Seattle, WA —Transgender actress Aneesh Sheth recently released the pilot episode of her new webseries, CRAVE. The actress is known as the first and only transwoman of South Asian descent to ever appear on American network television, since she made her debut as Kami Sutra in NBC’s Outsourced in 2011. She was recently celebrated for breaking barriers for trans actors in the theatre with her portrayal of a cis-gender female character, Princess Aouda, in Village Theatre’s Around The World In 80 Days.

In a time when trans people are becoming increasingly visible and relevant, Ms. Sheth’s series does not focus on the pain of coming out or the peep show of transition, but on the human drama in any life, regardless of identity.

The show was produced in collaboration with the production company Honey Toad, whose own webseries, WRECKED garnered acclaim from TubeFilter and other reviewers, and received thirteen nominations and four wins from the Indie Series Awards. The team met Sheth last summer when she appeared in their upcoming film, Semi-Secret. When she reached out on social media looking for a production team, co-producer Liz Ellis, (the creator of WRECKED,) replied in a direct message eager to help produce this groundbreaking, new transgender narrative.

The pilot was shot in May, with Ms. Sheth directing and Ms. Ellis running the set. Nathaniel Buechler and Ben Goldsmith, also of Honey Toad, directed photography. The show stars Sheth with Jeremy Behrens, Angela DiMarco (Chop Socky Boom, Grimm, The Device), Sarbani Hazra (Blissville, Jane Don’t Date), Amalya Benhaim, Justin Carrell and DeRon Brigdon (Orange Is The New Black, Grimm.)

The pilot is now available to watch at Amazon Studios. In late summer, CRAVE will launch a campaign to help raise funds to shoot the remainder of the 8-episode season.