User:Kransom34/Isis King

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Isis King (born October 1, 1985) is an American model, actress, and fashion designer. Most wildly known for her role on both the eleventh cycle and the seventeenth cycle of the reality television show America's Next Top Model. She was the first trans woman to compete on the show, and became one of the most visible transgender people on television.

Contents

1. Biography
2. Early Career
3. America’s Next Top Model (ANTM)
4. After ANTM
5. Filmography
6. Personal Life
7. Cultural Impact

Biography

King was born October 1, 1985 in Prince George’s County, Maryland, (www.popularbio.com) and currently resides in Los Angeles. King was assigned male at birth but has stated that "mentally and everything else" she was "born female." She has stated that people might refer to her as "transgender" or "transsexual," but she prefers the phrase "born in the wrong body".  While in high school, King came out as “gay”, but later felt that it was not an accurate label for her (needs citation).

King has an associate degree in design and illustration from the Art Institute of Philadelphia. King moved to New York to begin her transition from male to female, but didn’t earn enough money to afford rent and because her family opposed her transition. As a result,  she moved into the Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBTQ youth (www.teenvogue.com).

In 2007, King appeared in an MSNBC special titled Born in the Wrong Body, which documented the lives of transgender teens from across the United States. King began hormone replacement therapy in the summer of 2007, as part of her transitioning process. She had sex reassignment surgery in 2009, which she stated on America's Next Top Model: All-Stars.

Early Career

King had been runway modeling for seven years before participating in America's Next Top Model. Her experience included competing in the underground ball culture scene. In a promotional interview for ANTM, King stated she was looking forward to runway as she had been "walking" for seven years. Her post-show runway credits include the Amore Fashion Show, Howard University Fashion Show, Colors Fall/Winter 2009–10 Line, Secret Society, and Images Fashion Show (for which she received an award).[citation needed]

She has also worked as a receptionist at a hair salon, and as a program assistant for a nonprofit organization.

America’s Next Top Model

King was living at the Ali Forney Transitional Living Program when she learned about an upcoming photo shoot for the tenth cycle of America's Next Top Model.

King asked ANTM art director Jay Manuel whether she could be accepted as a girl "born in the wrong body" if she were to audition as a contestant for the program. After the shoot, show host and producer Tyra Banks had her staff search out King to encourage her to audition based on her performance in the photo shoot. King became one of fourteen finalists for the eleventh cycle of the show. She placed tenth overall.

Isis King began posing for a photography set primarily concentrated on youth homelessness, which became the catalyst for her returning for cycle 17(prnewswire). In 2011, she participated in Cycle 17 of America's Next Top Model—also known as the "All-Stars Cycle"—along with 13 other returning contestants from past Top Model cycles. She was eliminated in the third week of the competition.

Taz Tagore, co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation, said that King had an agenda when participating in Cycle 17;  she wanted to break the stigma and destroy the barriers for those who identify with the LGBTQ+ community. She became a role model for women in that community.

After ANTM

King appeared on The Tyra Banks Show twice. In her first appearance she discussed her life story further, along with fellow contestant Clark Gilmer. Banks surprised King by introducing her to Marci Bowers, a fellow trans woman and top gender reassignment surgeon, who offered her an all-expenses-paid surgery which was conducted in 2009. New shots were taken after the surgery, which were revealed in King’s second appearance . King's transition to being anatomically female was deemed "complete." King competed in the seventeenth overall and first 'All Star' cycle of America's Next Top Model, which aired on September 14, 2011. She was eliminated.

King also appeared on Larry King Live on July 25, 2009.

King has worked with American Apparel, making her the first transgender person to do so.

In July 2015, Isis was a guest star on multiple episodes of the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.

King played Gia in a guest role on season 7 of the Showtime show Shameless.

In Fall 2016, King's docu-series Strut, executive produced by Whoopi Goldberg, aired on the Oxygen Network. It followed five trans models, and documented King's move from New York to Los Angeles.

In 2019, she starred in the Netflix series When They See Us, created by Ava DuVernay, about the Central Park five. She plays Marci, the deceased older sister of Korey. King said that playing this role is ‘like a magnifying glass on the world right now’(express online). King’s role is “relatable to who she is as a person.”She feels like transgender women of color are especially at risk of being the victim of murder (advocate.com).

In August 2019, King was the subject of a Deadline interview. In it she discussed trans visibility, acceptance, and other matters.

