Cross-dressing in film and television

Cross-dressing in motion pictures began in the early days of the silent films. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel brought the tradition of female impersonation in the English music halls when they came to America with Fred Karno's comedy troupe in 1910. Both Chaplin and Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman. The Three Stooges, especially Curly (Jerry Howard), sometimes appeared in drag in their short films. The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. Only in recent years have there been dramatic films in which cross-dressing was included, possibly because of strict censorship of American films until the mid 1960s. One early exception was the murderer, a transvestite who wears particularly frilly dresses and petticoats, in Alfred Hitchcock's British thriller Murder!.

As a central plot element

Movies that feature cross-dressing as a central plot element:

• Several films based on the 1892 United Kingdom play Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas
  • Charley's Aunt (1915) – An American film.
  • Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940)
  • Fram för lilla Märta (1945) – A Swedish film. A musician, played by Stig Järrel, crossdresses to get a job in an all-female orchestra.
  • Charles Tante (1959) – A Danish film starring Dirch Passer.
  • Charleys Tante (1956) – A German film.
  • Charleys Tante (1963) – A German film.
  • Hello, I'm Your Aunt! (1974) – A Soviet film.
• Les Résultats du féminism (1906), remade as In the Year 2000 (1912). Both are believed to be lost.
• Wallace Beery portrayed Sweedie in a series of films 1914–1916.
• I Don't Want to Be a Man (Ich möchte kein Mann sein) (1920)
• Peter (1934) – A musical comedy by Henry Koster starring Franciska Gaal.
• Sylvia Scarlett (1935) – Katharine Hepburn dresses as a boy for most of the movie; this is her first movie with Cary Grant.
• As You Like It (1936) – Based on the play with the same name by William Shakespeare.
• Boy! What a Girl! (1947) – Tim Moore impersonates a woman as "Bumpsie".
• Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (1958) – Young countess dresses as a poor boy and joins the robbers to save her friends.
• Some Like It Hot (1959) – Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon dress as women and join an all-girl band, in order to hide from the mob.
• Psycho (1960) – Anthony Perkins is a killer who wears his dead mother's clothes.
• Homicidal (1961) – Male role played by Jean Arless was actually actress Joan Marshall.
• Gunn (1967) – The killer is revealed to be a cross-dresser.
• The Kremlin Letter (1969) – George Sanders plays a notorious transvestite.
• Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things (1971) - Two criminals hide from the law, with one of them pretending to be the other's aunt.
• Poszukiwany-poszukiwana (1973) - Man Woman Wanted by Stanisław Bareja: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poszukiwany,_poszukiwana
• Female Trouble (1974) – Divine plays an obese criminal woman and an obese man.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Tim Curry plays a self-proclaimed "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania".
• La Cage aux Folles (1978) – Features female impersonators.
• Lady Oscar (1979) – The female protagonist, Oscar François de Jarjayes, dresses as a man, but privately acknowledges her feminine side.
• Dressed to Kill (1981) – The killer dresses as a woman.
• Victor Victoria (1982) – Transvestism in various forms is included in this musical comedy.
• Tootsie (1982) – Dustin Hoffman becomes the female star of a television soap opera.
• A Blade in the Dark (1983) – Michele Soavi plays Tony Rendina/Linda.
• Just One of the Guys (1985) – Joyce Hyser plays a boy so she can win a journalism contest.
• He's My Girl (1987) ^[1]
• Mascara (1987) ^[2]
• Delinquent in Drag (1988) – Suke Banji gets expelled from school, and is subsequently forced to masquerade as a girl in his next school.
• Torch Song Trilogy (1988) – Harvey Fierstein plays Arnold, a New York female impersonator.
• Nobody's Perfect (1989) ^[3]
• Nuns on the Run (1990) – Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane disguise as nuns.
• Just Like a Woman (1992) – Adrian Pasdar is Gerald, a finance executive and transvestite, who finds himself thrown out by his wife, when she discovers women's underwear in their flat.
• Ladybugs (1992) – Jonathan Brandis dresses as a girl to play in the girls' soccer team.
• Little Sister (1992) – Bobby (Jonathan Silverman) becomes 'Roberta' in order to infiltrate a sorority house and be close to Diana (Alyssa Milano).
• Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) – Robin Williams's character Daniel Hillard disguises himself as a woman so he can see his children.
