Mya Taylor

Mya Taylor is an actress and a singer as well. She is an America-based performer renowned in the field of acting. She has got her fame by the role of Alexandra in the film Tangerine which hit the theatre in 2015. She has acted in various movies as a lead and supporting actress. The outstanding actress has won quite impressive number of awards. She was born on March 28, 1991, in Houston, Texas. Her upbringing was done by her grandparents, unaware of the fact that she was born as gay.

It was in 2009, that they came to know and the fact put them in a state of stress for quite long. Taylor decided to leave and shifted to California to reside with another kin. It was only feasible till that kin didn’t know about the fact. Once, she came to know she kicked her out on the street. As she was too young to be hired for any legal job, she worked as a cocotte in Hollywood. Mya’s character in Tangerine is more or less akin to that. It was in January, 2013 that she faced the world as a transgender.

She served as a cocotte for almost 5 years and was put behind bars, about 4 times, for serving as a sex worker. It was at the age of 23 when, Mya received an offer to act in the movie Tangerine- a film made in direction of Sean S. Baker. She got fame from her role as Alexandra in the film Tangerine, which hit the theatre in 2015. Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez were the aspirations for whom, the first Academy Award campaigns for openly transgender actress came into existence.

It was only after the release of movie Tangerine and this campaign was supported by a film producer. Taylor bagged the Gotham award for Breakthrough actor. She became the first openly transgender actress to bag a Gotham Award. For her outstanding performance in Tangerine, she was awarded San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award in the Best Supporting Actress category and the Independent Spirit Award in the Best supporting female category. She became the first openly transgender actor to have the honour of winning an Independent Spirit Award.

She also won Best supporting actress award at Seattle Film Critics’ Awards. Mya Taylor acted in a short film Happy Birthday Marsha, which came in 2016. She played the role of Marsha P. Johnson. It was a film by Reina Gosset and Sasha Wortzel. She also acted in Diane, a 2016 release from The Moon. In an interview, Mya quoted that- ‘She was totally unaware of this big achievement coming her way. She was extremely surprised to receive such good response from the audience. In another interview, Mya said “I am honoured to be able to speak for a community that doesn’t have much of a voice. I bring rawness and realness to it. I am going to tell everything as it is”.