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Shakina Nayfack

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Shakina Nayfack
Born (1980-12-08) December 8, 1980 (age 43)
Ventura County, California, U.S.
EducationUniversity of California Santa Cruz (BA)
University of California Riverside (MA, PhD)
Occupations
  • Actress
  • activist
Years active2013–present
Websiteshakina.nyc

Shakina Nayfack (born December 8, 1980) is an American actress and transgender activist. She is most notable for her series regular role as Lola, a "trans-truther", on the second and third seasons of the Hulu television program Difficult People, on which she was also a writing consultant.[1] In 2020, she became the first trans person to have a starring role on a major network comedy show, Connecting.[2]

Education

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Nayfack attended University of California Santa Cruz where she received a B.A. in Community Studies with a minor in Theater Arts as well as a Graduate Certificate in Theater Arts. She went on to pursue an MFA in Experimental Choreography and Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies at University of California Riverside.

Career

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She previously appeared on the show The Detour, and in the 2014 film Death Drive.

Nayfack was a founding member and artistic director of New York's Musical Theatre Factory, and her one-woman show Manifest Pussy was highly regarded by the Manhattan theater scene. In 2016, she took Manifest Pussy on tour in North Carolina in response to HB2.[3]

In 2015, she received the Lilly Award, which supports women in the theater and promotes gender parity for theatrical productions, in the "working miracles" category.[4] Nayfack has also received the TRU Humanitarian Award from Theatre Resources Unlimited (2016)[5] and the Beatrice Terry Fellowship Award from the Drama League (2017).[6]

She plays the role of Ava in the 2019 musical finale of Amazon show Transparent, directed by Joey Soloway. Nayfack also served as a writer and producer on the finale.[7]

She is the voice of Hana in the English dub of Tokyo Godfathers.[8]

She played the role of Ellis in NBC's Connecting... in 2020. This makes her the first trans person to have a starring role on an American network comedy.[9]

Personal life

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In 2013, Nayfack crowd-funded her gender confirmation surgery through a "Kickstart Her" campaign.[10] She is Jewish.[11] In June 2021 she came out as non-binary and uses she/her pronouns.[12]

References

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  1. ^ Zhu, Danielle. "Difficult People: Transgender actress Shakina Nayfack joins case". ew.com. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  2. ^ Lambe, Stacy (15 October 2020). "Shakina Nayfack on the Power of 'Connecting' and Breaking Barriers for Trans Visibility (Exclusive)".
  3. ^ Clement, Olivia (17 May 2016). "Shakina Nayfack Heads to North Carolina to Protest HB2". Playbill.com. Playbill. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  4. ^ McBride, Walter. "2015 Lilly Awards Ceremony". thelillyawards.org. The Lilly Awards. Archived from the original on June 28, 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ^ Resources Unlimited, Theatre. "TRU Love Benefit". truonline.org. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  6. ^ Drama, League. "Beatrice Terry Residency". www.dramaleague.net. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  7. ^ "Shakina Nayfack Wants to Change How We Talk About Confirmation Surgery". www.advocate.com. 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  8. ^ Sherman, Jennifer (2020-02-13). "GKIDS Announces New English Dub Cast for Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers Film". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
  9. ^ Langston, Keith (8 October 2020). "Shakina Nayfack Makes History in NBC'S 'CONNECTING…'". passportmagazine.com. Passport. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  10. ^ Dziemianowicz, Joe (18 July 2015). "Shakina Nayfack Tells of Transition Life". nydailynews.com. NY Daily News. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  11. ^ "Manifest Pussy: Why don't we just let Shakina Nayfack speak for us all?". 30 January 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  12. ^ "Difficult People star Shakina Nayfack has come out as non-binary". GAY TIMES. 2021-05-30. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
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