• Anything for Love (1993) – Chris (Corey Haim) dresses as a girl to avoid his tormentors at school.
• My Summer as a Girl (1994) – Zach Braff's character Tony cross-dresses to get a job as a chambermaid.^[4]
• The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) – An offbeat comedy of three men traveling cross country, to perform a drag show in the outback of Australia. Two of them, Felicia (Guy Pearce) and Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) are drag queens, while Bernadette (Terence Stamp) is a post-operation male to female transsexual.
• He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994) – Wing (Anita Yuen) is a sassy girl who enters a country-wide, males-only talent search, disguised as a male.
• Color of Night (1994) – An erotic thriller by director Richard Rush.
• To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) – Three drag queens help people in a small town after their Cadillac breaks down on the way to Los Angeles.
• Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996) – Based on the 1623 play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.
• My Friend Joe (1996) – Joe is a girl disguising as a boy.
• The Associate (1996) – Whoopi Goldberg dresses as a white man to prove Wall Street wrong.
• The Birdcage (1996) – Features drag queens, including Albert Goldman (Nathan Lane), who dresses up like Val Goldman's mother, to help him win the hand of his girlfriend.
• Mr. Headmistress (1998) ^[5]
• Chachi 420 (1998) – A Bollywood film reminiscent of Mrs. Doubtfire, in which a father gets divorced and also loses the custody of his daughter. He tries to get in his wife's house by disguising as a maid to be near his daughter and wife, and a series of comic situations occur.
• Mulan (1998) – Mulan is a Chinese woman, who disguises herself as a soldier to fight the Huns in place of her father.
• Shakespeare in Love (1998) – Includes Shakespeare's use of female impersonators in his plays.
• Flawless (1999) – A conservative security guard (Robert DeNiro) suffers a stroke, and is assigned to a rehabilitative program that includes singing lessons with the drag queen next door.^[6]
• Big Momma's House (2000) – Martin Lawrence plays an FBI agent who goes undercover and dresses as a heavy-set woman.
• Holiday Heart (2000) – Holiday Heart (Ving Rhames) is a gay drag queen who performs at a night club.
• All the Queen's Men (2001) – Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Izzard head a team of Army men sent to infiltrate a German factory dressed as women.
• Motocrossed (2001) – Alana Austin is a girl whose father won't let her race because she's a girl, so she goes undercover and poses as a male to race for her big brother.
• The Triumph of Love (2001) – Mira Sorvino plays the daughter of a usurper, who disguises herself as a young male scholar named Phocion to get closer to Agis, the rightful heir to the throne.
• Sorority Boys (2002) – Barry Watson, Michael Rosenbaum, and Harland Williams pose as girls when they're kicked out of their dorm.
• Juwanna Mann (2002) – A disgraced NBA player (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.) is fired from his job and dresses as a loud-mouthed Southern Belle in order to join the WNBA.
• Girls Will Be Girls (2003) – All three of the main characters (Evie, Coco and Varla) are drag alter egos of the actors, who have existed "on their own" for several years.
• Party Monster (2003) – Seth Green plays club personality James St. James.
• The Hot Chick (2003) – Rob Schneider plays a girl who turns into a man overnight, and must find a way to change back.
• Stage Beauty (2004) – Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is an actor famed for his portrayal of female characters, particularly Desdemona in Othello.
• Connie and Carla (2004) – Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette go on the run, after accidentally witnessing a mafia hit in Chicago, and wind up posing as drag queens at a gay club.
• White Chicks (2004) – Shawn and Marlon Wayans play FBI agent brothers who must protect two cruise line heiresses from a kidnapping plot while in disguise of the women they are protecting.
• Kinky Boots (2005) – Chiwetel Ejiofor's character Simon cross-dresses as drag queen Lola.
• She's the Man (2006) – Amanda Bynes dresses as a man to be accepted in Illyria's boys' soccer team and get revenge in Cornwall. Based on the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.
• Butch Jamie (2007) – Writer/director/actor Michelle Ehlen plays a butch lesbian actress who gets cast as a man in a film.
• Dil Bole Hadippa! (2009) – Bollywood actress Rani Mukerji plays a girl who dresses as a boy in order to play on the Indian cricket team.

