We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mis Sadistic. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mis below.
Mis, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
When I was about 5 years old I watched Tod Browning’s “FREAKS” (1932) I was hooked. I could relate to the characters, this is where my love affair with horror movies began. I wanted to be one of the characters on screen but I never saw one of me. I decided at that early age in my life that I was going to be an actress. I was born male and when I started saying I was going to be an actress my parents flipped out! My mother wanted my son the Doctor but life gave her, “my daughter the show girl” lol. I was strong willed and nothing was going to stand in the way of my dreams of being an actress. As the years passed I used to get lost watching movies, I used pose in the living room like Rita Moreno outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater at the opening of West Side Story, my mother would catch me and say “get your head out of the clouds, you’re having pipe dreams” followed by “you’re going to college to be a doctor”. I used to yell back at her “no I’m not, I’m going to be an actress in movies that premier at Grauman’s Chinese Theater”. I knew I was different than the other kids, I was tormented, bullies and called all kinds of derogatory names by the children I went to school with, hateful anti LGBT slurs. It wasn’t till I saw old news footage of “Christine Jorgenson” from 1953 on TV, I was about 8 years old at the time. She was descending the stairs as she disembarked the plain at the airport in New York, that’s when I realized what I was, I was Trans like her. This was a profound moment in my life, it made me more resilient and I was determined to be an actress. I was always practicing in the mirror hoping I didn’t get caught, if I got caught I got punished, needless to say I got punished allot, it was usually the belt, It didn’t stop me.
By the time I was 15 I was 6’ tall, I heard about Fire Island which was right across from where I lived on Long Island. I knew there were people like me that went to Cherry Grove. One day when my mother was out I made my way to the ferries and I was on my way, my head was unwinding like a clock spring overwhelmed by seeing so many other LGBT people on the boat. It was nothing compared to what was about to come in my life. I made my way to the “Ice Palace” bar, nobody questioned my being in there, it was a different era if you were there you belonged there and nobody bothered you. They had a Drag show going on I was mesmerized like a wide eyed kid, I lost all track of time. After the show ended the entertainer “Shirlina” (a Trans women of color) came out of the dressing room and made her way through a packed house right towards me. She pointed at me and asked “how old are you?” followed by “don’t lie to me”. I told her I was just turning 15, she took me to the side and talked to me about being on stage and entertaining people, the conversation continued in her dressing room, she could see how I desperately wanted to be on stage. She told me if I want to be on stage it has to be for the right reasons, not because I would “get off” dressing as a women but to entertain the people, to put on a show they would remember. Another profound moment in my life, Shirlina taught me how to put myself together from head to toe so I could “pass” as a women, it was called passing those days, looking real so nobody could tell, you could get killed back then, it was a dangerous time. She had me on stage in 2 weeks, I impersonated Cher, and I looked just like her. It was like a drug being on stage, the applause, the laughter, the faces of the people in the crowed, I couldn’t get enough of it, and I still can’t. It was the beginning of a journey which allowed me to live out my dreams. I try to write about the people who helped me, the people like Shirlina who helped me, in a time before the digital era, before social media
Mis, 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 was born in Manhattan, NY to conservative parents, raised on Long Island which in the 1960’s & 1970’s was like a restricted neighborhood. For those of you who don’t understand I’ll spell it out racist, homophobic, transphobic, now you have a clearer picture. Now imagen this Trans kid when Trans was never even spoken about growing up there. I knew all the derogatory terms for people like me and other minorities in 4 languages, Greek, Italian, Yiddish & English before I went to elementary school. Some of the words I heard were about people like me, from both my father’s side of the family as well as my mother’s side of the family. School was a whole new kind of hell for me, the bulling began when I started elementary school and reached a fever pitch by junior high school. It had gotten bullied so bad that in class with a teacher sitting just 3 desks in front of me a boy was beating me up and the teacher did nothing, I thought this time I was going to get killed, I reached up to my desk to grabbed a pencil and broke it off in the bullies arm. Those were memories from the good old Baldwin Long Island school system. I graduated from High school at age 15 and never looked back until 30 years later for my 30th High school reunion, I don’t know why but I felt compelled to go. My partner David said if you want to go than we go. We were living in Florida at the time, we flew to NY for the day went to the “Freeport Yacht Club” for the class reunion. It was truly a cathartic moment, everyone thought David was in there class until they looked at my name tag, my legal name is a very long Greek last name. One of the girls I went to school with said to me “oh my god, “I thought you would have killed yourself”. My response “you bitches were basic training for life” she walked away. There was a man I went to school with sitting at the bar most of the night, we were getting ready to leave it must have been about 2am, he walked up to us and said you probably don’t remember me, before he could utter another word my partner said “I know exactly who you are, you the bully she stabbed with the pencil. Then I got the response I didn’t see coming….. he said, “I’m so sorry for what I did to you, I never bullied anyone ever again” he went on to say, a day doesn’t go by that he doesn’t think about me, every time he looks in the mirror at the scar, he thinks of me”.
