Marquise Vilsón

Marquise Vilsón (born 1981) is an American actor and activist. A veteran of the Ballroom community in New York, Vilsón's first acting role was in 2016 and was followed by appearances in the television series A League of Their Own and Tom Swift (both 2022) and the documentaries No Ordinary Man and Disclosure (both 2020). Vilsón is one of the subjects of the 2005 documentary The Aggressives, which covers his personal experiences as a Black and masculine-presenting youth in New York from 1997 to 2001.

Life and career Early life A native New Yorker, Vilsón was born in 1981 and grew up in the Bronx in poverty. A transgender man, The film depicts Vilsón's progress in starting medical care for his gender transition and later joining the military, after which he disappears. Academics Chase Joynt and Morgan M. Page analyze, in their book Boys Don't Cry, that the film "struggles to reconcile [Vilsón's choice to access medical transition] with its project of depicting butchness, ultimately abandoning his storyline midway through". Peddle directed a sequel to the 2005 film, Beyond the Aggressives: 25 Years Later, which features many of the subjects of the previous film, but Vilsón did not make an appearance.

Around this period, Vilsón became involved in activism and worked as a sexual health coordinator for Safe Horizon's Streetwork Project.

Acting career Vilsón first started acting in 2016, with a role in a web series. after which he began considering acting as his career, and then a role in Ben Is Back (2018) with Julia Roberts. Vilsón and Garcia made an appearance in Netflix's 2019 series Tales of the City, during a year in which, according to scholar Tre'vell Anderson, there was a "shift" in trans visibility as trans men were cast into higher-profile roles.

In the 2020 documentary on transgender jazz musician Billy Tipton, titled No Ordinary Man, Vilsón features with academics Stephan Pennington, C. Riley Snorton, and Susan Stryker, and artist Zackary Drucker, among other trans public figures. CBC Music described the film as "a moving and vulnerable portrayal". He was also in the 2020 documentary Disclosure, which discusses depictions of transgender people in American media.

Vilsón starred in the 2022 television shows A League of Their Own and Tom Swift, for Amazon Prime Video and the CW, respectively. He noted that, in the latter series, he had worked with two writers who were trans people of color, which stood out from his previous experiences.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes 2005 The Aggressives Self Documentary film; footage recorded from 1997 to 2001 2024The Lost Holliday

Television Year Title Role Notes 2018 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Jim Preston Episode: "Service" 2019Tales of the City 2022 A League of Their Own Red Wright Tom Swift Isaac Vega