Alexandra Billings

Early life

Billings' father, Robert Billings, was a music teacher at Los Angeles Harbor College and the musical director for the L. A. Civic Light Opera House, which influenced her interest in theater. She assisted, working backstage in the shadow of such stars as Carol Burnett (Once Upon a Mattress), and Yul Brynner (The King and I). She also appeared in Jesus Christ Superstar and The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd.

Career

In the early 1980s, Billings worked under the stage name Shante at the famed Baton Show Lounge in Chicago, Illinois. Winning a series of beauty contests, she was named Miss Wisconsin, Miss New York, Miss Chicago, Miss Illinois, and Miss Florida. She also served as a judge of the Miss Continental pageant in 2000, and 2001.

Most of Billings' professional work has been in Chicago theaters, most notably The Bailiwick Theater, Light Opera Works, Court Theatre, and the Tony Award winning Steppenwolf Theatre. She has collaborated on plays with such notable authors as Larry Kramer, Tina Landau, and Jamie Pachino. She has received one Joseph Jefferson Award, and 5 After Dark Awards for her work in Chicago Theater. Her one-woman autobiographical show has toured to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and off Broadway. She is a former Artistic Associate of About Face Theatre.

More recently, Billings has appeared in an autobiographical show, "S/He and Me." In the early 2000s, WTTW, the PBS station in Chicago, produced a documentary about Billings' life and career, "Schoolboy to Showgirl: The Alexandra Billings Story."

She has taught Viewpoints at the Steppenwolf Summer School since 2002, as well as Louis University, The University of Chicago, Illinois University, for the Illinois Theatre Convention, at Act One Studios, and various Master classes and workshops around the Chicago area. Currently, she teaches alongside Steppenwolf company members Tom Irwin and Jeff Perry at the Steppenwolf School West in Los Angeles California. She is also currently teaching and earning her Master's in theater at California State University, Long Beach.

Billings is also a professional singer who performs in theaters and nightclubs throughout the United States. She recorded her second CD, The Story Goes On, in 2003, which was produced by Lampkin Music and directed by Russ Long. Her first CD "Being Alive" was up for Grammy consideration. She was a recipient of the New York MAC Hanson Award for Cabaret Artist of the Year in 2004.

In 2010 Billings appeared in the GLBT film FAUX, in which she commented on gay marriage spurring the economy.

In 2017, transgender actors and actresses including Billings (with the help of GLAAD and ScreenCrush) were part of a filmed letter to Hollywood written by Jen Richards, asking for more and improved roles for transgender people.

Television appearances

She has appeared in the 2005 made-for-TV movie Romy and Michelle: A New Beginning on ABC. She has also played transgender characters in episodes of Karen Sisco, ER, Eli Stone, How To Get Away With Murder and Grey's Anatomy.

In 2015, Billings appeared on Season 2, Episode 6 of How To Get Away With Murder as Professor Jill Hartford.

Billings may be best known for her role as Davina in the Amazon series Transparent. The character was introduced in an early episode of Season One and has appeared in subsequent seasons.

Personal life

Billings lives in Hollywood, California with her wife Chrisanne. They were married in a commitment ceremony in Chicago on December 4, 1995. Billings was chosen as the Grand Marshal for the Pride Parade in Chicago, Illinois on June 28, 2009.

Billings has been living with HIV since 1994, and has been an advocate for HIV health initiatives, as well as trans issues and trans rights. She has spoken about her status in a number of interviews, including a 2016 article with her hometown paper. She also spoke to POZ Magazine for a 2003 interview about life with HIV.