Alexandra Billings Named 2018 Celebrity Grand Marshal

Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride is proud to announce that American actress, teacher, singer and activist Alexandra Billings will serve as Celebrity Grand Marshal of the 35th annual Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade on Sunday, May 20, 2018.

Billings is among the first openly transgender women to play a transgender character on television. For Long Beach, this is also a homecoming. She earned her master’s degree at Cal State Long Beach and taught there for several years.

Thank you Long Beach Pride! It is an honor to be back in Long Beach and to be recognized by a community that I love so dearly.

Alexandra Billings

She spoke with special warmth about the young people coming up behind her:

I am truly inspired by the unity of my … brothers and sisters, especially our younger Trans generation, that continues to step forward in courage to express to the world that we have the right to be who we are born to be.

Alexandra Billings

A Groundbreaking Career on Screen

Billings stars as Davina in Amazon’s multi-award-winning series “Transparent.” She has guest starred on “How to Get Away with Murder,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “E.R.,” and appeared in the pilot “Nurses” opposite Lynn Redgrave and in the Ryan Murphy pilot “Pretty/Handsome.”

She starred in the ABC film “Romy and Michelle: A New Beginning,” one of the first times in television history that a transgender actress played a transgender character. Her life story, “From Schoolboy to Showgirl: The Alexandra Billings Story,” made for PBS, was nominated for an Emmy for Best Documentary.

In two of her most recent roles, being transgender is not part of the character at all. She plays a rancher opposite Autumn Reeser in the feature film “Valley of Bones,” and a judge opposite Billy Bob Thornton in a recurring arc on the series “Goliath.”

Fifty Years on Stage

Billings has been acting since 1968 and has performed in hundreds of plays and musicals across the United States, playing everyone from Mama Rose in “Gypsy” to Mrs. Lynde in “A Doll’s House.” Nearly every stage role she has taken on is considered a first for a transgender actress.

Her one-woman autobiographical show, “Before I Disappear,” toured from Chicago to Boston to Los Angeles and ran for more than 10 years, including off-Broadway at The Producer’s Club, to rave reviews. Her autobiographical musical “S/He & Me” was performed at The Renberg Theater in Los Angeles. At the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago she originated a role in Charles Mee’s “Time to Burn,” and she appeared off-Broadway in Jeff Richmond and Michael Thomas’ camp classic “Hamlet! The Musical!”

Her CD “Being Alive,” produced by Ralph Lampkin Jr., was up for Grammy consideration. She has received five After Dark Awards and a Joseph Jefferson Award.

Teacher and Advocate

Today Billings is an Associate Professor of Theater at USC and a Viewpoints Associate at The Steppenwolf Theater, and she has taught in schools across the country.

Her advocacy reaches just as far. In 2016 she moderated a panel at the White House during Transgender Awareness Month. She has received the TPA Award and The Rainbow Spirit Award, was inducted into the Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in Chicago, and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post.

Join Us on Ocean Boulevard

This year marks our 35th celebration, under the theme “Remember the Past, Create the Future.” It is hard to think of a better person to lead it. We are proud to carry on this event each year, moving equality forward and giving festivalgoers a safe place to be who they were born to be.

• Parade: Sunday, May 20, 2018, stepping off at 10:30 a.m. on Ocean Boulevard at Lindero Avenue
• Festival: Saturday, May 19, and Sunday, May 20, 2018

Find a spot along Ocean Boulevard and give Alexandra a Long Beach welcome. Follow Long Beach Pride on Facebook and on Instagram at @lbpride.

Media inquiries: info@longbeachpride.com