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Actor

1998-12-31 · Trenton, New Jersey, USA · Female

3 series in the catalog

Hunter Schafer (born December 31, 1998) is an American actress, model, and artist. Born in New Jersey and raised in North Carolina, she came to public attention after joining a 2016 lawsuit against North Carolina's Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, a later-repealed "bathroom bill" which prevented transgender people such as herself from using public bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. For her activism, she was named in Teen Vogue's "21 Under 21" list in 2017.

Schafer has studied both watercolor painting and clothing design. In 2017, she began modeling for various fashion brands. She planned to further pursue clothing design, but instead turned to acting when she was cast in the HBO teen drama television series Euphoria (2019–2026). She helped develop her character of transgender high school student Jules Vaughn, one of the first leading characters on American TV to be both trans and played by a trans person. Her performance and co-writing credit on an episode of Euphoria garnered critical praise.

Schafer has since starred in the films The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), Cuckoo (2024), and Mother Mary (2026), and had minor roles in Kinds of Kindness (2024) and the English dub of the Japanese film Belle (2021). Schafer has continued modeling after getting into acting, serving as brand ambassador for Shiseido Makeup, Prada, and Mugler.

Early life and activism

Schafer was born on December 31, 1998, in Trenton, New Jersey. Her father was a pastor, and the family moved between churches and congregations in New Jersey, Arizona, and finally Raleigh, North Carolina, where Schafer was raised. She has three younger siblings: two sisters and a brother. Schafer said she started expressing femininity as a toddler. In seventh grade, Schafer came out to her parents as a gay boy, and started experiencing gender dysphoria in eighth grade. In ninth grade, she came out as a transgender girl and began transitioning after being diagnosed with dysphoria. She had also questioned if she had a non-binary identity. She stated that the Internet helped her cope with her gender identity, as she turned to YouTube and social media to learn about people's transition timelines.

Schafer first made headlines in 2016 when she became the youngest name listed as a plaintiff on a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Lambda Legal, Carcaño v. McCrory, against the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act. The bill prevented trans people from using the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity, instead deciding bathroom usage based on their assigned sex at birth. The lawsuit led to the bill's repeal. While acting as a plaintiff, she made a film protesting the bill, which was released by the online magazine Rookie. She also wrote about the bill in a widely-shared essay for Teen Vogue in July 2016. For her activism, including her activism against the Act, Teen Vogue listed Schafer on its 2017 "21 Under 21" list of women and femme trailblazers under the age of 21 and granted her an interview with Hillary Clinton.

In early childhood, Schafer developed skills in visual arts, including watercolor painting; in high school, she used these skills to design clothes. The inspirations for her visual style were Tim Burton and Skottie Young. She posted watercolor and photography works on her Instagram account, which became popular. Her clothing designs, which often incorporated political activist messaging, were profiled by Huffington Post in 2017. She contributed illustrations and comic art to Rookie, as well as essays. She went to Needham B. Broughton High School and transferred to the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she graduated from its high school visual arts program. In 2017, Schafer became a semifinalist in the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.

Career

Modeling and acting in Euphoria (2017–2020)

Schafer started modeling shortly after high school. She wanted to use the privileges of "looking like a model" to deconstruct ideas regarding gender identity. In 2017, she signed with Elite Model Management after meeting an agent of theirs on Instagram, so she moved to Brooklyn to model in New York City. She first worked with Dior and Marc Jacobs, among other brands, and by the end of the year she had modeled for Converse, Gucci, Helmut Lang, and Versus Versace. In early 2018, she walked for nine fashion houses including Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu, and House of Holland. She made her debut at New York Fashion Week and traveled abroad for the first time to model in Europe. She started appearing in fashion magazines around the world; Marie Claire magazine wrote: "the fashion industry embraced Schafer for her ethereal yet edgy look and cool-kid versatility". She has also modeled for multiple other brands.

After high school, Schafer planned to attend Central Saint Martins, an arts college in London, where she was accepted, to study clothing design for non-binary people. She also wanted to open a studio and gallery for trans artists in New York, using grant money she had received from Teen Vogue for her "21 Under 21" listing. However, she decided to focus on acting after she was cast in the HBO series Euphoria as a transgender high school girl, Jules Vaughn in 2019. She joined the show after finding a casting call for transgender girls on Instagram, which required no previous acting experience. A few days later, her modeling agency told her she received the audition. She did her final audition in Los Angeles, filmed the show's pilot there a month later, and moved to Los Angeles to film the first season. At the time, trans television characters were rare (GLAAD found there were 17 trans characters on television in 2017 and 2018), as were trans actors playing them. She worked with the show's creator, Sam Levinson, to make sure Jules's trans experiences were accurate. Jules was praised by Vulture for not being a victim of violence like most trans women on screen; she stands up for herself, rather than being a passive victim of the men around her. Schafer also worked with the show's costume designer, Heidi Bivens, to make Jules' wardrobe.

Schafer's performance was widely praised. Paper magazine wrote that Euphoria being her acting debut "will be hard for viewers to tell from the get-go". For the role, she received a Shorty Award, an MTV Movie & TV Award, and a Dorian Award. The Advocate wrote that she was one of many transgender actors not nominated at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards who should have been. In 2020, Queerty named her among the 50 queer people "leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all people". In 2021, Schafer co-wrote an episode of Euphoria that was released between its first and second seasons, titled "Fuck Anyone Who's Not a Sea Blob". The episode, which features Jules in therapy describing her experiences in womanhood, was critically acclaimed.

In 2024, following Euphoria's second season, Schafer's Cuckoo co-star Dan Stevens said that her experience filming Euphoria was "by all accounts, not a terribly pleasant one", and that filming Cuckoo was "refreshing and delightful for her", as "we can still shoot [this] difficult scene, but everybody's still friends, [and] nobody needs to have months of therapy afterwards". Reporting on Stevens' comments, IndieWire noted regarding Euphoria's production that there had been "reports of a toxic workplace environment led by [...] Sam Levinson".

Film roles and brand ambassadorships (2020–present)

In 2020, she became the global brand ambassador for Shiseido Makeup, and in 2021, Prada announced Schafer as their new house ambassador. Also in 2021, Time named her to its Next list of "100 emerging leaders who are shaping the future", with a tribute written by Euphoria co-star Zendaya. In 2022, Schafer starred in the English dub of the Japanese animated film Belle, and she made her directorial debut when making the music video for Girl in Red's song hornylovesickmess. She directed…