Tommy Dorfman says she would have ‘transitioned a lot sooner’ if she hadn’t booked 13 Reasons Why role

Tommy Dorfman has said she would have “transitioned a lot sooner” if she hadn’t landed her role on Netflix’s teen drama, 13 Reasons Why.

The 30-year-old actor starred as classmate Ryan Shaver in the 2017 series, which follows the aftermath of high-schooler Hannah Baker’s (Katherine Langford) death by suicide.

In a recent appearance on the podcast Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson, Dorfman explained how her “growth” and “maturation” were delayed by her Hollywood career.

“In those early years of working, I was just trying to understand [myself],” she said, adding that 13 Reasons Why was her first real job.

“I think if I hadn’t booked that job I would have transitioned a lot sooner,” she reflected. “I think because of my work being so tied to my body and face and identify, or whatever [a character] identified as, it delayed some of my growth and some of my maturation in my twenties.”

She said: “I made decisions that were just not aligned with how I really was or what I wanted – but out of fear.”

Dorfman reintroduced herself as a trans woman in July 2021 in a Time interview with author Torrey Peters.

“Coming out is always viewed as this grand reveal, but I was never not out. Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy,” she said at the time.

In February, Dorfman’s husband of five years, Peter Zurkuhelen, filed for divorce.

Elsewhere on the podcast, host Bilson, former star of The OC, left listeners in hysterics with a NSFW admission about her ex-boyfriend, Barry star Bill Hader.

13 Reasons Why is available to stream on Netflix.