- Born
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Cassandra James is an American-Canadian actress. She was born in Pasadena, California, the daughter of Debbie Li, a teacher, and James Watzke, a gerontologist. Raised in Vancouver, Canada, her paternal great-grandparents were of German descent. Her maternal ancestry is Chinese, her maternal grandparents being from Shanghai and her mother being born in Hong Kong. She has been a performer from a very young age, singing in choir and taking dance classes through elementary school and doing theatre throughout high school.
After high school, James moved to Toronto, Canada where she attended Ryerson University and graduated from their Theatre Acting Program. James made an impact at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, making her way through their Youth Program immediately after college and culminating in two premiere performances in their 2013 season. James moved to Los Angeles in 2017.
Cassandra James is a proudly out transgender woman. She came out to family late 2015 and publicly in the summer of 2016. She began a medical transition in the spring of 2016. She is passionate politically about her community and is outspoken about visibility and diversity in the industry.
- IMDb mini biography by: Cassandra James
- ParentsDebbie LiJames Watzke
- Her character Terry on General Hospital (1963) was the first transgender character to be portrayed by an actual transgender actress in a soap opera.
- Her friend Gigi Lazzarato helped pay for her cosmetic surgery when transitioning into a woman.
- A good friend of Gigi Lazzarato.
- She is interracial, her dad's side of the family is of German heritage. While her mom's side of the family is of Chinese heritage.
- [on her character Terry from General Hospital] This is my first recurring role, so it's a really big and exciting step in my career. And I can't help but think about the trans community and the impact that these kinds of roles have on the narrative that's being told about our community. I was just really excited that a trans woman was going to be portrayed on such a long-running show.
- [on the challenges of a transgender woman portraying Terry on General Hospital] There's absolutely a lot of adversity that the trans community faces. It's something that I dealt with coming into it and something that I deal with day-to-day. I have fired people from my team who didn't understand and didn't value my trans identity. I learned the hard way. But I choose to focus on the positives and celebrate the wins. And I think Terry is a win.
- [on how she wanted to get through with her medical gender transition before pursuing a career in acting] I took a break from my creative life. I'm thankful that I did. It was always my intention to do film and TV, and it just became inevitable that a move back to California was in the cards for me. But if I had moved to L.A. prior to my transition or during those first years of my transition, I really think I wouldn't have been ready. I think I really had to get my ducks in a row before coming back to California.
- [on describing the audition to portray Terry on General Hospital] All the girls in the trans community that are working, we're in every single (audition) room together. We've had to become good friends and we help each other out. Frank Valentini (the executive producer) was in the room, and I guess the people at GH liked me and they were ready (to make a decision), because I got the call from my agent when I was in my car heading home. It was pretty special.
- [on how she and the General Hospital writers made sure that Terry is depicted as an authentic trans woman] I think that's inevitable, I'm hyper-defensive of my community and read through all of the scripts very, very critically. I was so pleasantly surprised that the writers are approaching Terry with a lot of thoughtfulness and a lot of care.
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