Maura Pfefferman
| Maura Pfefferman | |
|---|---|
| Transparent character | |
| First appearance | "Pilot" Season 1, episode 1 February 6, 2014 |
| Created by | Jill Soloway |
| Portrayed by | Jeffrey Tambor |
| Information | |
| Aliases | Morton "Mort" Pfefferman (birth name) Moppa (nickname) |
| Occupation | Political Science professor (retired) |
| Family | Rose Pfefferman (mother), Bri Pfefferman (sister), Sarah Pfefferman (daughter), Joshua Pfefferman (son), Alexandra "Ali" Pfefferman (daughter), Simon (nephew), Zack Novak (grandson), Ella Novak (granddaughter), Colton (grandson) |
| Significant other(s) | Shelly Pfefferman (ex-wife), Vicki (ex-girlfriend) |
Maura Pfeffermann, formerly Mort Pfeffermann, is a fictional character on American web series Transparent, created by Jill Soloway, the series creator and showrunner. She is a divorced, Jewish, L.A.-located retired college professor of Political Science and parent of three who finally decides to come out as a transgender woman in her twilight years. The character is portrayed by actor Jeffrey Tambor. The role and Tambor's performance have received critical acclaim; among other awards, Tambor has won his first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2015 for the role, and has twice been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy, winning once in 2015.
The character of Maura is based on Jill Soloway's own parent, who came out as transgender at the age of 75, three years before the series started. In fact, the character's nickname "Moppa" (an amalgam of 'Momma" and "Poppa") is what Soloway calls her parent, having briefly used the nickname "Mopsy" for her. Soloway considered using her parent's transition as creative inspiration "pretty much like three seconds [after she came out]," but she "couldn't deal with it emotionally or creatively at all for the first year." Soloway and her older sister, Faith, finally committed to basing a project around their parent after observing that, as her "Moppa" was transitioning, and her stepfather was dying, "One was losing his voice while the other was finding hers. My sister and I were both like, 'We've got to write this shit down.' It was cinematic and it was funny and it was sort of like, If this isn't a TV show, I don't know what to do with these feelings."
Amy Landecker, who portrays the character's daughter on the series, explained that Soloway cast Jeffrey Tambor as the character "from a very personal place", as “in her mind, she would see Jeffrey through the years and he reminded her of her father and I think she felt very deeply that he was the right actor for this part.”
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