Pride month is already off to a great start with a historic win for the trans community. On June 7, 2026, Qween Jean won the Tony Award for “Best Costume Design of a Musical” for her work in Cats: The Jellice Ball—making her the first openly transgender person to win a Tony Award. She was also nominated for the “Best Costume Design of a Play” Tony Award for her work in Liberation. Who is this accomplished costume designer, and what was her journey to becoming a Tony winner?
How did Qween Jean get her start as a costume designer?
Qween Jean first learned how to sew from her grandmother, who was a Haitian dressmaker, and was moved by “how people’s entire lives and faces and bodies changed when they were in something that was created for them.” She then went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Costume Studies from Greensboro College. In 2016, she also earned an MFA in Design for Stage & Film from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. From there, she designed theatre, dance, and opera costumes for over 80 productions. Before winning a Tony in 2026, she had already won an Obie Award for Excellence in Costume Design in 2023.
How did Qween Jean design costumes for Cats: The Jellicle Ball?
Cats: The Jellicle Ball is a Broadway musical that is a re-imagination of the Broadway musical Cats centered around New York City’s queer ballroom culture (not to be confused with ballroom dancing). Accordingly, she did a lot of research into New York’s ballroom scene and learned that it emerged from “the pain of Black and brown, queer and trans people not having space, not being respected in a lot of the other pageants and ballrooms in the late ’50s and ’60s, therefore forcing them to create their own.”
She was also inspired by her own experiences in the scene: she had attended voguing classes and competed in balls at queer establishments years ago in New York City. She ended up creating around 500 costumes for Cats: The Jellicle Ball, focusing particularly on the power of a surprise reveal (using tearaways, for example) in a ballroom competition, which combines fashion, dance, and performance.
What else is Qween Jean known for?
Qween Jean is a prominent figure in LGBTQ+ rights activism. She co-founded the Black trans liberation protests, which emphasizes the importance of trans rights and condemns ongoing violence against transgender people, in New York City. She also co-founded the Black Trans Liberation, a service organization aiming to end homelessness and food insecurity within the trans population. Most notably, a branch of the organization called the Black Trans Liberation Kitchen branch provides healthy, home-cooked meals for transgender and gender nonconforming people weekly. She has frequently participated in, spoken at, and led protests or rallies supporting queer and trans people. Her role as an advocate is inextricably linked with her career as a costume designer, where she speaks out against racism in predominantly white creative spaces and use costuming as a way to express freedom and individuality.
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