Janet Mock

Janet Mock studied at New York University, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Farrington High School. The recorded working language is English. Residence is recorded at New York City. Distinctions recorded are Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards, Time 100 and GLAAD Stephen F.

• Name — Janet Mock • Born — 1983 • Birthplace — Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. • Education — University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (BA) New York University (MA) • Occupation — Writer, transgender rights activist, television producer • Known for — Redefining Realness, transgender rights activism

Mock was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the second child in the family. Her father, Charlie Mock III, is African-American, and her mother, Elizabeth (Barrett), is of half Portuguese descent, part Asian descent and part Native Hawaiian (kānaka maoli) descent. Mock lived for most of her youth in her native Hawaii, with some time spent in Oakland, California and Dallas. Mock began her transition in her first year of high school, and funded her medical transition by earning money as a sex worker in her teens. At the age of fifteen, Mock was introduced to the world of sex work. Mock says, "I went dressed up with my friends; we hung out with older girls, and when I say older girls I was 15 and some of them were 18 to 25, but they were light-years ahead of us in terms of their identities and their own transitions, of their confidence in their bodies, of proclaiming themselves to themselves and to one another. It was deeply a space of sisterhood and socializing for me." The sex worker experience, although it brings "deep sadness", was her means of survival as a trans person of color. She played volleyball in high school, a sport she had bonded over with her childhood friend Wendi, who helped Mock express her femininity. Mock explains that when she first met Wendi, she asked if Mock was a māhū. Mock describes māhū as "a label for those who live outside of the gender binary." She also added that her hula instructor at the time was a māhū, or trans woman. She chose her name Janet after Janet Jackson. She was the first person in her family to go to college. She underwent gender confirming surgery in Thailand at the age of 18 in the middle of her first year in college. Mock earned a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Merchandising from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2004 and a Master of Arts in journalism from New York University in 2006.

After graduating from New York University, Mock started working at People magazine, where she was a staff editor for more than five years. Her career in journalism shifted from editor to media advocate when she came out publicly as a trans woman in a 2011 Marie Claire article, written by Kierna Mayo in Mock's voice. Mock took issue with how the magazine represented her by stating that she was born and raised as a boy; she says she was always a girl. Mock said, "I was born in what doctors proclaim is a boy's body. I had no choice in the assignment of my sex at birth.... My genital reconstructive surgery did not make me a girl. I was always a girl." In 2014, while promoting her book Redefining Realness, she reiterated that she did not choose the Marie Claire article title, and found it problematic. The editor of that piece, Lea Goldman, would later tweet in support of Mock: "To be fair, I do recall @janetmock & @kiernamayo taking issue with our @marieclaire hed, "I Was Born a Boy." I went with it anyway. #regrets". Mock became a contributing editor at Marie Claire, where she has written articles about racial representation in film and television as well as trans women's presence in the global beauty industry. Mock submitted a video about her experiences as a transgender woman to the "It Gets Better" project in 2011, and has written on a variety of topics for Marie Claire, Elle, The Advocate, Huffington Post and XoJane. In 2012, Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, signed Mock to her first book deal for a memoir about her teenage years, which was released as Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More in February 2014. Redefining Realness made The New York Times bestseller list for hardcover nonfiction, and contains her personal memories often alongside statistics or social theory. Mock writes her book is about her personal experience as a trans woman of color. In the author's note, she writes she is aware of her privilege in writing this book and telling her story. She states in the author's note, "There is no universal women's experience". Feminist critic bell hooks referred to Mock's memoir as, "Courageous! This book is a life map for transformation" while Melissa Harris-Perry said, "Janet does what only great writers of autobiography accomplish — she tells a story of the self, which turns out to be a reflection of all humanity." In 2017, Surpassing Certainty, Mock's second memoir, was published. The book's title is an allusion to Audre Lorde, who wrote, "And at last you'll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking."

