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 a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

, China and was adopted and raised in

Ypsilanti, Michigan Ypsilanti (), commonly shortened to Ypsi, is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 20,648. The city is bounded to the north by Superior Township and on the west, south, and ...

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 , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

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; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

''.

Career

Sheng first gained attention when he was 17 and used

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

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

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

Personal life

Sheng resides in Los Angeles and identifies as a queer trans man.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Official website
* * * Living people LGBT people from Michigan Chinese transgender men American LGBT rights activists American transgender men American transgender actors American LGBT 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 Chinese adoptees 21st-century Chinese male actors Chinese LGBT rights activists American queer male actors {{China-actor-stub