On July 3, 2020, King appeared on fellow America's Next Top Model star Jay Manuel's weekly web chat, Jay’s Chat, to discuss the show's Cycle 11, on which she made her debut.

Print work

King appeared in Us Weekly (September 2008), Seventeen magazine (December 2008/January 2009), Out magazine, Mallard International magazine, and the cover of the Spring 2010 Swerv magazine.[citation needed] King also did a variety of test shots that were used to promote her visit to The Tyra Banks Show. In 2012 she became American Apparel's first openly transgender model. However, Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET), an anti-defamation organization dedicated to educating the media about transsexual, transgender, and intersex issues, launched an education campaign against the t-shirts King modeled because they say "Gay O.K.", which some feel is misleading since King is a straight transgender woman. Chanel Jessica Lopez, a transsexual and transgender communities based counselor at New York City's Anti-Violence Project, called for a boycott of the t-shirts for the same reason.

King has worked and signed with AEFH Talent for Theatrical, and PRESTIGE Talent for commercial work in Los Angeles.

In 2014, King was featured on the fifth anniversary cover of C☆NDY magazine along with 13 other transgender women: Janet Mock, Carmen Carrera, Geena Rocero, Laverne Cox, Gisele Alicea, Leyna Ramous, Dina Marie, Nina Poon, Juliana Huxtable, Niki M'nray, Peche Di, Carmen Xtravaganza, and Yasmine Petty.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	America's Next Top Model	Herself
2007	Born in the Wrong Body: On the Edge	Herself
2008-2011	America's Next Top Model	Herself
2010	Bella Maddo	Cassandra
2013	Hello Forever	Rommy
2015	The Bold and the Beautiful	Sonja
2016	Strut	Max
2016	Shameless	Gia
2016	Stop Bullying Now: Live from the Big House	Herself
2017	Hey, Qween!	Herself
2017	The Heart of a Woman	Rosie
2017	Enemies of Dorothy	Woke Daphne
2017	Detox: She's Got a Habit	Versace Girl
2018	Grown	Bea
2019	Dark/Web	Jersey
2019	When They See Us	Marci Denise Wise
2019	Savage X Fenty TV Series	Herself

Podcasts

Year	Title	Role	Notes
Dec. 4, 2017	LGBTQ&A	Herself	"Isis King: Paris is Burning Changed My Life"
Unknown	Not So Glamorous	Herself	"I'm A Trans Model w/ Isis King"

Personal Life

King is a practicing Christian and attends Mosaic Church in Los Angeles.

The death of her baby sister Channel is why Isis King participated in the Catwalk for Cause, where all the proceeds go to Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore (The Baltimore Sun).

In 2016, she began to focus on her acting and modeling skills and moved to Los Angeles (kingisis.com).

She is a motivational speaker and shares her experiences to schools across the country (kingisis.com).

Cultural Impact

King is one of a small but growing number of transgender people and characters in film and television, and her inclusion on ANTM has been called an "unprecedented opportunity" by Neil Giuliano, president of GLAAD. By competing on the show, King has brought national and prime time attention to issues of gender transitioning and gender expression. New York magazine has called King the cause célèbre of Cycle 11, comparing her to previous contestant "issues" featured on the show such as Cycle 9 contestant Heather Kuzmich's Asperger syndrome. ANTM executive producer Ken Mok stated her casting was done in support of "redefin[ing] what beauty is," one of "Tyra's original missions" for the show.

Due to the intimate nature of the program, which films the contestants living together during the several weeks of the competition, GLAAD spokesman Damon Romine noted,"the show deals head on with the contestants confronting their own phobias. Facets of King's transitioning process have been portrayed in the show, such as her hormone injections and subsequent nausea. There's going to be support, and the reverse of that. It opens the door for the other girls and the viewers to get to know King and the transgender community." Some of King's fellow contestants revealed prejudices and misunderstandings about transgender issues, and others commented about how her gender transitioning would be poorly received in their own small communities or in the southern United States. Contestants have referred to King pejoratively as a "he/she" and a "drag queen".

New York magazine noted that King is one of few transgender models in history to rise to public prominence, comparing her to Teri Toye, former club kid Amanda Lepore, and the gender-bending club promoter and model André J. Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York, told ABC News that the time may be right for a transgender supermodel: "Maybe it's time for a tranny [sic] to end up on the cover of Vogue."