As a non-comedic element

Most of the above films are comedies. Films in which cross-dressing is treated in a more serious manner are relatively rare, although the list does include several dramas and biopics.

• Glen or Glenda (1953) – Inspired by his own experiences, Ed Wood wrote, directed, and starred in the movie as a troubled cross-dresser, in a sort of plea for acceptance. Originally an exploitation film about Christine Jorgensen.
• Yentl (1983) – The title character is a young woman (Barbra Streisand), who dresses as a boy so she can study the Jewish law, and fulfill her educational aspirations.
• The Ballad of Little Jo (1993) – A lone woman in the Old West takes on a male role in order to survive.
• M. Butterfly (1993) - a French diplomat (Jeremy Irons) becomes infatuated with a Chinese opera performer, where all roles are performed by men.
• The King of Masks (1996) – A Chinese girl poses as a boy in order to get adopted by an elderly man.
• Baran (2001) – An Iranian boy falls in love with a young Afghan refugee, who must dress as a boy to keep her job at a construction site.
• Osama (2003) – A 12-year-old Afghan girl dresses like a boy in order to get a job during the regime of the Taliban.
• The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) – While on the run, Sarah disguises her son, Jeremiah, as a girl and passes him off as her "sister" until he is raped by her current boyfriend and is found out. (Note: In the movie adaption, Jeremiah is played by both Cole and Dylan Sprouse in different scenes, both who have had several other roles that involved crossdressing.)

As a minor plot element

Many other comedy films include instances of humorous cross-dressing, but do not feature it as a central plot element. Movies in which cross-dressing plays a minor but important role include:

