Daniel Sea

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{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Daniel Sea

| image = Daniela Sea cropped and retouched.jpg

| caption = Daniel Sea in 2006

| alias = Dan-yella Dyslexia
Little Prince

| birth_place = Malibu, California, United States

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1973|7|26}}

| instrument = Guitar, bass guitar, accordion, penny whistle

| occupation = Musician, actor, performance artist, juggler

| years_active = 1990s–present

| associated_acts = The Gr'ups, Cypher in the Snow, The Thorns Of Life, Bitch and the Exciting Conclusion

| website =

}}

Daniel Sea (born July 26, 1973) is an American filmmaker, actor and musician. They rose to prominence through their role as Max Sweeney on Showtime's drama series The L Word. Sea (he/they) is a trans non-binary actor,{{cite web |url=https://www.autostraddle.com/daniel-sea-interview/ |title=Daniel Sea On "The L Word," Gender Identity, and Imagining Queer Liberation |last=Gregory |first=Drew |website=Autostraddle |date=May 31, 2021 |access-date=June 3, 2021}} musician and artist who has worked in film, theater, television, and the fine arts. They played the first recurring transmasculine role on television, appearing from 2006-2009 as Max in Showtime's The L Word. In 2022, they reprised the role as Max for the current iteration of the L Word: Generation Q. They acted in films such as John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, and Barbara Albert's film {{Ill|The Dead and the Living (2012 film)|de|3=Die Lebenden|lt=The Dead and the Living}}.

Personal life

Daniel Sea was born on July 26, 1973, in Malibu, California.{{cite web|url=http://www.danielasea.com/bio.htm |title=Daniela Sea Biography |publisher=Danielasea.com |accessdate=2013-12-04 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902223923/http://danielasea.com/bio.htm |archivedate=2013-09-02 }} Sea described their parents as hippies who "left a lot of doors open for me to experiment with my gender expression and life choices". Despite an accepting home environment, Sea still describes having a rough childhood due to the way society viewed being queer and trans in the 1980's.

Sea came of age as an artist as part of the queer punk, art and activist scenes of the San Francisco Bay Area, California in the 1990s. They ran away from LA when they were 16 went to Laney College in Oakland in Bay Area, "like a good gay kid would." While there in Berkeley, they joined the DIY/punk/feminist/artist space Gilman Street Project, studied improv acting in Laney College, and played in several punk rock bands, including The Gr'ups and Cypher in the Snow.{{cite web|url=http://www.afterellen.com/TV/2006/1/sea.html |title=Interview with The L Word 's Daniela Sea |publisher=AfterEllen.com |date=2006-01-03 |accessdate=2024-11-22 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208092313/http://www.afterellen.com/TV/2006/1/sea.html |archivedate=2009-02-08 }} In an article in the LA Times Sea said that when they ''left LA for the Bay Area, as many queer and trans people did in the pre-internet early '90s, I found a community in punk that helped [them] become a working artist at the age of 19, touring internationally with an East Bay punk band the Gr’ups, and organizing with both the Gilman Street and Q-TIP, Queers Together in Punkness, collectives."{{cite web |last1=Hansen |first1=Candace |title=The L Word Failed a Trans Pioneer |website=Los Angeles Times |date=9 December 2022 |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-12-09/the-l-word-generation-q-daniel-sea-max-sweeney}}

Sea traveled across Europe and Asia. They hitchhiked through Turkey, did some street theatre, and performed as a fire juggler with a traveling circus in Poland. As a punk rocker, Sea and their band often performed in drag.{{cite web |last1=McCracken |first1=Kevin |title=Adulting Well Podcast |date=9 March 2023 |url=https://player.fm/series/the-adulting-well-podcast/episode-61-with-daniel-sea |access-date=13 April 2023}} At one point in their world travels, they lived in India for eight months as a man.

Growing up in Los Angeles in the 80s, it was difficult for Sea to navigate their identity. In a May 2021 interview with Drew Gregory,{{cite web |url=https://www.autostraddle.com/daniel-sea-interview/ |title=Daniel Sea On "The L Word," Gender Identity, and Imagining Queer Liberation |last=Gregory |first=Drew |website=Autostraddle |date=May 31, 2021 |access-date=June 3, 2021}} "I was bullied for being a “tomboy” and “weird” and eventually found refuge in books, punk, and a few good friends who were also outsiders."

