Jeffrey Carlson was an award-winning stage actor, known for playing the trans character Zoe on the long-running soap opera “All My Children.”
- Died: July 6, 2023 (Who else died on July 6?)
- Details of death: Died July 6 at the age of 48.
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Jeffrey Carlson’s legacy
Long before Carlson ever appeared on “All My Children,” he already had a connection to the show – when he was born in Long Beach, California, his mother named him after Jeff Martin, a character on the show. By the time Carlson was in school, he had decided he wanted to pursue acting. He graduated from the University of California Davis with a B.A. in dramatic art, then trained at Juilliard School in New York.
After graduation, Carlson began landing roles on Broadway. Over the course of a few short years, he appeared in a revival of “Tartuffe,” “The Miracle Worker” alongside Hillary Swank, the Boy George musical, “Taboo,” and Edward Albee’s “The Goat or Who is Sylvia?” His work in “Taboo” won him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical and drew the attention of Hollywood.
In summer 2006, Carlson debuted on “All My Children” as a British rock star named Zarf. He then returned to the role months later, in which the character comes out as a trans woman named Zoe. Zoe’s journey was inspired in part by “TransGeneration,” a 2005 reality docu-series about trans youth in America’s colleges. “All My Children” won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Daily Drama for its handling of Zoe’s storyline. After Zoe’s arc was completed, Carlson returned to the stage, with major roles in “Lorenzaccio” and “Hamlet.”
Tributes to Jeffrey Carlson
Full obituary: Deadline