• The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) – Buster Keaton appears in drag in one of the musical numbers.
• Morocco (1930) – Marlene Dietrich wears a tuxedo.
• Babes in Toyland (1934) – Stan Laurel masquerades as a woman in an attempt to deceive the villain.
• The Devil Doll (1936) – Lionel Barrymore plays an evil, elderly woman.
• Piętro wyżej (1937) – Eugeniusz Bodo sings a song Sex appeal on an official party, pretending to be a woman, introduced as "our home-made Mae West".
• Love Crazy (1941) – William Powell makes a rare appearance in drag in this screwball comedy.
• You're in the Army Now (1941) – Jimmy Durante appears in drag in this wartime comedy.
• The Dancing Masters (1943) – Stan Laurel appears in a variety of dancing costumes, including a rather extravagant ballerina dress.
• Abroad with Two Yanks (1944) – Both William Bendix and Dennis O'Keefe appear in drag in this wartime comedy.
• National Velvet (1944) – Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown, who disguises herself as a male jockey, and trains a horse for the Grand National steeplechase.
• Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946) – Spencer Williams as a female fortune teller.
• Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) – Alec Guinness plays Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne.
• I Was a Male War Bride (1949) – Cary Grant is a French officer who marries a US Army officer played by Ann Sheridan and cross-dresses to pass as a bride.
• Stalag 17 (1953) – Harry Shapiro (played by Harvey Lembeck) dresses up as a women to dance with Animal (played by Robert Strauss) in order to cheer him up during the Christmas celebration.
• Casanova's Big Night (1954) – Bob Hope appears in drag.
• The Matchmaker (1958) – Anthony Perkins and Robert Morse dress in drag to escape from the Harmonia Gardens restaurant.
• High Time (1960) Bing Crosby has to dress as a Southern belle as part of college initiation.
• Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim) (1962) – Jeanne Moreau's character Catherine briefly cross-dresses as Thomas.
• Thunderball (1965) – A former enemy of Bond fakes his death and poses as his own widow in the prologue segment.
• The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) – Paul Lynde dresses in drag as a disguise.
• The Producers (1968) – Roger De Bris (Christopher Hewett) appears in a women's evening gown and tiara.
• Robin Hood (1973) – Robin Hood and Little John dress as two elderly female fortune-tellers to rob Prince John's wagon.
• Freebie and The Bean (1973) – Mystery hit man turns out to be a convincing transvestite.
• Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) – Jeff Bridges crossdresses to distract bank guards in a robbery.
• Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) – A transvestite steals Clouseau's clothes and car, when an assassination attempt has the transvestite being killed instead.
• Perfect Gentlemen (1978) ^[7]
• Monty Python's Life Of Brian (1979) – Several "women" (actually portrayed by the all-male Python ensemble) disguise themselves as men in order to attend a stoning.
• Gnomes (1980) – An American animated film where the troll Runt briefly dresses as a gnome bride.
• Deathstalker (1983) – The sorcerer Munkar, turns his henchman Gargit into the image of Princess Codille (Barbi Benton) , in order to seduce the hero Deathstalker.
• Yellowbeard (1983) – Captain Hughes sneaks a woman on board ship by having her dress as a man.
• Angel (1984) – Dick Shawn plays street-smart transvestite, who is like a den-mother to the main character, child prostitute, Angel.
• Cannonball Run II (1984) – JJ, Victor, and Fenderbaum infiltrate a bordello dressed in drag as belly dancers.
• Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (1984) – A robber dresses as a female to con other robbers.
• Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) – To disguise themselves from the police, Pee-wee Herman and an escaped convict dress as husband and wife, with Pee-wee as the wife.
• Betty Blue (1986) – Zorg dresses (and passes) as a woman ("Josephine") in two crucial scenes.
• Outrageous Fortune (1987) – Bette Midler and Shelley Long disguise themselves as pre-pubescent boys to gain entry into a remote brothel in New Mexico.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) - In a dream sequence, Robert Englund plays a school nurse in drag where she reveals that she is actually Freddy Kruger and attempts to kill Kristen Parker (Tuesday Knight).
• Willow (1988) – Madmartigan (portrayed by Val Kilmer) disguises himself (unsuccessfully) as a woman to hide an apparent infidelity from a jealous husband.
• Hairspray (1988) - While not exactly a plot element, the role of Edna Turnblad has always been played by a man in drag, and was indeed written with that intention, most recently portrayed by John Travolta in the 2007 remake.
• Tango & Cash (1989) – Kurt Russell cross-dresses to escape from the police.
