Denise/Dennis Bryson

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Denise/Dennis Bryson is a transvestite DEA agent in Twin Peaks. The role was played by David Duchovny, who would later go on to play another more famous agent: Special Agent Fox Mulder of the FBI in The X-Files.

The character’s binary identity reflects the dualistic leitmotif of the series, as implied by its name. Bryson is “Denise” as a woman, and “Dennis” as a man, depending on what he is wearing at the time.

Denise is initially drafted in by the DEA, when Coop is accused by the Mounties and the FBI of drug dealing and mishandling of the One Eyed Jacks stakeout.

He becomes a transvestite, when on a job for the DEA, where he was required to cross-dress to buy from a particular suspect and found it relaxed him. He said “it was a very confusing two weeks.”

Denise’s transvestite side comes in useful during the Dead Dog Farm incident, where he is able to deliver a pizza into a stake-out site, as a woman, and thus end the siege.