Geena Rocero (born 1983) is a Filipino-born American model, TED speaker, and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

advocate based in New York City. Rocero is the founder of Gender Proud, a media production company that tells stories of the transgender community worldwide to elevate justice and equality. Rocero has spoken about

transgender rights A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth and also with the gender role that is associated with that sex. They may have, or may intend to establi ...

at the

United Nations Headquarters The United Nations is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States, and the complex has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1951. It is in the Turtle Bay, Manhattan, Turtle Bay neig ...

, the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

, and the White House.

Early life

Geena Rocero was born in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

to a working-class family. She started competing in

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

s at age 15. Rocero immigrated to

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, at age 17. In 2005, she moved to New York City, and she became a U.S. citizen in 2006.

Career

Model Geena Rocero Coming out Transgender (13563189244)

Rocero was discovered by a

fashion photographer Fashion photography is a genre of photography which is devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items, sometimes haute couture. It typically consists of a fashion photographer taking a picture of a dressed model in a photographic studio ...

in a restaurant on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

when she was 21 years old. She was then signed to

NEXT Model Management NEXT Management is a modeling and talent agency founded in 1989 by Faith Kates and Joel Wilkenfeld. Next is headquartered in New York City with divisions in London, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan and Paris. Fashion models Notable models currently re ...

and spent 12 years modeling for international swimsuit and beauty editorials, earning herself a large fan base. She has been modeling for twelve years. She made history as the first trans woman to be part of the Iconic 2020 Playboy Playmates of the Year. Rocero Playboy article is nominated for a 2020 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Magazine Article. In 2014, Rocero was featured on the fifth anniversary cover of ''C☆NDY'' magazine along with 13 other transgender women:

Janet Mock Janet Mock (born March 10, 1983) is an American writer, television host, director, producer and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir '' Redefining Realness'', became a ''New York Times'' bestseller. She is a contributing edit ...

Carmen Carrera Carmen Carrera (born April 13, 1985) is an American reality television personality, model, burlesque performer, and actress, known for appearing on the third season of the Logo reality television series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', as well as its s ...

Laverne Cox Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBT advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'', becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Pri ...

Isis King Isis King (born October 1, 1985) is an American model, actress, and fashion designer. Most widely known for her role on both the eleventh cycle and the seventeenth cycle of the reality television show ''America's Next Top Model'', she was the ...

, Gisele Alicea (Gisele Xtravaganza),

Leyna Ramous Leyna Bloom is an American actress, model, dancer, and activist. She has attracted press as a trailblazer for transgender women in the entertainment and fashion industries. In 2019, Bloom made her feature film acting debut in '' Port Authority'' ...

, Dina Marie, Nina Poon,

Juliana Huxtable Juliana Huxtable (born December 29, 1987) is an American artist, writer, performer, DJ, and co-founder of the New York-based nightlife project Shock Value. Huxtable has exhibited and performed at a number of venues including Reena Spaulings Fine ...

, Niki M'nray, Pêche Di, Carmen Xtravaganza and

Yasmine Petty Yasmine Petty is an American model. Petty mostly works as a runway and editorial fashion model in addition to having worked as an actress and photographer. Petty has modeled at international events such as New York Fashion Week, Italian Vogue, ...

. Adding to her résumé in 2015, Rocero became Executive Producer of "Beautiful As I Want To Be", a digital series for Logo focused on transgender youth. The show spotlights young trans people, and pairs them with a coach or mentor in the trans community. In the first episode, Zeam, a young trans man and artist, is paired with

Caitlyn Jenner Caitlyn Marie Jenner (born William Bruce Jenner; October 28, 1949) is an American media personality and retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete. Jenner played college football for the Graceland Yellowjackets before incurring a kne ...

. Jenner in the episode mentions Rocero as "the first trans person I ever met". Rocero has also been featured on Jenner's show ''

I Am Cait ''I Am Cait'' is an American television documentary series which chronicles the life of Caitlyn Jenner after her gender transition. The eight-part one-hour documentary series debuted on July 26, 2015, on the E! network. The series focuses on th ...

''. In 2016 Rocero and

Tracey Norman Tracey "Africa" Norman, aka Tracey Africa, is an American fashion model, and the first African-American trans woman model to achieve prominence in the fashion industry. Originally from Newark, New Jersey, Norman has modeled and been photographed f ...

became the first two openly transgender models to appear on the cover of an edition of ''Harper's Bazaar''. She became the

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

Playmate of the Month A Playmate is a female model featured in the centerfold/gatefold of ''Playboy'' magazine as Playmate of the Month (PMOTM). The PMOTM's pictorial includes nude photographs and a centerfold poster, along with a pictorial biography and the "Playm ...

for August 2019. She was the first openly transgender Asian-Pacific Islander model to pose for Playboy magazine. Rocero made her directorial debut for the 2021 four-part documentary series "Caretakers," highlighting Filipino-Americans during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Activism

In 2014, Rocero launched Gender Proud, "an advocacy & awareness campaign that aims to advance the rights of all transgender individuals". On March 31, 2014, in honor of

International Transgender Day of Visibility International Transgender Day of Visibility (often referred to as TDOV or Trans Day of Visibility) is an annual event occurring on March 31 dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender ...

, Rocero came out as transgender while giving a

TED talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

in Vancouver, Canada. On September 19, 2014, excerpts of Rocero's TED talk were featured on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

TED Radio Hour ''TED Radio Hour'' is a weekly, hour-long radio program and podcast, produced as a co-production between TED (conference) and National Public Radio. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and ...

podcast. Rocero is the founder of Gender Proud, which is a media production company that tell stories about transgender and what is means to be gender non confirming. Rocero and her production company have produced and presented "Beautiful as I want to Be", which talks about transgender youth. Another film is called" Willing and Able", which talks about transgender employment and athletes. The two-film won a GLAAD Media award. She's a board member of NY LGBT Center and An Ambassador for The Stonewall.

References

External links

Geena Rocero's Twitter page

Geena Rocero's Instagram page

Gender Proud
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rocero, Geena 1980s births Living people Filipino LGBT people American LGBT people of Asian descent Transgender female models Transgender rights activists American female models American models of Filipino descent Filipino emigrants to the United States Filipino female models People from Manila

Early life

Career

Activism

See also

References

External links