Alexandra Billings (right) plays inspector Ainsley Lobeer in The Peripheral.

Why a trans actress in The Peripheral is a messenger from our future | The DeanBeat

I’ve been enjoying the peek into our metaverse future that Amazon Prime Video is delivering each week with airings of The Peripheral streaming show.

As I noted when the series debuted, it’s an example of how the world’s science fiction is becoming more science and less fiction. And the recent sixth episode of the show features the addition of Alexandra Billings, a trans actress who plays the inspector Ainsley Lowbeer in the show.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.