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“I want to be the first trans woman to win an Academy Award,” says Hari Nef – actor, model, performance artist, writer, general renaissance star.

After walking her first show for Hood By Air at New York Fashion Week in 2014, Hari Nef has been catapaulted into the limelight. But despite that, Nef says it was the worst NYFW for diversity yet – “[the] only other girl I could think of is Isis [King]…I’m pretty sure it was only her and me that were the only trans girls walking the runways.” Modelling was something she fell into and sees it as an extension of her performance work, a thing that “interfaces with her work in a cool a way”. Nice approach.

Nef started acting at 5 but noticed a marked improvement in her skills once she started insisting that she play women only roles. And how has being trans influenced her acting? “Good actors allow themselves to be extremely vulnerable in front of a live audience,” she says. “To be trans is to be vulnerable; to be trans in public is to be vulnerable in public.”

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I am your girlfriend performance work

Article | Lydia Zanetti

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