Tyra Banks To Produce TransAmerica Docuseries About Chicago Trans Women Including Carmen Carrera

It’s been revealed that Tyra Banks will be behind the scenes on a new VH1 docuseries about a group of five Chicago trans women, according to THR.

The show, called TransAmerica, will follow the, ‘shared experience of being transgender. The series is described as an earnest look at a group of millennial women — who happen to be transgender — living, loving and building their careers. The series will explore how their sexuality impacts their lives.’

The series will be anchored by Carmen Carrera, who became known to a wider audience as a contestant on the third series of RuPaul’s Drag Race (at that point she still publicly identified as male, but is now a proud trans woman).

Since then she has had huge success as a model and activist, often successfully turning bad situations around. This includes her 2012 appearance on Cake Boss, which she initially agreed to in the hope it would promote equality for transgender people. However it ended up with her being the offensive punchline in a joke where the person she went on a date was later told she was ‘a man’. Carrera wrote eloquently about it on her Facebook page, which garnered a lot of attention, as well forcing apologies and the removal of that part of the Cake Boss episode.

Banks comments on the new series, “TransAmerica is a groundbreaking docuseries that will blow the roof off stereotypes and set the record straight as we experience the lives of these fun, stunning women. I am so happy to be a part of telling their fierce story.”

Other prominent trans people, such as Calpernia Addams, will appear on the show, which is due to air in the US late 2014 or early 2015.

Carrera adds, “Being a woman means everything to me. Before my transition I felt trapped, and now I’ve been set free. Carmen has arrived and I can’t wait to share my story.”