• Total Recall (1990) – Arnold Schwarzenegger disguises himself as a lady in an attempt to avoid Michael Ironside, who wants to capture him on his return to Mars.
• Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) – Julia Roberts disguises herself as a young man in order to visit her elderly mother and avoid her possessive husband.
• Robin Hood (1991) – Uma Thurman's character Marion disguises as Martin to join the band of Robin Hood.
• Robin Hood: Men In Tights (1993) – Little John, Ahchoo, Will Scarlet O'Hara and Blinkin disguise themselves as women to go see the archery contest that Robin of Loxley is competing in.
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) – Sean Young plays Lt. Lois Einhorn, who is really a football player named Ray Finkle in disguise.
• Ed Wood (1994) – Directed by Tim Burton, the biopic stars Johnny Depp as the famous low-budget transvestite filmmaker.
• Junior (1994) – Arnold Schwarzenegger disguises himself to hide in a women's shelter during the last few months of an experimental male pregnancy.
• Brain Candy (1996) – Several female characters played by The Kids in the Hall, a Canadian comedy troupe.
• Con Air (1997) – Renoly Santiago appears as Ramon 'Sally-Can't Dance' Martinez – an effeminate, transvestite inmate who appears sexually subservient to his fellow detainees.
• The Fifth Element (1997) – Chris Tucker appears as Ruby Rod, a "RuPaul/Dennis Rodman" inspired media sensation who tags along with Corbin Dallas on his mission to save the earth.
• Entre las piernas (Between Your Legs) (1998) – Victor Rueda passes as a woman in this Spanish drama.^[8]
• Wild Wild West (1999) - U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline) disguises himself as a prostitute. Jim West (Will Smith) also appears as a belly dancer to rescue U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon from antagonist Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh).
• 100 Girls (2000) – Jonathan Tucker's character Matthew dresses in drag.
• Charlie's Angels (2000) – Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz are disguised as men to infiltrate a corporate headquarters.
• The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000) – Ian Holm plays Patrick, who attempted to avoid enlistment during World War II by dressing as a woman.
• Pitch Black (2000) – Rhiana Griffith portrays Jack / Jackie.
• Wonder Boys (2000) – Michael Cavadias's character Tony/Antonia is a part-time transvestite.
• Sweet November (2001) – Sara's two confidantes, Chaz and Brandon, are gay transvestites.
• Camp (2003) – One of the main characters, Michael, gets beaten up for wearing a dress, fishnet stockings, and high heels to his high school prom. Later on in the film, in his birthday party at camp, all his friends dress in drag as part of the celebration. Because of this, the camp director is on a crusade to be more like a normal summer camp.
• The Mudge Boy (2003) – Duncan Mudge (Emile Hirsch) wears his deceased mother's wedding dress.
• L'île de Black Mor (The Island of Black Mor) (2004) – In Jean-François Laguionie's motion picture, Petit Moine (Little Monk), captured by the pirates in a monastery, reveals to be a girl disguised as a boy, which leads to many arguments, since women on board are forbidden by pirate law.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2004) – Éowyn dresses as a soldier to be allowed to fight with the men.
• Seeing Other People (2004) – The female main character recalls that one of her first experiences of sexual petting was a lesbian posing as a male.
• Rent (2005) – One of the main characters, Angel, is a drag queen.
• Robots (2005) – Fender, voiced by Robin Williams, slowly unleashes his cross-dressing tendencies.
• The Producers (2005) – The gay director, Roger De Bris, wears a dress when he is supposed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) – Elizabeth Swann dresses as a man so she can go to sea in pursuit of Will Turner.
• Offside (2006) – An Iranian girl disguises herself as a boy to go attend the 2006 World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain.
• Stardust (2007) – Captain Shakespeare is a closeted cross-dresser.
• Rush Hour 3 (2007) – Detective James Carter disguises himself as supporting character Genevieve to get himself into a building to help Chief Inspector Lee and save Lee's niece Soo Yung.
• Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007) – When he is surrounded by police motorcycles, Mr. Bean cross-dresses to trick the police.
• La Vie en Rose (2007) – Edith Piaf played by Marion Cotillard is briefly employed at a bar alongside female impersonators.
• The Dark Knight (2008) – Heath Ledger as The Joker disguises himself as a nurse in the very hospital he's decided to blow up.
• Rage (2009) – Jude Law plays Minx, a transvestite supermodel.
• Denizen (2010) – The lead character (J.A. Steel) is a lesbian with a cross-dressing father, who is a general in the US Army.

