‘Roseanne’ revival hires cast member to play gender-creative grandson

“Some people are born with abilities beyond their years. Ames is one of those people.”

Source: Disney ABC Television Group (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images)

It was reported last month that the revival of classic 90s sitcom Roseanne would feature a non-binary character—the 9-year-old child of Darlene Conner.

The casting notice described the character of Mark Healy as “sensitive”, “effeminate” and displaying both male and female qualities.             

ABC has now confirmed that newcomer Ames McNamara has scored the role, with his new TV mother—Sara Gilbert— praising the young actor.

“It’s inspiring to see so much talent at such a young age,” Gilbert told TVLine.

“Some people are born with abilities beyond their years. Ames is one of those people.”

The character of Mark—the youngest child of Darlene and David Healy (Johnny Galecki)—was named to pay tribute to Glenn Quinn, who played David’s older brother in the original series. Quinn passed away in 2002.

Roseanne Barr vaguely commented on speculation that the new series would feature a ‘gender-creative’ character, writing: "Very interesting topics to read on Twitter today!” but has since deleted her account.

The Roseanne reboot is set to air early 2018.