Mock is featured in a 2011 documentary called Dressed. She is also featured in an LGBT documentary, The OUT List, which screened on HBO on June 27, 2013. In February 2014, Mock joined Piers Morgan Live on CNN, for a face-to-face interview. After the show aired, the interview resulted in a Twitter feud between the Piers Morgan Live team and Mock. She accused them of "sensationalizing her life" by focusing on her personal and physical life instead of her new book, Redefining Realness. Mock told BuzzFeed that Morgan did not "really want to talk about trans issues, he wants to sensationalize my life and not really talk about the work that I do and what the purpose of me writing this book was about." Morgan received criticism from the LGBTQ community, resulting in Mock's second invitation onto the show. Morgan attempted to understand the root of the criticism as Mock explained the problem with the way trans people and their lives are represented in mainstream media. To address the controversy, Mock appeared on The Colbert Report on February 18, 2014, where the host skewered Morgan and gave Mock space to speak about her book, advocacy and the need to listen to trans people when they declare who they are. In an interview with Fusion's Alicia Menendez, Mock and Menendez "flipped the script" and used the Morgan interview as a teaching lesson by putting Mock on the questioning end of the interview to flip the conversation around gender. Mock as the interviewer asked Menendez to prove her gender with questions like "do you have a vagina" to prove that she is cisgender, interrogating the ways in which trans people are questioned by the media. In December 2014, Mock was featured on the fifth anniversary cover of C☆NDY magazine along with 13 other transgender women – Laverne Cox, Carmen Carrera, Geena Rocero, Isis King, Gisele Alicea, Leyna Ramous, Dina Marie, Nina Poon, Juliana Huxtable, Niki M'nray, Pêche Di, Carmen Xtravaganza and Yasmine Petty. In April 2015, Oprah Winfrey invited Mock to be a guest on Super Soul Sunday for a segment titled, "Becoming Your Most Authentic Self" where she discussed "proudly and unapologetically" claiming her identities. In September 2015, Mock was invited back to join Winfrey's Super Soul Sessions where Mock discussed, "Embracing The Otherness." In 2016, Mock was named to Oprah's SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders. Mock has been featured on the covers of British VOGUE, Marie Claire, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, Who What Wear, Paper, and OUT magazines. Mock has also been interviewed on ELLEN, Wendy Williams, The Daily Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Desus & Mero, and Real Time with Bill Maher. She has also appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Colbert Report, and The Nightly Show. In March 2016, the Hillel at Brown University invited Mock to speak, but she canceled after Brown Students for Justice in Palestine protested the invitation.

In 2012, Mock started a Twitter hashtag to empower transgender women, called #GirlsLikeUs, which received attention from several queer-media sites. Also in 2012, she gave the Lavender Commencement keynote speech honoring LGBT students at the University of Southern California and delivered the commencement address for Pitzer College in 2015. She also served as co-chair, nominee and presenter at the 2012 GLAAD Media Awards. In June 2013, Mock joined the board of directors of the Arcus Foundation, a charitable foundation focused on great ape conservation and LGBT rights. In 2014, following the conviction of activist (and transgender woman of color) Monica Jones, Mock joined a campaign against a Phoenix law that allows police to arrest anyone suspected of "prostitution", which targets transgender women of color. Mock tweeted, "Speak against the profiling of #TWOC [trans woman of color], like Monica Jones. Tweet #StandWithMonica + follow @SWOPPhx [Sex Workers Outreach Project – Phoenix Chapter] now!" On January 21, 2017, Mock spoke at the Women’s March on Washington.

Mock lives in New York City. She married photographer Aaron Tredwell in 2015. The couple filed for divorce in February 2019. Mock began dating Pose actor Angel Bismark Curiel in 2018.

The numbers in directing and writing credits refer to the number of episodes. • Title — Year — Credited as — Network — Notes • Creator — Director — Writer — Executive Producer • Pose — 2018–2021 — (6) — (13) — only producer — FX • The Politician — 2019 — (1) — Netflix • Hollywood — 2020 — (2) — (2) — Netflix — Miniseries • Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story — 2022 — (2) — Netflix — Miniseries

Janet Mock is recorded as having received Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards, Time 100 and GLAAD Stephen F. Janet Mock is recorded as writer, journalist, lgbtq rights activist, screenwriter and television director.