Comedic element in documentary

• In the documentary, Giuliani Time, there are excerpts from Rudy Giuliani's appearance in a video, which was shown for the occasion of an Inner Circle press dinner.
• Moaize Chechi in the Louis Theroux documentary concerning Paedophiles.

Television

Milton Berle was one of the most famous early cross-dressing comedians in skits and such on his NBC shows from 1948 to 1956. Harvey Korman played a hefty Jewish mother character on The Carol Burnett Show. Flip Wilson created the memorable recurring character Geraldine Jones on The Flip Wilson Show. Some other comedy sketch shows, such asMonty Python's Flying Circus, Little Britain, The League of Gentlemen, Saturday Night Live and Kids in the Hall routinely feature visual cross-dressing, with men dressing as women and speaking in falsetto. Not to be outdone in this regard, the (female) British team of French and Saunders have produced many sketches in which one or both of the actresses portray men.Rudy Giuliani appeared on Saturday Night Live dressed as a woman.

Kenan Thompson currently plays a range of women on Saturday Night Live.

Programs that feature cross-dressing

• Along with the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus dressing up as women for comedic purposes, Monty Python featured a sketch called "The Lumberjack Song", about a lumberjack who likes to "put on women's clothing and hang around in bars."
• Doctor Who – In the 1966 story 'The Highlanders' The second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) dresses as an old washerwoman as a ruse to try and find his companions in a crowded Tavern in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, and in 1973 in 'The Green Death' the third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) disguises himself as a cleaning lady to infiltrate Global Chemicals, where he engages in banter with the UNIT operative Mike Yates and refers to his plastic bucket as his 'handbag'. Both these interludes of 'cross dressing' were played mainly for their comic value amid serious storylines.
• Australian male comedian Barry Humphries has appeared as Dame Edna in several shows.
• Bosom Buddies – Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari star as two single men who must regularly disguise themselves as women, in order to live in a ladies-only hotel, the only apartment they can afford.
• Are You Being Served? often features John Inman taking on female roles. Some of the other cast members such as Frank Thornton occasionally appear in drag as well.
• M*A*S*H – Klinger regularly cross-dressed as part of a futile attempt to be dismissed from the military.
• You Can't Do That On Television – Several comedy sketches, particularly in the early years, featured boys in the cast wearing dresses for various reasons.
• Golden Girls – Dorothy Zbronak's (Beatrice Arthur) brother Phil Petrillo, who was never seen on air, is a cross-dresser. When he died in the episode Ebbtide's Revenge, Phil's widow Angela had him buried in a teddy, to which Dorothy said to her roommates "it looks like he died in a Benny Hill sketch!".
• Ranma 1/2 – A Japanese Anime about a martial artist called Ranma who can transform into a girl. His gender is easily changed through means not under his control, so a costume which works on one gender often suddenly and comically becomes inappropriate cross-dressing. Also appearing in the anime and manga are Tsubasa Kurenai and Konatsu, who are male crossdressers, and Ukyo Kuonji, a female crossdresser and potential love interest of the gender-changing Ranma.
• One Piece – A Japanese Anime and a manga about pirates includes a number of cross-dressing characters, the okamas. The most notable of them are Mr. 2 (a.k.a.Bon Clay) who can change his physical appearance and Emporio Ivankov, a queen of a drag queen kingdom, who can change his sex by controlling the hormones (and strongly resembles Tim Curry's Dr. Frank-N-Furter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show).
• The Drew Carey Show – Drew's brother, Steve Carey, is a cross dresser.
• Friends – Chandler's father (played by Kathleen Turner) is a cross dresser.
• Arrested Development – Tobias Fünke (played by David Cross) disguises himself as a British nanny named Mrs. Featherbottom in order to maintain a relationship with his estranged family. (This is a direct reference to the film Mrs. Doubtfire). This development is an outcropping of the fact that, throughout the series, Tobias exhibits signs of being a latent homosexual.
• Saved by the Bell – Zach and Screech occasionally dress as women either to disguise themselves or for comic effect.
• Lilo & Stitch – Agent Pleakley (voiced by Kevin McDonald) dresses in female clothing because he misunderstands human gender roles.^{[citation needed]}
• Dexter's Laboratory – Many episodes feature Dexter in drag. Examples being Dimwit Dexter, Remember Me?, Tribe Called Girl, and The Big Sister.
• Sailor Moon – In one episode of the first season, Zoisite (one of the villains) disguises himself as Sailor Moon. In the "Sailor Moon Super S" season, Fish-Eye always dresses like a woman. In both "Sailor Moon S" and "Sailor Stars" seasons, Haruka Tenoh (Sailor Uranus) wears masculine clothes most of the time, and even chooses to wear the masculine version of her school uniform, to the point of being mistaken for a boy by other characters. In "Sailor Stars", Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten, became Sailor Starlights.
