BRIEF BIO

Shakina made Television history on NBC’s CONNECTING… as the first transgender person to play a series regular on a network sitcom, and she is currently a writer and director on NBC’s QUANTUM LEAP. Shakina can also be seen guest starring in Amazon’s GLAAD Award-Winning TRANSPARENT Musicale Finale, which she helped write and produce, and Hulu’s DIFFICULT PEOPLE as the iconic trans truther, Lola.. Her play CHONBURI INTERNATIONAL HOTEL & BUTTERFLY CLUB premiered on Audible in 2020 in collaboration with Williamstown Theatre Festival and was recognized with a 2021 Drama League Award for Best Audio Theatre Production. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory, where she helped to develop hundreds of new musicals including Michael R. Jackson’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning A STRANGE LOOP and her own autobiographical glam rock odyssey, MANIFEST PUSSY. Recognitions include The Lilly Award for Working Miracles, Theatre Resources Unlimited Humanitarian Award, The Kilroys List, Logo 30, and two-time Drama League fellow and two-time OUT 100 honoree.

EXPANDED BIO

Shakina is a performer, writer, director, activist, and priestess. Currently writing on the NBC hour-long drama series, QUANTUM LEAP. She is serving as Executive Story Editor on season 2 and wrote, directed and starred in episode 112, “LET THEM PLAY.”

Shakina made TV history as the first transgender person to be cast as a series regular on a network sitcom, with her starring role in the NBC series, CONNECTING… Shakina starred in the lead role ‘Maura’ on Amazon’s TRANSPARENT MUSICALE FINALE, which she wrote and produced with Joey and Faith Soloway. She played ‘Lola’ on Hulu’s DIFFICULT PEOPLE, and can be seen in JESSICA JONES (Netflix), THE DETOUR (TBS), and she voices the role of ‘Hana’ in TOKYO GODFATHERS. Shakina can be seen in the Apple series, HELPSTERS. She stars opposite Tilda Swinton in the upcoming feature film, PROBLEMISTA for A24 – directed by Julio Torres and which premiered at the 2023 SXSW film festival.

Her original play, CHONBURI INTERNATIONAL HOTEL AND BUTTERFLY CLUB, premiered on Audible in 2020, in collaboration with Williamstown Theatre Festival. The play won the 2021 Drama League Award for Best Audio Theater Production. She is the founding Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory where she has supported the development of over 100 new musicals, including Michael R. Jackson’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning A STRANGE LOOP and her autobiographical rock musical about her gender confirmation, MANIFEST PUSSY. Shakina is a proud recipient of a Lilly Award, The Theatre Resources Unlimited Humanitarian Award, The Drama League Directors Project’s Musical Directing Fellowship and Beatrice Terry Fellowship for women playwright/directors. She’s a two-time OUT 100 honoree.

Shakina trained beneath Diego Piñón, founder of Body Ritual Movement. With an MFA in Experimental Choreography and a PhD in Critical Dance Studies (both from the University of California at Riverside), Shakina has pioneered her own Body Ritual Acting method, developed through master classes at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the Chicago Cultural Center, Casa del Teatro in Mexico City, Barrington Stage Company, The Drama League, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, and most recently as adjunct faculty at NYU Tisch Drama. Shakina has written about her work with Diego Piñón in the anthology Dancing Across Borders (University of Illinois Press, 2009) and is a featured artist in The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance (2018). She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Community Studies and Graduate Certificate in Theatre from UC Santa Cruz.