Nicole Maines gained national attention as a transgender teenager in Maine fighting for her right to use the girls bathroom in school. Now 20, she’s starring in a horror film as a transgender teenager in Los Angeles trying to co-exist with and understand a group of feminist vampires.
Maines recently finished production in Los Angeles on the indie film “Bit,” in which she stars as Laurel, who moves to the big city and falls in with the vampires. She’s not sure if they want to kill her or befriend her, according to summaries of the film on the entertainment websites Deadline and Broadway World. No release date for the film has been announced.
Maines and her family gained national attention by legally challenging the decision of Orono school administrators not to allow Maines – who was born a boy but identified as a girl from age 2 – to use the girls bathroom.
In January 2014, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Maines’ rights were violated. The ruling was recognized as the first by a state supreme court affirming a transgender person’s right to equal access to restrooms in public places.
Maines had been attending the University of Maine in Orono, but won’t be returning in the fall and instead plans to focus on acting full time, her father, Wayne Maines, said in an email to the Press Herald.
She made her TV acting debut three years ago in an episode of the USA Network series “Royal Pains,” playing a transgender teenager. She also has appeared in the documentary films “Not Your Skin” and “The Trans List” as herself. Maines has been active as a speaker and writer supporting the LGBTQ community, her father said.
Nicole Maines in a scene from ‘Royal Pains’:
Maines was also the subject of the New York Times best-selling book “Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family” by Amy Ellis Nutt.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