For people who are reading about me for the first time my name is Mis Sadistic. I got my name playing pool one night in the Dallas Eagle Bar in TX, I went to break and I hit the ball so hard it went flying off the table and hit my friend Robert right in the… family jewels, of course I was laughing my ass off as Robert was reeling in pain. When Robert caught his breath he called me a Sadistic bitch, I replied with “that’s Mis Sadistic, and don’t ever forget it”. Who knew what started out as a joke would turn out to be my name. People either love it or hate it but nobody ever forgets it. Now it’s on all my social media as well as my IMBD, when the universe gives you a gift like this just accept it.
I watched other performers in my industry and noticed they were all similar in one way or another. I created a character all my own, unique to me. Based in the BDSM community with a comedic side, turning the wildest taboo into a mainstream actress, sex sells & Mis Sadsitic is the whole package. I’m not just an actress, I am also an author with a love of cooking. I published my cook book “Yes My Dungeon Has a Kitchen” everything in my carrier is based on Mis Sadistic iconic dominatrix look even in the kitchen. I coauthored several books with “Todd Kachinski Kotmire”, “Million Hugs – The Official Drag Handbook”, “Drag411’s Original Drag Handbook: Official Drag Handbook, Book 2”, “Drag Parents” and “Crown Me”. I am also featured in a book by “Barbara Benjarman Marcus” called “Inside Out” with a two page spread in my own words. I am so proud to be featured in this book alongside 40 top female impersonators in the US. I’m also on the cover of “Fashion Fierce Magazine” as well being featured inside. I learned from each experience how to publish and market myself and my merchandise. I am grateful to everyone who has touched my life, I am a better person and actress because of them. Then came the movies, two decades of staring in Horror / Comedies / Sci-Fi with Director Sean Haitz and a Drama with Director “Kevin McCarver” called “The Lost”. I believe “Dame Judy Dench” said it best in an interview, “I‘m where I am because I caught someone’s eye”.
The thing that I am the most proud of is that I am able to live my life authentically, on my terms, my way and loving myself and helping others to do the same. It doesn’t matter what your background is or the obstacles that were in your way, it’s how you deal with them that defines you, most of all be grateful. None of us get to where we are alone, I have realized my dreams because of the kindness of strangers
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I began my journey onto the stage in the 1970’s as a female impersonator performing as Cher, in New York. It was dangerous for people like me, if we were caught by the police (a male in female clothing it was off to jail you went) we were considered a mental disorder, the police used to target us. It did not stop me or my dream of being an actress, I began my carrier on stage at the Iconic gay bar “The Ice Palace” on Fire Island, NY. I then began performing in the night club circuit in the United States from New York to Key West. I was living my dream but I wanted to be in movies. I am Trans and wanted to be cast as Trans characters in horror movies, it was something I never saw growing up as a child watching horror movies which was my favorite genre, I never saw one of me on screen.
In the mean time I was a hairdresser by trade, acting was my passion but I like having a regular income. Eventually I opened a salon in Delray Beach Florida but I was still performing at night. I got a break being able to perform at “The Fountain Blue” hotel in Miami, Florida with the “La Cage Review”, it was a pivotal moment in my life, although it was a short stint it gave me the confidence to branch out and begin performing around the world. I retired from hairdressing at age 35 and began booking gigs in different countries but still had my eyes set on the silver screen. My life had many adventures in store for me on my journey.