• Megaman NT Warrior (Rockman EXE) – Villain Magnus Gauss (Gauss Magnets) cross-dresses as a woman and is obsessed with Dr. Wily. In one episode (unaired in the dub), three of the main characters cross-dress as idol singer Aki-chan to rescue a group of kidnapped girls.
• He's a Lady – The 2004 reality television series involves male contestants competing with each other to act as effeminately as possible, including cross-dressing.
• Fruits Basket – Ritsu Sohma dresses as female, because it makes him feel more confident, and comfortable. His cousins Ayame Sohma and his younger brother, Yuki occasionally cross-dress because they look good in female clothing. With the former it's voluntary, the latter less so.
• Maid Sama! - Aoi Hyoudou, an internet celebrity, cross dresses so he won't be made fun of for liking cute, girl things.
• You Rang, M'Lord? – Cissy is a lesbian cross-dresser, complete with monocle, cravat and short hair.
• Ouran High School Host Club – Main character Haruhi Fujioka crossdresses regularly and is initially mistaken as male by the members of the Host Club. Also, various Host Club members crossdress on occasion, including manga episodes 10 (Hikaru, Kaoru, and Hunny as part of a plan to keep Haruhi away from Saint Lobelia's Zuka Club, and in the anime adaptation, Tamaki and Kyoya also crossdress for the same reason), 11 (Hikaru and Kaoru take turns dressing as the witch of the central wing), 15 (Hikaru, Kaoru, Tamaki, and Mori all dress in Alice costumes, and Kyoya portrays the Black Queen as well as Alice's mother in this chapter), and 20 (Hunny while going undercover with the Host Club to monitor Haruhi and Hikaru's date).
• Pokémon – James from Team Rocket, often appears in a dress or skirt, and in one of the banned episodes, he is even seen in a bikini complete with inflatables. A partial list of characters including Ash Ketchum (three times!), and Jessie and Meowth of Team Rocket, have also been known to cross-dress, although not as often as James. One of Misty's older sisters dress up as a prince and Gastly also once disguised as a beautiful maiden and an old woman at a summer festival.
• Princess Knight - Princess Sapphire wears like man to can fight in her adventures.
• InuYasha – Jekotsu of the Band of seven always wears womans clothes and repeatedly flirts with InuYasha.
• Yu Yu Hakusho – In The Deadly Triad episode (first season of the series), when Yusuke Urameshi fights against the Three Devils, he finds that Miyuki, one of Three Demons, is biologically a man, but in Miyuki's heart (s)he is a woman.^[9] However, this "discovery" was edited out of the English version of this series.^[10]
• Boy Meets World – Different characters cross dress in later episodes.
• I My Me! Strawberry Eggs – Main character Hibiki Amawa disguises himself as a woman to obtain a job as a teacher at school that will only hire women.
• El Hazard – Makoto Mizuhara impersonates Princess Fatora of Roshtaria who is kidnapped by the Phantom Tribe because of his uncanny resemblance to the princess.
• Otoboku – Mizuho Miyanokoji crossdresses to attend a girls' school as per his grandfather's wishes.
• Fushigi Yuugi – Nuriko, one of the Suzaku Seven Celestial Warriors, dresses as a woman in memory of his dead sister. In the middle of the manga series, the Suzaku Warriors had had to dress up as women to avoid being killed in the island of Nyousei, where barbaric, cannibalistic, anti-masculinist women lived. This idea is excluded from the anime series, but revived in the omake.
• Ramen Fighter Miki – Episode 10 Part 1 includes a scene where Kankuro is wearing Miki's outfit while trying to beat her at her own game (that being ramen delivery). Then at the end of Episode 12 Part 1, he dons the disguise of an aristocratic lady to try to get Miki to challenge him.
• Gravitation – The main character, Shuichi Shindou, wears his sister's schoolgirl uniform and dons a maid outfit to try to get the attention of Eiri Yuki.
• Princess Princess – Three students in an all-male school dress as girls to raise the spirits of the other students.
• Hollyoaks character, Kris Fisher is a cross dresser
• World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler Dustin Rhodes portrayed "Goldust", a gimmick that involved crossdressing as well as former wrestler Vito LoGrasso.
• SpongeBob SquarePants – SpongeBob has dressed like a woman in several episodes. His best friend Patrick Star cross dresses in order to protect himself from an assassin in the episode: "That's No Lady".
• Invader Zim – In the episode "Walk for your lives" Zim uses a fat lady disguise to get rid of an explosion that is exploding really really slowly.
• iCarly - In the episode "iWant My Website Back", Spencer dressed as an old lady to fool Nevel into giving iCarly their URL back, but instead, he attracted an old man.
• The Suite Life of Zack and Cody - Both Zack and Cody (played by real life twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse) crossdress in several episodes for numerous reasons; one most notably being Cody entering a beauty pageant for young girls while Zack approves of it because the first prize is a new bike.
• Young Americans (2000) TV series in which one of the female characters poses as a boy.
• The Famous Five TV series.
  • The Famous Five (1978). Georgiana wears boy's clothes, prefers to be called "George" and is pleased to be mistaken for a boy.
  • The Famous Five (1996)
• Dårfinkar & dönickar[1] – The main character Simone is mistaken for a boy on her first day at a new school when she does not correct her teacher for mispronouncing her name as Simon.

