Bring back the gender option for “Self”

Since the fall of 2025, when IMDb separated “Actor” credits from “Self” credits, the option to specify gender at the time of submission was removed for “Self,” while it was retained for “Actor.”

Would it be possible to bring this option back for “Self” credits, just as it is available for actors?

There are now several options available, compared to before, when there were only two options: (Male, Female, Non-binary, Other), but with “Self” credits, we now have to wait for the person’s profile to be created and then go back and edit the profile to add this information. When adding multiple people, this creates an enormous amount of additional work and can take a very long time.

More importantly, I believe this change is causing IMDb to lose a significant amount of valuable information. Very few contributors will take the time to go back to individual profiles after submitting their credits, meaning that information that would previously have been added is now often left blank.

I have also noticed that competing databases have kept this option. As contributors, we put a great deal of effort into making IMDb stand out from other similar sites, and we want IMDb to remain the most complete and reliable database possible.

This is also important from an archival and historical perspective, which I believe is one of IMDb’s core missions. If the gender information is available and reliable, why make it more difficult to add it?

If this option were available directly when submitting a “Self” credit, I am convinced that most contributors would fill it in when they have reliable information. This would allow IMDb to retain much more of this valuable information without requiring contributors to perform an additional step for every person they add.

In fact, IMDb now offers more gender options for actors than it did in the past. I believe this is something IMDb should be proud of and that these same options should also be available for “Self” credits.

We are putting as much effort as possible into making IMDb stand out from other similar sites. That is why it is discouraging to see useful options that we previously had—and that competing databases have kept—removed from the contribution process.

I sincerely hope that someone on the IMDb team will consider bringing this option back. I believe it would be a significant improvement for contributors, while also helping IMDb preserve more complete and valuable information for its users, fans, researchers, and future generations.