In 2001 I met my partner of 23 years now. I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone, much less settle down but the universe had other plans for me. I met my partner by chance at a fetish party in Fort Lauderdale, it was like we always knew each other and have been together 24/7 since we met. I was leaving for Europe 2 weeks after I met him, I asked him “are you coming” his response was priceless. He replied “well I have never taken a vacation from my job, I guess I could ask my boss for a week off” my reply stunned him I said I’m going on tour for 30 days, tell him you need a month. He did and his boss gave him the time off, it was the begging of a match made in heaven. My Partner David Vega is a heavy metal musician his band name is “Lucifers AXE” we began to work together both on stage and off. He was also a creative designer and a very talented actor. That part of the story comes later. We returned from Europe and 2 weeks later I said David start packing we head out again for another 30 days, his color drained, he said “my boss will never give me the time” at this point my mother had come to visit, she looked a David and said tell your boss goodbye, go with my son. Taking a huge leap of faith he did, we embarked on the greatest adventure of our lives, together we are a force, both on and off screen.
Now we come to the on screen, this is where dreams became reality, we had a friend Anthony Mikesell who said to us “I have a friend making a horror / comedy movie, you guys would be great for it”. I responded “Anthony let your friend know exactly what I am, I don’t want to waste his time or vice versa”. We met the next afternoon, Anthony was so excited to tell us that he spoke to Sean Haitz and told him all the details about myself and David, he absolutely wanted us to audition for him. This was the universes way of opening the door to my dreams, getting the chance to be a Trans actress playing Trans characters. We went to his casting call, we met Sean, his mother Cathy, his Grandmother “Nanna” his sisters Heather & Grace, his brother Richard & wife Krista and his dad Rick, it was truly a family affair. Sean wanted me to play out a scene, he threw a severed head into my hands, and I screamed like a banchy, David got tossed a severed head also. We had a blast that afternoon. About 2 weeks went by and we received a voice mail from Krista Haitz saying we were both cast in the film as Drag queen #1 & Drag queen #2, the film was Mangrove Slasher 2.
This was to be one of the most profound moments in my life. Little did I realize at that moment Sean Haitz would change the course and direction of my life. Both myself and David have been cast in all of his films for 2 decades. Sean made my dreams of being an actress in movies that premier at Grauman’s Chinese Theater come to life, for this I am so full of gratitude. You can see me in these wonderful Horror/Comedies, Mangrove Sasher2, Big Top Evil, Cannibal Comedian, Bellevue Bob and coming soon AREA 5150.
To anybody reading this, know dreams do come true! My advice to you, dream bigger!
It’s better to look back and say I really shouldn’t have done that, instead of what if. Never live a life of what ifs.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
When you start out in life at least for me, my goal was surviving today. I’ve never met another Trans person like me ever, I am unique. I have a will of steal & nothing or no one will break it. Sadly over the years, 45 years to be exact, I have met so many Trans people, male to female and female to male who live in fear, self-loathing, some so paralyzed by the restraints in their own minds holding them back from living the life they deserve, a life of happiness and fulfillment. I feel it’s my responsibility to speak out, if not me than who?
Once I was blessed to have a platform from being a Trans actress, where my voice could be heard, I began to tell my story, I felt it could be life changing for some, even if it’s only one person, its makes it worth it. I want to leave this world knowing I am making it a better place for generations of us yet to come. I wanted to help make people’s lives better by seeing me, unapologetically out, I don’t blend in, nor do I want to. I am 7’1” tall with heals on, 110lbs, with a 26” waistline, there was no hiding for me. I began having gender affirming surgery when I was 15 years old, by the year 2000 I have had 50 procedures done to my face and body. I created the body I am comfortable in, I have lived a life against all odds, I didn’t just survive, I thrived.
There should be no reason for anyone to feel they are less than, because of outside influences from strangers who in the grand scheme of things, are irrelevant in their lives.
My mission is to let people here my story and know you can be or do anything you want, the only person you have to answer to is yourself!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mis_sadistic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000548299779
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MisSadistic
- Other: IMBd: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5500404/
Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/mis-sadistic.bsky.social
FaceBook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/p/Mis-Sadistic-100063218561790/
