Kiley May

Kiley May (born 1986/1987) is a Mohawk and Cayuga storyteller,^[1] actor, screenwriter, filmmaker,^[2] and two-spirit activist in Toronto.^[1]

Kiley May
Born	1986 or 1987 (age 38–39)
Alma mater	Ryerson University
Occupation(s)	Storyteller, actor, filmmaker, two-spirit activist

Life

As a child, May lived at Six Nations of the Grand River, an Indian reserve in Ontario.^[2] Her mother is Mohawk and her father is Cayuga,^[3] and she belongs to the Turtle Clan.^[4]

She^[a] was assigned male at birth, but was feminine as a child.^[5] She experienced discrimination as a result of transphobia and homophobia.^[2]

In 2007, May left the reserve and moved to Toronto, where she attended journalism school at Ryerson University. While in school, she discovered a love for creative writing, but after graduating she did not write for several years.^[2] May initially identified as genderqueer and gender non-conforming, and eventually started to use she pronouns; as of June 2017^[update], at age 30, she was using both she/her and they/them pronouns.^[5]

In 2017, May was the Youth Ambassador for Pride Toronto. She was additionally crowdfunding to pay for travel to Montreal for genital surgery.^[5]

In 2020, May was a winner of the Magee TV Diverse Screenwriters Award from the Toronto Screenwriting Conference.^[6]

Roles

• Coroner,^[2] as River Baitz, ongoing^{[citation needed]}
• It Chapter Two^[2] as Native American woman (from the fictitious “Shokopiwah” tribe^[7])
• The D Cut^[6]

Notes

1. May uses she/her and they/them pronouns. This article uses feminine pronouns for consistency.