Cyrus Dunham ( ; born January 28, 1992) is an American writer, actor, and activist. Dunham is a published author, whose debut book, A Year Without A Name: A Memoir, was a Lambda Literary Award finalist.
Early life
Dunham was born and raised in New York City. Their parents are artist and photographer Laurie Simmons and painter Carroll Dunham. Dunham's older sister, Lena, is a writer, actress, and producer.
They attended St. Ann's School in New York City, and wrote for the school newspaper and yearbook and spoke at the graduation. As a high school student in 2009, Dunham received the Poetry Society of America's Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award for the poem Twin Oaks, which was judged for the competition by American poet Matthew Rohrer.
They graduated from Brown University with a degree in urban studies in May 2014, and was a contributing writer for the student weekly The College Hill Independent.
Dunham identifies as transmasculine nonbinary, and uses they/them pronouns.
Career
Writing and activism
Dunham has written for The New Yorker, Artforum and Granta; as well as Transgender Herstory in 99 Objects: Legends and Mythologies at the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, UNCOUNTED: Call & Response at Vienna Secession and the AL-UGH-ORIES monograph, as part of Nicole Eisenman's exhibition at the New Museum.
In 2016, Dunham's first collection of poetry and short essays, The Fool, was published. The publication is a free, online-only web-book published by Curse of Cherifa.
Dunham's memoir, A Year Without a Name, was published in October 2019 by Little, Brown and Company. The book was met with positive reviews from The Atlantic, Kirkus Reviews and them. A short section of the book was published online in The New Yorker.
Dunham has collaborated frequently with transgender activist Tourmaline; their work together includes public speaking, writing, and performance.
Film
Dunham's first film appearance was in the 2006 short, Dealing, as June, a 13-year-old art dealer. Dealing was written and directed by Dunham's older sister.
In 2010, Dunham starred in a second film written and directed by their sister, called Tiny Furniture, in which Dunham's sister and mother played characters that were loosely based on their own family.
Dunham stars as Junior in the film Happy Birthday, Marsha! about the gay activist Marsha P. Johnson and transgender activist Sylvia Rivera in the hours before the Stonewall riots. Dunham also appeared in artist A.K. Burns' multi-channel video installation A Smeary Spot.
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
Literature analysis
References
External links
Dunham at the New Yorker
Dunham at The College Hill Independent
thefool.us by Dunham
1992 births
Living people
21st-century American actors
Actors from New York City
American film actors
American people of English descent
The Believer (magazine) people
Brown University alumni
Jewish American actors
Transgender Jews
LGBT people from New York (state) American LGBT poets 21st-century American writers 21st-century American male writers Saint Ann's School (Brooklyn) alumni Writers from Brooklyn American non-binary actors Transgender memoirists Transgender poets Transgender non-binary people Non-binary activists Non-binary poets 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American LGBT people American transgender writers American non-binary writers