Throughout the interview, Sea expanded upon their journey with gender. They talk about the beginnings of the language for non-binary identities and how they had to navigate that while playing a trans character, Max Sweeney, in the TV series The L Word. Sea later clarified their identity as trans, non-binary, gender expansive, and queer.{{cite web |url=https://www.autostraddle.com/daniela-sea-interview/ |title=Daniela Sea On "The L Word," Gender Identity, and Imagining Queer Liberation |last=Gregory |first=Drew |website=Autostraddle |date=May 31, 2021 |access-date=June 3, 2021}} They have also added the pronouns he/they to their bio on Instagram.{{cite web |url=https://www.instagram.com/danielsea_/ |title=danielasea_ homepage |website=Instagram |access-date=2022-06-09}}

Career

After Sea returned from Europe, they moved to New York City{{cite web |url=http://www.sho.com/site/lword/cast.do#daniela_sea. |title=About the Actors |website=Showtime |access-date=June 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070113081216/http://www.sho.com/site/lword/cast.do#daniela_sea. |archive-date=January 13, 2007}} and decided to re-enter the acting world, giving an audition tape to a friend who worked on The L Word's writing staff. Sea then got a call at their restaurant job in New York and was asked to fly to Los Angeles for an audition. They were then offered to perform the role of Moira Sweeney, an androgynous computer technician who moves from the Midwest with Jenny (Mia Kirshner). Over the course of the season, Sweeney comes out as a trans man, adopting the name Max Sweeney. In 2022, Sea reprised the role in the third season of the sequel series The L Word: Generation Q. When the episode aired, Daniel Sea was interviewed by the LA Times [https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-12-09/the-l-word-generation-q-daniel-sea-max-sweeney ‘The L Word’ failed a trans TV pioneer. 17 years later, he’s back to repair the damage] and Indie Wire [https://www.indiewire.com/2022/12/the-l-word-max-daniel-sea-interview-1234792321/ ‘The L Word’ Star Daniel Sea on the ‘Reparative Gesture’ of Max’s Return] about their experience performing the role of Max Sweeney and Daniel's return to the show.

In their music career, with their girlfriend of the time, Bitch, formerly of Bitch and Animal, they helped to form a band called Bitch and the Exciting Conclusion. They were part of the band The Thorns of Life with their longtime friends Blake Schwarzenbach (formerly of Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil) and Aaron Cometbus (of Pinhead Gunpowder and formerly Crimpshrine). The band toured the West Coast and played in New York City and Philadelphia from fall 2008 through winter 2009.{{cite web|url=http://www.songkick.com/artists/2370628-thorns-of-life/gigography |title="Thorns of Life Gigography, Tour History" Soundkick |publisher=Songkick.com |date= February 2009|accessdate=2013-12-04}} Besides The L Word, Sea's filmography also includes the films Shortbus (2006) (with Bitch, both as themselves) and Itty Bitty Titty Committee, released in 2007. They also appeared in the John Cameron Mitchell-directed music video for Bright Eyes' "First Day of My Life" with Bitch. On February 17, 2009, they guest starred on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a transgender man, playing a similar role to Max Sweeney.

Daniel was cast in a leading role in the film The Casserole Club. Co-starring Susan Traylor, Kevin Richardson, Pleasant Gehman, and Garrett Swann, the film is set in 1969 and deals with damaged relationships. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Steve Balderson, filming took place in Wamego, Kansas during fall of 2010.

Sea played in an unnamed music project with Will Schwartz. They played their second show at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California, in October 2010.{{cite web |url=http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs/detail/program_id/616 |title="TRANSylvania Mania!" Calendar of Hammer Museum |publisher=Hammer.ucla.edu |date=2010-10-29 |accessdate=2013-12-04 |archive-date=2012-09-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120921032458/http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs/detail/program_id/616 |url-status=dead }}

In their most recent work as a conceptual artist Sea works through language, music and memoir in a practice that is expansive, crossing several mediums. In 2018 Sea co-created a decolonial theater piece with Marissa Lôbo and Jota Mombaça collaborating with Brazilian artists Ani Gonzala, Juliana Dos Santos and Indigenous leader Sônia Guajajara.{{cite news |last1=Hansen |first1=Candace |title=The L Word Failed a Trans Pioneer |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-12-09/the-l-word-generation-q-daniel-sea-max-sweeney |newspaper=LA Times|date=9 December 2022 }} Sea is co-writer, producer and songwriter on“La La La Little Shows”, a decolonial children’s sci fi series, which includes animation, music performance, narrative storytelling and interviews with artists. This show centers BIPOC and Queer characters and artists.{{cite web |last1=in Bewegung |first1=Kulturen |title=Lalala Little Show: Sound of the Sound - Part 1 |url=https://www.kultureninbewegung.org/en/single-view/lalala-little-show-konzerte-fuer-kinder-sound-of-the-sound-teil-1}}