'Baby Reindeer' star Nava Mau reflects on her historic Emmy nomination
Nava Mau, who nabbed a historic Emmy nomination last month, opens up about her role in Netflix's "Baby Reindeer."
As the first transgender woman to be recognized in the Emmy Awards’ supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie category, “Baby Reindeer” star Nava Mau knows that her nomination represents something much bigger than herself.
“In the span of years, there can be one opportunity for someone like me to get to grow as an actor and to be part of a project as meaningful as ‘Baby Reindeer,’ let alone be invited into a deeper space within the industry,” Mau told NBC News. “I think that is true for so many trans actors — really, all of us. We just don’t get that many opportunities, so when they come, we have to make the most of them.”
Mau’s Emmy nod last month marked the culmination of a whirlwind media tour for Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer,” which became a word-of-mouth global hit after premiering in April to critical acclaim. An unflinching exploration of trauma and abuse, “Baby Reindeer,” which began as a one-man play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, was born out of creator, writer and executive producer Richard Gadd’s personal experience of being obsessively pursued by an older woman who frequented the pub where he worked.
In the seven-part series, Gadd plays Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian whose warped relationship with his female stalker, an ex-lawyer named Martha (Jessica Gunning), forces him to confront the severe abuse he endured years earlier at the hands of a prominent television writer who repeatedly drugged and sexually assaulted him. Mau plays Teri, an American-born therapist living in the United Kingdom whom Donny meets on a transgender dating site.
Rating: 5