It’s Official: Bruce Jenner to Chronicle Gender Transition on E! Docuseries

April 24, 2015 7:44pm PT by Kate Stanhope

The eight-part project, documenting his life as a transgender woman, will premiere in July.

It's official: Bruce Jenner will star in his own docuseries for E! chronicling his life as a transgender woman, the network announced Friday.

The eight-part, one-hour not-yet-titled series will explore Jenner's transition and subsequent search for his "new normal." The show will also examine how his transition impacts those closest to him.  The series, which is not-yet-titled, will premiere July 26 at 9 p.m. on E!, and will air on E! channels internationally.

The series will be produced by Bunim/Murray Productions (Keeping Up with the Kardashians). Jenner will executive produce with Gil Goldschein, Jeff Jenkins, Farnaz Farjam and Andrea Metz of Bunim/Murray Productions.

“Bruce is incredibly courageous and an inspiration, and we are proud to be entrusted with this deeply personal and important story,” said Jeff Olde, executive vp programming and development at E! “This series will present an unfiltered look as Bruce boldly steps into uncharted territory and is true to himself for the first time.”

Several individuals consulted with production on the series including Jennifer Finney Boylan, the Anna Quindlen writer in residence and professor of English at Barnard College of Columbia University; national co-chair, board of directors, GLAAD; contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and a member of the board of trustees of the Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender, & Reproduction. Dr. Marie Keller, Ph.D, founder and director of the Los Angeles Gender Center and a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health also serves as a consultant on the series. Susan P. Landon, MA, LMFT, director of child and adolescent services at the Los Angeles Gender Center, serves as a consultant as well. 

The announcement of Jenner's series follows his heavily publicized exclusive sit-down with Diane Sawyer for 20/20. The two-hour primetime special marked his first time speaking publicly about his sex change. “Yes, for all intents and purposes, I am a woman," he told Sawyer in an emotional interview.

There has been speculation for months that the former Olympian, who has starred on Keeping Up with the Kardashians for eight years, would document his personal journey and gender transition in front of the camera.

There has been a significant rise in the number of transgender individuals on TV in recent years. Jeffrey Tambor won a Golden Globe in January for his portrayal of family patriarch Mort and his transition into Maura on the Amazon series Transparent, which also won a Golden Globe for best comedy series. The final season of Glee documented the transition of female football coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) to a male named Sheldon. Last year, Laverne Cox became the first openly transgender Emmy acting awards nominee for her performance on Netflix's Orange is the New Black. She also executive produced and hosted a documentary centered on seven transgender youths that aired on MTV in October. This June, ABC Family will debut a new docuseries titled Between Us centered on a teenager as his father transitions to become a woman.

Jenner and his family have had a longstanding relationship with the NBCUniversal-owned-E! NBCU recently finalized a new three-year deal for Keeping Up With the Kardashians franchise. The new deal does not include Jenner, who will exit at the end of the show's current season.