Leo Sheng (born 1996) is a Chinese American actor and activist known for playing Micah Lee on '' The L Word: Generation Q.''

Early life and education

Sheng was born in

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

, China and was adopted and raised in

Ypsilanti, Michigan Ypsilanti ( ), commonly shortened to Ypsi ( ), is a college town and city located on the Huron River in Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's popu ...

by an American lesbian couple. He first came out as trans at age 12. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in sociology from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 2017. Sheng was accepted to the school's social work graduate program and planned to enroll, but left because he was cast in his first professional acting role in ''

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

''.

Career

Sheng first gained attention when he was 17 and used

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

to document his transition. In 2018, he acted in his first lead role in

Rhys Ernst Rhys Ernst is an American film producer and director. A trans man, his work explores transgender identity. He is best known for his work on transgender-related television shows, serving as an associate producer on '' Transparent'' and the direc ...

's ''Adam''. He also appeared in the documentary ''Disclosure''. He is a lead character on Showtime's '' The L Word: Generation Q'' as Micah Lee, who is also a trans man. When he was 11, Sheng watched a clip of a

transmasculine A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes persons whose gender ...

character, Max, on the original '' L Word'' series and came out as trans shortly after.

Personal life

Sheng resides in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He is

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

and a

trans man A trans man or transgender man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identi ...

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Official website
* * * Living people Chinese transgender men American LGBTQ rights activists American transgender men American transgender actors American LGBTQ people of Asian descent University of Michigan alumni 21st-century American male actors American people of Chinese descent People from Ypsilanti, Michigan Male actors from Michigan 1996 births LGBTQ people from Michigan Chinese adoptees 21st-century Chinese male actors Chinese LGBTQ rights activists American queer male actors American adoptees {{China-actor-stub