Maya Avant is a beautiful Black transgender woman who has parents, a sister, and a Forrester husband and child on The Bold and the Beautiful. Yet, there is no longer any sign of the Avant family or Maya for that matter. Maya and Rick Forrester were written off only for Maya to briefly return and relay she and Rick divorced off-screen. The once front-burner, groundbreaking character who is a model, mother to a member of the next generation of Forresters, and Brooke Logan’s former daughter-in-law could seamlessly be placed in any storyline. Yet…
Justin Barber
Image Credit: Howard Wise/JPI
Justin Barber has been Bill Spencer’s right-hand man and best friend on The Bold and the Beautiful since 2009. He has a son with Donna Logan, Marcus, who was adopted by Eric Forrester, a niece Emma Barber who was killed while fleeing from Thomas Forrester and is even related to The Young and the Restless’ Lily Winters and Devon Hamilton. Yet, he’s never had his own storyline and, outside of Donna, who he was briefly married to, he hasn’t had a meaningful romantic relationship. Justin Barber definitely deserves better.
Paul Narita
Image Credit: Howard Wise/JPI
Days of our Lives’ Paul Narita is a Japanese American character who is the son of “that’s a fact” John Black. That means he’s related to Brady Black, Belle Black, and Claire Brady, and is the step-son to Marlena Evans. He is also gay, which landed him in a love triangle with WilSon. When portrayer Christopher Sean decided to leave the show, the character was written out instead of recast with a different Japanese American actor. With WilSon now exiting, there will be no queer characters left in Salem. In addition, there are no Asian characters left on the canvas despite there being several introduced over the years. Paul doesn’t deserve more story just to fill a quota though. He is charming, has deep connections to the canvas, has a P.I. career that could involve him in just about any storyline, and is a character viewers rooted for.
Henry Shah
Image Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI
Henry Shah was the unrequited recurring love interest of Jennifer Horton on Days of our Lives. He was first played by Assyrian American actor Andre Khabbazi as a sweet, attractive, smart doctor. Instead of giving him an actual storyline, backstory, and love interest who reciprocated his feelings, Henry was turned into a psycho stalker and killed off when the character was recast with the Lebanon-born actor Peter Marek. We would have been happy if Henry was just given more of an edge, but we got that instead.
Terry Randolph
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The actress who plays Dr. Terry Randolph on General Hospital, Cassandra James, is a trans woman of Chinese descent. Two communities that are sorely underrepresented in daytime. The casting of a trans woman to play the dying Oscar Nero’s doctor and the beloved Elizabeth Webber’s childhood friend was a groundbreaking move. However, Terry hasn’t been given a love story, let alone a storyline beyond those plot points. She’s a smart, beautiful member of the hospital staff (a section of the show fans have always demanded more of) but she hasn’t been seen since October 2019.
Zahra Amir
Image Credit: ABC
Maysoon Zayid played Shiloh’s family lawyer Zahra Amir on General Hospital for a few episodes in 2019. The actress is Palestinian American, Muslim, and has Cerebral Palsy – three communities rarely, if ever, seen in soap operas. But that’s not the only reason Zahra should be a more regular fixture in Port Charles. She humorously and fearlessly went toe to toe with Sonny Corinthos and Diane Miller, and with Alexis Davis out of commission, she could nicely step in for anyone who needs divorce or child custody representation. At some point on General Hospital, that’s just about everyone.
Ana Hamilton
Image Credit: Howard Wise/JPI
Devon Hamilton’s sister Ana on The Young and the Restless was helping him develop artists for his label, is an impressive singer in her own right, and is related to Devon’s girlfriend Elena. Though she was never given a love interest, her involvement with Tessa and Mariah made some viewers wonder if a love triangle was in her future. There were many avenues for Ana’s character to take, but the show decided to take the one sending her out of Genoa City. According to an interview given by Hamilton, that decision was made because The Young and the Restless writers didn’t know what to do with her storyline. Hmmm…we have a few ideas. The fans probably do too.
Ravi Shapur
Image Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI
App developer and all-around tech whiz Ravi Shapur was in high demand among Genoa City’s moguls. However, he stayed loyal to Jabot, mostly due to his crush turned romance with Ashley Abbott. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as invested in their charming relationship as he was and they parted ways. Instead of finding a new romantic interest for Ravi, who is of Indian descent, or involve him in more corporate intrigue, the Young and Restless writers gave him a failed date with Hilary Curtis, a bit more tech magic to work, and then just stopped writing for him. We have to believe the charismatic software designer had a lot more story to tell.
