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. His mother,

Laurie Simmons Laurie may refer to: Places * Laurie, Cantal, France, a commune * Laurie, Missouri, United States, a village * Laurie Island, Antarctica Music * Laurie Records, a record label * ''Laurie'' (EP), a 1992 album by Daniel Johnston * "Laurie (Stran ...

, is an artist and photographer, and his father,

Carroll Dunham Carroll Dunham (born November 5, 1949) is an American painter. Working since the late 1970s, Dunham's career reached critical renown in the 1980s when he first exhibited with Baskerville + Watson, a decade during which many artists returned to p ...

, is a painter. Dunham's older sister,

Lena Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in � ...

, is a writer, actress, and producer. Dunham attended St. Ann's School in New York City. He wrote for the school newspaper and

yearbook A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...

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 A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

Matthew Rohrer Matthew Rohrer (born 1970) is an American poet. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rohrer was raised in Oklahoma. He earned a BA from the University of Michigan (where he won a Hopwood Award for poetry) and a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry f ...

. Dunham graduated from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

with a degree in

urban studies Urban studies is based on the study of the urban development of cities. This includes studying the history of city development from an architectural point of view, to the impact of urban design on community development efforts. The core theoretica ...

in May 2014. He was a contributing writer for the student weekly ''

The College Hill Independent ''The College Hill Independent'' (commonly referred to as ''The Indy'') is a weekly college newspaper published by students of Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, the two colleges in the College Hill neighborhood in Providen ...

''.

Career

Writing and activism

Dunham has written for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

'' and ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

''; as well as ''Transgender Herstory in 99 Objects: Legends and Mythologies'' at the

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries is the oldest existing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organization in the United States and one of the largest repositories of LGBT materials ...

, ''UNCOUNTED: Call & Response'' at

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...

and the ''AL-UGH-ORIES'' monograph'','' as part of

Nicole Eisenman Nicole Eisenman (born 1965) is French-born American artist known for her oil paintings and sculptures. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (1996), the Carnegie Prize (2013), and has thrice been included in the Whitney Biennial (1995, 20 ...

's exhibition at the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...

. In 2016, Dunham published his first collection of poetry and short essays, ''The Fool''. 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 Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

. The book was met with positive reviews from ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' and ''

them Them or THEM, a third-person plural accusative personal pronoun, may refer to: Books * ''Them'' (novel), 3rd volume (1969) in American Joyce Carol Oates' ''Wonderland Quartet'' * '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'', 2003 non-fiction by Welsh ...

''. A short section of the book was published online in ''The New Yorker''. Dunham has collaborated frequently with

transgender activist The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health ...

Tourmaline Tourmaline ( ) is a crystalline silicate mineral group in which boron is compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is a gemstone and can be found in a wide variety of colors. The ...

; 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 his sister called ''

Tiny Furniture ''Tiny Furniture'' is a 2010 American comedy-drama film written, directed by, and starring Lena Dunham. The film premiered at South by Southwest, where it won the award for Best Narrative Feature, screened at such festivals as Maryland Film Festiv ...

'' in which Dunham's sister and mother played characters in the film that were loosely based on their own family. Dunham stars as Junior in the film ''

Happy Birthday, Marsha! ''Happy Birthday, Marsha!'' is a fictional short film that imagines the gay and transgender rights pioneers Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera in the hours that led up to the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. The film stars Mya Taylor as Joh ...

'' about the gay activist

Marsha P. Johnson Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992) also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation''I've been involved in gay liberation ever since it first started in 1969'', 15:20 into the interview, Johnson is quoted as ...

and transgender activist

Sylvia Rivera Sylvia Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay liberation and transgender rights activist September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015. who was also a noted community worker in New York. Rivera, who identified as a drag q ...

in the hours before the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

. Dunham also appeared in artist A.K. Burns' multi-channel video installation ''A Smeary Spot''.

References

External links

*
Dunham
at

the New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

Dunham
at