Laverne Cox wants to "change the conversation" around transgender people

She said: "I want to take this platform and this opportunity to build a brand that was bigger for myself. But also to begin to tell stories and change the conversation about transgender people.

"The timing was right for us to begin having different conversations about trans folks.

"Most of the ways that trans people were talked about on television or when we would go on talk shows, the questions would be very invasive and objectifying and dehumanising, in my opinion, and sensationalised."

The 35-year-old star has received her third Emmy award nomination - for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series - and hopes her place on the shortlist will "lift up" other transgender actors on screen now as she remains the only trans person to have received a nod, despite the success of shows like 'Pose'.

And Laverne thinks there is an "incredible responsibility" for actors to "speak up" and campaign for diversity.

Speaking to E! News, she said: "We have this incredible responsibility as artists to speak up, to speak out, to have more diverse sets, to have more diverse writers rooms, to tell stories that reflect the rich humanity of people and to speak to issues of the world around us."

Laverne added that she feels the LGBTQ community has "lived in the shadows" for too long and they deserve to "exist in the light".