Apsara Reddy (born Ajay Reddy) is an Indian

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

politician and journalist. She was earlier inducted as National Spokesperson of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam by Former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in 2016. On 8 January 2018, Reddy became the first transgender person to hold office in the Congress She returned to the AIADMK and campaigned as its star campaigner in the 2021 State elections.

Early life and education

Reddy has a BA degree in Journalism from

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

and an MA in Broadcasting with a special focus on Developmental Economics from the City University in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. She was the Overseas Students Service's President at Monash University.

Career

Reddy has worked with the ''

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

'', ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'', ''

Commonwealth Secretariat The Commonwealth Secretariat is the main intergovernmental agency and central institution of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is responsible for facilitating co-operation between members; organising meetings, including the Commonwealth Heads of ...

'' in London, ''

New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...

'' and ''

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an English-language daily newspaper based in Hyderabad, India. Founded in 1938, it was initially launched as a Weekly newspaper, weekly and later converted into a daily. The newspaper's name reflects its origins in the ...

''. She has written columns on topics including consumerism, politics, celebrity lifestyles and education. She has interviewed

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is often considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema.* * * * * With a cinemati ...

Aishwarya Rai Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (; Rai; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress who is primarily known for her work in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil films. Rai won the Miss World 1994 pageant and later established herself as one of the most-popu ...

, Ex PM Australia

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...

, F1 racer

Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to and from to . Schumacher won a record-setting seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, tied by Lewis Hamilton in ...

AR Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinema ...

, and Hollywood star

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Nicolas Cage, various accolades, including an Academy A ...

. She has also covered the tsunami from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. She has also worked at the Indian Consulate in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

as a media adviser to the Consulate General, Dr. T.J. Rao. Reddy also worked briefly with

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

to launch a health campaign across

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. Starting in 2013, she hosted a Tamil show Natpudan Apsara which aired on Thanthi TV. She has also spoken at various high-profile platforms including the European Parliament Session in Madrid, The World Pride Summit, UNICEF and top institutions like Goldman Sachs, NASSCOM INDIA and even at Princeton University.

Politics

In May 2016, she joined the

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK, also abbreviated as ADMK), also shortened to Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is an Indian Regionalism (politics), regional political party with great influence in the Federated state, sta ...

(AIADMK). Previously, she had joined

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

in February 2016. In January 2019, she was appointed national general secretary of

All India Mahila Congress All India Mahila Congress (AIMC), also referred to as Mahila Congress, is the women's wing of the Indian National Congress (INC). It was founded in 1940 to promote the political and social empowerment of women in India. Currently Alka Lamba he ...

Rahul Gandhi Rahul Rajiv Gandhi (; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician. A member of the Indian National Congress (INC), he is currently serving as the 12th leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and as the member of the Lok Sabha for Rae Bareli Lok ...

, making her the first transgender person to be appointed as a general secretary of any political party in India. In November 2020, she rejoined

AIADMK The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK, also abbreviated as ADMK), also shortened to Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory ...

ahead of the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reddy, Apsara Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century Indian LGBTQ people 21st-century Indian politicians 21st-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian women writers All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians Alumni of City, University of London Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Tamil Nadu Indian National Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu Indian transgender politicians Indian television journalists Indian transgender women Indian transgender writers Monash University alumni Transgender women writers Transgender women politicians