We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Trayesse. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Trayesse below.

Trayesse, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My most meaningful project I’ve worked on is a short screenplay I wrote called Zebra. Zebra is a medical slang term for a rare or unlikely diagnosis. I became disabled almost a decade ago due to a rare, progressive genetic disease called Ehler’s Danlos (EDS), which has a wide array of comorbidities, most commonly POTS and MCAS. The three together (EDS/POTS/MCAS) has been dubbed the ‘trifecta from hell’ given the debilitating and notoriously difficult to treat nature of the diseases combined.

Given the gross sparsity of disabled stories actually told from a disabled perspective rather than Hollywood’s standard, cringey able-bodied inspiration porn, I decided I wanted to write a story that not only humanized but more broadly captured the reality of what it’s like to struggle and survive with chronic health issues and be disabled in a capitalist society in a manner that is brutally honest and emotional yet fun and exciting. This led to the creation of Zebra, a raw and humorous short that is also mysterious in nature, laying the groundwork for it to hopefully evolve into a feature or series someday. In the meantime, Zebra is in the pre-production stages for being turned into a film short.

Trayesse, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started dipping my toes into the arts/entertainment industry as a cathartic outlet after becoming chronically ill and too disabled to continue practicing as a psychologist. I actually sort of stumbled into the industry after a talented photographer friend asked if I would be willing to do a shoot with him. Truthfully, I wasn’t particularly keen on the idea at the time as I had become homeless due to my health issues and was staying in a shelter that was basically like urban camping. However, he had been driving down from the OC to San Diego to help me navigate some social services and disability paperwork so I agreed, and the photos ended up coming back absolutely amazing.

After sharing those photos on social media, everything just sort of started evolving from there. I began booking freelance modeling gigs, joined up with an entertainment production startup (House of Pills Entertainment or H.O.P.E.) as an associate producer, and eventually started writing my own screenplays. I’m now most looking forward to getting back into acting, a childhood passion. As of now, I have two roles slated to start filming in the fall. One is a feature presentation set in the 60s where I’ll be playing a hippie, feminist therapist and the other is a crime short where I’ll be the mob boss.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I don’t know that there is one particular story that highlights my “resilience” (I put in quotation marks because of how the term has evolved into having inherent ableist and capitalist undertones by focusing on marginalized peoples’ individual characteristics rather than the barriers and systems of oppression that unnecessarily traumatize and force people to be resilient). Like most disabled people, I’m so sick of people commenting on my “resilience” it makes me want to bang my head on a wall, but the fact that I am still trying to create meaning within my life despite being stuck in a rapidly crumbling capitalist society that absolutely HATES disableds, and even more so, within an industry that is not accommodating to disabilities whatsoever, is a remarkable feat in and of itself.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have always been passionate about political and social justice, exponentially more so since becoming disabled and homeless. I hope to continue to grow and further utilize my platform and skills to continue to speak out on salient intersectional issues (e.g., disability justice, decolonization, neurodivergence, feminism, class warfare, queer/gender rights, genocide).

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @trayesse

Image Credits

@varsoviamedia
@elegantfilthproject