Eddie Izzard performing Sexie

• British stand-up comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, who describes himself as an 'executive' or 'action' transvestite and regularly cross-dresses both on and off stage, has acted in several films (including most recently Valkyrie), as well as releasing his stand-up work on video and DVD (Live at the Ambassadors (1993), Unrepeatable (1994), Definite Article (1996), Glorious (1997), Dress to Kill (1999), Circle (2002), and Sexie(2003)).
• Tipping the Velvet (2002) – A coming of age story about a young woman named Nan (Rachael Stirling) who falls in love with a male impersonator.
• Pretty Cure (2004) – In one episode, Nagisa Misumi disguises herself as a man twice in an attempt to reclaim Mepple, who had been confiscated. In a later episode, Nagisa plays the part of Romeo in Verone Academy's school play of Romeo and Juliet.
  • HeartCatch PreCure - For the first half of the series, Itsuki Myoudouin cross-dressed as a boy because her brother was too ill to be heir of their dojo.
• Robin Hood (2006) – Djaq (played by Anjali Jay) is a Saracen who true name is Saffiya, but she disguises herself as a boy by adopting her dead twin brother's name and appearance.
• Crusoe (2008) – A recurring character Oliver is revealed to actually be a woman named Olivia (played by Mía Maestro). Crusoe discovered her one day when she was bathing for the first time on the island after being aboard the ship for so long. She pretends to be Oliver and helps the doctor for her personal safety from the male crew.
• Zoey 101 In one episode of this show Lola disguises herself as a boy to prove boys can still act the same if a girl is around.
• In The Simpsons episode "Girls Just Want to Have Sums", Lisa Simpson disguises herself as a boy named Jake Boyman in order to learn math when the school is segregated by gender. Bart has also worn girls' clothes on several occasions.
• Something in the Air (2000–2002) – Features a cross-dressing politician, Doug Rutherford (played by Roger Oakley).
• In Zoids: Chaotic Century episode 28 "Run, Wolf!" Prince Rudolph Zeppelin III is disguised as a girl in order to hide his identity.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Gundam pilot Tieria Erde crossdresses in the second season in order to gain entrance to a party.
• In Axis Powers: Hetalia Poland crossdresses as a hobby and has a "valley girl" accent.
• Degrassi: The Next Generation (renamed Degrassi from the tenth season) features a transgendered student in season 10, Adam Torres (portrayed by Jordan Todosey). Adam is biologically female, but he identifies as male and dresses as a guy. Adam wants to keep the fact that he's transgendered a secret, and hopes that the people he meets will see him as a guy.
• Rich Fulcher plays as a woman named Eleanor in the season 3 episode "Eels" of the British comedy show The Mighty Boosh. Rich Fulcher continues to dress as Eleanor for stand-up comedy gigs, and refers to her as a whole separate person form himself.
• In the season 2 episode of British comedy show The Mighty Boosh ("Nanageddon"), main characters Howard Moon (Julian Barratt) and Vince Noir (Noel Fielding) dress as nanas in order to sneak into a BINGO game and find the elusive demon, Nanatoo.
• In the anime Genesis Climber Mospeada (also known as the New Generation segment of Robotech) the Character of Yellow Belmont/Lancer crossdressed as a means of disguise, as well as to perform in his rock singer identity (known as Yellow Dancer in Robotech.)
• In the TV show Keeping Up Appearances Hyacinth's brother-in-law Bruce is a crossdresser which Hyacinth tries not to let people find out about. In several episodes you can see Bruce in several of his outfits.
• Minami-ke - Makoto regularly crossdresses as Mako-chan to get close a girl he likes. Another character, Tōma is a tomboy with three older brothers that regularly wears male clothing.
• In The Nick Cannon Show nick dress like a women in 6 episodes
• In season 4 of Criminal Minds Jackson Rathbone plays a janitor at a hotel with split-personlity disorder. The character, Adam, is a shy, abused, withdrawn young man. His alter-personlity, is a strong, confident, southern women named Amanda. Adam/Amanda tries to kill his/her father because of all of the abuse suffered. Afterwards 'Amanda' becomes the dominant personality. At the end of the episode 'Amanda' is shown to have undergone a transformation, complete with make-up, a long curled wig, and pink clothing.

Written by Sagar Basak, personal technology columnist and founder of Most Useful Tricks. You can follow him on the social web or sign up for the email newsletter for your daily dose of how-to guides and video tutorials.

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