IO Tillett Wright


iO Tillett Wright is an American author, photographer, TV host, and activist.

Early life and education

Wright grew up in New York City with his mother, Rebecca Wright, a photographer.
Assigned female at birth, during his early childhood Wright started to identify as gender fluid.
Wright has since starred in MTV Suspect, which aired in 2016. As news that co-star Nev Schulman had to leave the show to take care of his wife during her pregnancy, he confirmed the show's end on social media.

Career

Editor

In 2002, at the age of 17, Wright founded and served as editor-in-chief of a street art magazine, Overspray, until 2009.

Blogger and writer

Wright then became a featured columnist for T Magazine, at The New York Times. In addition, Wright had two regular blogs called Notes From The Underground—for which iO reviewed underground performances—and The Lowdown.
Wright's first book, Darling Days, A Memoir was released on September 27, 2016, by Ecco Books, an imprint of Harper Collins.

Speaker

In 2012, Wright delivered a talk at TEDxWomen in Washington, DC, called Fifty Shades Of Gay, discussing sexuality and gender as a spectrum. The talk has been viewed over 2.8 million times.

Photographer

Wright is a self-taught photographer, whose first camera was a Pentax KX.
Since 2010, Wright has been working on a project called Self Evident Truths that examines Americans, asking them whether they are "other than straight", and photographing respondents who self-evaluate themselves to be "anything other than 100% straight". To date, Wright has photographed 9,803 people in all 50 States of the USA.
Wright's photographs appeared on the cover of The New York Times magazine in August 2010, marking the beginning of his public photography career. On September 22, 2010, Wright opened Breedings, his first solo show of photographs, at Fuse Gallery in Manhattan. In August 2011, Wright debuted Camila, his second solo show, and Act Like You're Fine, a group show he curated at Tokyo's Vacant Gallery.

Television personality

In 2016, Wright began co-hosting the MTV show Suspect with Nev Schulman.
In 2017, Wright was a co-host with Max Joseph, on MTV's TV show, Season 6 Episode 6.

Actor

As an actor, Wright appeared in numerous independent films, on Sex and the City, and after an almost decade long hiatus, the feature film Holy New York.

Personal life

Wright uses the gendered pronouns "her/him" or no pronouns at all, just his legal first name, "00". Wright has written that "there is nothing wrong with being a ‘they’, but, STRICTLY speaking , the shoe doesn't fit." He has said that this "may change, as it has already changed many times, and I'm good with that".