Asia Kate Dillon (born November 15, 1984) is an American actor, best known for their roles as Brandy Epps in Orange Is the New Black and Taylor Mason in Billions. Dillon is non-binary and uses singular they pronouns. Their role on Billions is the first non-binary main character on North American television, and earned them a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
Dillon graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. They enrolled in and completed the Meisner training program at The Actor's Workshop of Ithaca during their junior year of high school at age sixteen. They were the youngest student ever admitted to the class.
In 2007, Dillon took the titular role of Rachel Corrie in the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie. Afterward, they took part in a workshop of plays with Academy Award- and Tony Award-winning playwrights. This was followed by a featured lead role as Lucifer in The Mysteries, and a role in The Tempest at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC.
Dillon played white supremacist Brandy Epps, a penitentiary inmate, in eight episodes of Orange is the New Black in 2016, making them one of the first non-binary actors cast in a major television show. They also played a recurring role in season 2 of Showtime's Wall Street drama Billions in 2017. The role they played is a non-binary character, Taylor Mason, a hedge fund intern,[16] who reports state is the first non-binary character on mainstream North American television. Showtime confirmed in April 2017 that Mason would be a regular character in season 3. When submitting their name for an Emmy Award for acting, Dillon was allowed to submit for whichever gendered category they wished, and chose "actor" over "actress" because it is a gender neutral word. They received submission for supporting actor. Their effort to clarify the matter for all non-binary people prompted the MTV Movie & TV Awards to combine their gender-segregated categories. They presented the award for Best Actor at the MTV Movie & TV Awards on May 7, 2017. In November 2018, it was announced Dillon would star in The Outside Story.
Dillon is the founder and producing director of MIRROR/FIRE Productions. Within the company, they created US, a performance piece exploring racism and the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.
By Posted on