworth in a period drama set in 19th-century London. Filming took place mainly on location in Scotland and marked her first major role in a large-scale production design project.

The show was renewed for a second season in 2024. Totah kept her place in the main cast while juggling work with her studies at Chapman University. There, she majored in film arts to better understand the technical workings of cameras.

She sold her first original screenplay to a major studio before turning twenty-five. It's a move that places her in a different league from her generation's peers. She no longer depends on the phone ringing for a supporting-role audition.

The production of the second season of The Buccaneers used 2 Sony Venice cameras to capture the natural light of the Scottish Highlands. The budget per episode exceeded $5 million due to the cost of insurance and transporting technical equipment.