Ivory Aquino, who will star in the highly anticipated ABC series When We Rise , came out publicly as transgender at the Television Critics Association conference Tuesday, according to People. In the show, she plays a transgender character named Cecilia Chung, but the casting director at the time did not know that the Filipino actress was trans. Aquino, 26, informed the higher-ups after the fact. "I wrote them a note saying, ‘Thank you for having me. It would be an honor to be part of the project,’” she told People exclusively. “And I inserted in there, ‘I just want to make sure that you know that I’m trans.’" When Dustin Lance Black — the writer of the mini series — watched Aquino's audition, he did not know she was in fact trans. According to the actress, Black was initially unhappy that casting had sent him a cisgendered person for the role. After she was cast, the Milk writer reached out to tell her himself. Aquino recounted, "[Black] said he loved what I did, but was a little pissed at casting because he was very committed to having a transgender actress play the role and had asked them to send him tapes of transgender actresses." This casting choice is an important one — too often, transgender characters are played by cisgendered actors. (Not sure this is true? We have a whole list of trans characters , most of whom weren't played by trans actors.)When We Rise chronicles the gay rights movement in the 1960s. It also stars Guy Pearce, Mary-Louise Parker, Carrie Preston, and Michael Kenneth Williams. This is Aquino's first major television role.