Alok Vaid Menon

Alok Vaid-Menon, born on July 1, 1991, in College Station, Texas, is an American writer, performance artist, and media personality. They are gender non-conforming and transfeminine, using singular “they” pronouns. Vaid-Menon’s work focuses on addressing violence against trans and gender non-conforming individuals, advocating for bodily diversity, gender neutrality, and self-determination. Their personal experiences of bullying for their race and gender expression during childhood informed their artistic practice, which they developed as a response to harassment. They graduated from Stanford University in 2013 with a BA in feminist, gender, and sexuality studies and comparative studies in race and ethnicity, as well as a master’s degree in sociology.

From 2013 to 2017, Vaid-Menon performed with DarkMatter, an art and activist collaboration known for spoken word poetry exploring queer/trans South Asian themes. Their literary works include “Beyond the Gender Binary” (2020), “Femme in Public” (2017), and “Your Wound, My Garden” (2021), all of which have achieved international recognition. They have performed sold-out shows in over 40 countries, including at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Netflix is a Joke Festival. In 2024, their first comedy special, “BIOLOGY!”, was executive produced by Christopher Guest, and a docu-short about them, executive produced by Jodie Foster and directed by Alex Hedison, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Vaid-Menon has also appeared on television in HBO’s “Sex Lives of College Girls,” “Sort Of,” and “Random Acts of Flyness,” as well as Hulu’s “Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne” and Netflix’s “Gender Agenda Comedy Special” and “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.”

Beyond their performance and literary work, Vaid-Menon is a fashion designer who creates gender-neutral collections and has walked for New York Fashion Week brands such as Opening Ceremony, Studio 189, and Chromat. They have modeled for various brands, including Opening Ceremony, Harry’s, and Polaroid Eyewear, with features in publications like Vogue, Vogue Italia, Bust magazine, Wussy Magazine, and Paper magazine. Their contributions have been recognized with awards such as the ACLU of Southern California Bill of Rights Award and the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment Trailblazer Award. They were also selected as the inaugural LGBTQ Scholar in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania.