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iO Tillett Wright

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iO Tillett Wright
Born (1985-09-02) September 2, 1985 (age 39)
New York City, U.S.
Occupations
  • Writer
  • activist

iO Tillett Wright is an American author, photographer,[1][2][3][4][5] TV and podcast host, and activist.[6][7][8] After growing up in New York City, he founded street art magazine Overspray and served as its editor-in-chief until 2009. At the age of 22, he became a featured columnist for T Magazine, where he had two regular blogs. In 2016, he began co-hosting MTV show Suspect along with Nev Schulman.

His first book, Darling Days, A Memoir, was released on September 27, 2016. In 2019, Wright produced and hosted the podcast The Ballad Of Billy Balls, in which he solved the murder of the love of his mother's life. The show was widely regarded as among the best of 2019 and has been optioned by Touchstone for television development, to be produced by Tillett Wright, Jenni Konner and Jon Hamm and co-written by Tillett Wright. Self Evident Truths: 10,000 Portraits of Queer America was published on September 15th, 2020, by Prestel, and Oasis: Modern Desert Homes Around The World, has been published on November 10th, 2020 by Clarkson Potter.

Early life

Wright grew up in New York City with his mother, Rebecca Wright, a poet and actress.[9][10][11][12] Wright is a transgender man.[13] He documented the extreme circumstances of his upbringing in his memoir Darling Days.[14][15]

Career

Editor

In 2002, at the age of 17, Wright founded and served as editor-in-chief of a street art magazine, Overspray,[16] until 2009.[17]

Blogger and writer

At 22, Wright became a featured columnist for T Magazine, at The New York Times where he had two regular blogs called Notes From The Underground—for which iO reviewed underground performances—and The Lowdown.[18]

Wright's first book, Darling Days, A Memoir[19] was released on September 27, 2016, by Ecco Books, an imprint of Harper Collins.

Wright's second book, Self Evident Truths: 10,000 Portraits of Queer America, has been published on September 15, 2020, by Prestel.

Wright's third book, Oasis: Modern Desert Homes Around The World, has been published in November, 2020, by Clarkson Potter.

Speaker

In 2012, Wright delivered a talk at TEDxWomen in Washington, DC, called Fifty Shades Of Gay,[20] discussing sexuality and gender as a spectrum. The talk has been viewed over 3 million times.[21] Wright has given keynote lectures at Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, Nike, Postmates, The Atlantic summit, and countless others.

Photographer

Wright is a self-taught photographer, whose first camera was a Pentax KX.[22]

Wright's photographs appeared on the cover of The New York Times magazine in August 2010, marking the beginning of his public photography career.[citation needed] On September 22, 2010, Wright opened Breedings, his first solo show of photographs, at Fuse Gallery in Manhattan. In August 2011, Wright debuted Camila, his second solo show, and Act Like You're Fine, a group show he curated at Tokyo's Vacant Gallery.

Since 2010, Wright has been working on a project called Self Evident Truths that examines Americans, asking them whether they are "other than straight", and photographing respondents who self-evaluate themselves to be "anything other than 100% straight".[23] To date, Wright has photographed 10,000 people in all 50 of the United States.[24] On September 15, 2020, a monograph, called "Self Evident Truths: 10,000 Portraits of Queer America" that includes all ten thousand images, has been published by Prestel, with a foreword by Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors.

He is an avid participant and organizer within Black Lives Matter.

Television personality

In 2016, Wright began co-hosting the MTV show Suspect with Nev Schulman.[25][26][27]

In 2017, Wright was a co-host with Max Joseph, on MTV's TV show, Catfish: The TV Show Season 6 Episode 6.[28]

Actor

As an actor, Wright appeared in numerous independent films, on Sex and the City, and after an almost decade long hiatus, the feature film Holy New York.[citation needed]

Podcast & Scripted Television

In 2019, Wright produced and hosted "The Ballad Of Billy Balls", a true crime investigation of the murder of the love of his mother's life. Created with Zac Stuart-Pontier and Marc Smerling, creators of Crimetown, The Jinx, and more, the show takes listeners on a deeply personal journey through crime, catharsis, and love. In 2020 the show was optioned by Touchstone for development into a television mini-series, to be produced by Jenni Konner and Jon Hamm, produced and co-written by Wright.

