Former Disney Channel actor Josie Totah has had the spotlight shone upon her once again following an ultra-viral video.
Totah played Stuart on the hit TV comedy Jessie, joining the likes of Debby Ryan (who fans may know from her recent work in American Horror Story), appearing in seven episodes across four seasons.
Since her time on Disney Channel, the 23-year-old actress continued acting, appearing in hits like Spider-Man: Homecoming, Big Mouth, and the Saved By the Bell reboot.
Who Is Josie Totah From Disney's Jessie?
Josie Totah is back in the public eye following a viral video with her former Jessie costar, Karan Brar.
Totah was introduced in the show's second season as Stuart Wooten, an ultra-nerdy New York kid and love interest to Skai Jackson's Zuri Ross. Totah would guest on several more episodes across the show's run, reprising her role as the bespectacled "beyond his years" romantic.
However, since appearing on the beloved Disney Channel original series, Totah has publicly undergone a significant life change. The former Jessie star came out as transgender in 2018, quickly becoming a significant voice in the fight for trans representation not just on screen but in everyday America.
In a 2018 conversation with Time, Totah proudly declared, "My pronouns are she, her and hers," and "I identify as female:"
"I’m ready to be free. So, listen up y’all: You can jump on or jump off. Either way this is where I’m heading. My pronouns are she, her and hers. I identify as female, specifically as a transgender female. And my name is Josie Totah."
She said she always knew, but it was not until she "was a 14-year-old" that it started to "crystalize:"
"This is not something that just happened. This is not a choice that I made. When I was five, long before I understood what the word gender meant, I would always tell my mother that I wished I were a girl. Since I could speak in full sentences, I was like, 'Give me a dress!' I always knew on some level that I was female. But it crystallized about three years ago when I was a 14-year-old watching the show 'I Am Jazz' with my mother."
"When my friends and family call me Josie, it feels like I’m being seen," Totah continued, positing, "I believe that I am transgender to help people understand differences:"
"But when my friends and family call me Josie, it feels like I’m being seen. It’s something everyone wants, to feel understood. And, as a semi-religious person who went to Catholic school, I have come to believe that God made me transgender. I don’t feel like I was put in the wrong body. I don’t feel like there was a mistake made. I believe that I am transgender to help people understand differences. It allows me to gain perspective, to be more accepting of others, because I know what it feels like to know you’re not like everyone else."
Since coming out, Totah has continued working in Hollywood, taking on several credits under her new name, Josie. She recently helped lead the hit Apple TV+ teen romance The Buccanneers.
She has also been cast alongside Euphoria's Barbie Ferreira and Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery in the upcoming Legendary reimagining of 1978's Faces of Death (via Deadline).
Totah more recently made headlines thanks to a TikTok video posted by the actress, which seemed to insinuate that she was now dating her Jessie co-star, Karan Brar.
The short video shows the two former Disney Channel actors hugging and even leaning in for a kiss. While some have taken this to mean the two are now dating, that does not seem true.
According to Totah, she and Brar are good friends, and the video was meant to be a joke.
