Laverne Cox Cast in CBS Pilot Doubt

Laverne Cox is breaking new ground on TV once again. The actress who scored an Emmy nomination for her role on Netflix's Orange Is the New Black and made history by being the first transgender cohost on The View has been cast in a pilot for a new CBS series.

Doubt is a legal drama competing for a slot on CBS's fall schedule and, if picked up, would be the first series to feature a regular trans character played by a trans actor on a prime-time show on that network.

Cox, 30, was cast as Cameron Wirth, described by Variety as a defense attorney with an Ivy League education who is transgender and no stranger to having to fight for her rights.

Variety says the character is as "competitive as she is compassionate. She's fierce, funny and the fact that she's experienced injustice first hand makes her fight all the harder for her clients."

According to TV Guide, which is owned by CBS, the lead character in Doubt is a female lawyer who becomes romantically involved with one of her clients, who may or may not be guilty of a brutal crime. The lead role reportedly has not yet been cast.

Reports in Entertainment Weekly and BuzzFeed say the role of Cameron was conceived at the start as a trans character, and being cast to play that part is another crown for Cox.

She would be the second trans actress to regularly appear in a network series playing a trans character. Candis Cayne was the first, in ABC's Dirty Sexy Money, which was canceled in 2008.

Grey's Anatomy executive producers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater wrote the teleplay for the pilot and are executive-producing Doubt along with Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly, TV Guide reports.

Cox will be seen in the third season of OITNB this summer and will appear in an upcoming episode of The Mindy Project on Fox as Tamra's cousin.