Explainers

Who plays James on The Politician? Theo Germaine defies gender norms as trans non-binary actor

Theo Germaine
Who is actor Theo Germaine who plays James in The Politician? Pic credit: Netflix

Netflix’s The Politician, which premiered on the streaming platform on Friday, features the newcomer Theo Germaine. Germaine plays James in the comedy TV series created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan.

Germaine plays James alongside better-established stars, such as Ben Platt (as Payton Hobart), Gwyneth Paltrow (as Georgina Hobart), Jessica Lange (as Dusty Jackson), Zoey Deutch (as Infinity Jackson), and Laura Dreyfuss (as McAfee).

Germaine’s character, James,  is one of the best friends and political advisors of the inordinately ambitious Payton Hobart (Ben Platt).

Who is Theo Germaine?

Theo Germaine is a theater, TV, and film actor, who identifies as trans non-binary.

Non-binary refers to a spectrum of gender identities outside the traditional gender binary (male/female). It includes a spectrum of gender identities not exclusively masculine or exclusively feminine.

Individuals who are non-binary may identify as having two (bigender) or more genders (trigender), or a third gender that is neither male nor female. Some identify as having no gender (genderless or non-gendered) and some have a fluctuating or changing gender identity (genderfluid).

Theo Germaine uses the pronouns “they/them/theirs and he/him/his,” according to their bio page. on Gray Talent Group’s website.

Germaine is from Central Illinois, but they split their time between Los Angeles and Chicago.

They trained in “trapeze, aerial silks, aerial straps, fire breathing, fire eating, stilt walking, voice, music, physical theatre, dance, and acting,” according to their bio page.

They have performed on stage at Timeline Theatre, Writer’s Theatre, Steppenwolf, The Goodman, and American Theatre Company.

Germaine played Weird Sister in the Aaron Posner-directed Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of Macbeth.

Their TV credits include Chris in Abby McEnany’s dark comedy pilot Work In Progress (2019), which received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. Showtime has given a series order for Work In Progress, and it is set to premiere on December 8.

They also played Carlisle in Rhys Ernst’s feature film Adam (2019), which also premiered at Sundance.

The Politician is streaming on Netflix.

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