Personal life

Wright moved to California in 2013. He is married to fashion hair stylist Rachel Lee Wright.

References

  1. ^ Goldin, Nan (October 6, 2016). "iO Tillett Wright". InterviewMagazine.com. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  2. ^ Felsenthal, Julia. "iO Tillett Wright on Chronicling His Gritty Childhood in Darling Days". Vogue. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  3. ^ Baritaux, Zio (September 28, 2016). "iO Tillett Wright Has Identified As a Boy, a Girl, and a Man, and Traces His Gender-fluid Journey in a New Memoir". i-D.Vice.com. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  4. ^ iO Tillett Wright (January 2013). "iO Tillett Wright's TED Talk". TED.com. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  5. ^ "Shades of Gay". The New York Times blog 6th Floor. July 19, 2011. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  6. ^ "Artist and activist iO Tillet Wright is helping to smash stereotypes". Huck Magazine. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  7. ^ "Civilities: 8 LGBT names to know in 2016". Washington Post. January 18, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  8. ^ Kennedy, Rose (March 7, 2012). "Photographer iO Tillett Wright Intends to Capture the Humanity of the LGBT Community in Self-Evident Truth Project". Metro Pulse. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014. Wright, 26, grew up as a female in Manhattan
  9. ^ Wright, iO Tillett (March 17, 2017). "Op-Ed: A transgender child's dilemma: When to go, and where". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 18, 2020. the attendance sheet told them I was assigned female at birth
  10. ^ Tuttle, Kate. "iO Tillett Wright's coming-of-age tale as transgender man". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  11. ^ Filgate, Michele (September 28, 2016). "'Darling Days': His anatomy said girl. His reality said boy". Washington Post. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  12. ^ Abbott, Alysia (October 10, 2016). "Questioning Gender Amid a Chaotic East Village Childhood". The New York Times. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  13. ^ Baritaux, Zio (September 28, 2016). "io tillett wright has identified as a boy, a girl, and a man, and traces his gender-fluid journey in a new memoir". i-D. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
  14. ^ Ossad, Jordana. "Meet Nev Schulman's 'MTV Catfish' Co-Host iO Tillett Wright". mtv.com. Viacom International Incorporated. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  15. ^ "Who's who in these Nan Goldin photos?". uk.phaidon.com. Phaidon. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  16. ^ Tillett Wright, iO. "About Me". darlingdays.com. iO Tillett Wright. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  17. ^ "Fifty Shades of Gay". 5election. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  18. ^ "IO Tillett Wright". T Magazine Blog. The New York Times.
  19. ^ "Darling Days". IndieBound.
  20. ^ Wright, iO Tillett. "Fifty shades of gay" – via www.ted.com.
  21. ^ Wright, iO Tillett, Fifty shades of gay, retrieved May 19, 2017
  22. ^ "iO Tillett Wright". The Citrus Report. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  23. ^ "Home". SELF EVIDENT TRUTHS. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
  24. ^ Serafini, Marisa (October 17, 2016). "iO Tillett Wright: My Parents Never Once Questioned My Gender". AfterBuzz TV Network. Archived from the original on February 9, 2017. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
  25. ^ "iO Tillett Wright joins Nev Schulman for MTV's "Catfish" spin-off "Suspect" – AfterEllen". AfterEllen. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  26. ^ John Panichella (March 1, 2016). "Nev Schulman and iO Tillett Wright Talk New MTV Show "Suspect"". J-14. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  27. ^ "Non-Binary Artist iO Tillet Wright Joins Catfish's Nev Schulman For "MTV Suspect" – NewNowNext". LOGO News. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  28. ^ ""Catfish: The TV Show" Mecca and Tanner - IMDB". Retrieved November 18, 2020.
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