JP MORAGA.

Actor, artist and activist.

Jamie Windust: As an actor, what are your views on cis/heterosexual actors playing trans/queer roles in hollywood?

JP Moraga: As a Filipino-American actor, there’s so much privilege within the cis/heterosexual/white world. We are now in a time where there is more LGBTQ talent in the pool. There shouldn’t be any more excuses in every department in Hollywood. Now is the time of giving chances to us who identify as trans or queer.

JW: What’s your favourite thing about living and thriving in New York City as someone who is gender non-conforming?

JPM: I love living up my freedom no matter where I am in the city and the ability to express myself. I love seeing more and more of my fellow gender non-conforming tribe roaming the city with pride, power, and not giving a single care on what looks they are giving.

JW: How do you ensure that your personal self and identity don’t get compromised when you’re working?

JPM: It’s always a battle, but the more I seek my truth the more I steer away from a form of assimilation that requires me to survive in the binary world. Opportunities have been coming left and right as I live my truth and tell my Filipino-American queer story.

JW: What are your goals for 2019 for you and the trans/GNC community?

JPM: My goal is to change the beauty standards within binary roles, and to also represent the Filipino-American/Queer/Gender non-conforming community on a big platform, and free people from concern through my visibility in my art.