American actress, model and activist Hunter Schafer was BOTD in 1998. Born in Trenton, New Jersey to a conservative Christian family, she was assigned male at birth, and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. She came out as gay to her parents as a teenager, and was eventually diagnosed with gender dysphoria, coming out as a trans woman. She came to nationwide attention in 2016 as one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, challenging North Carolina state law prohibiting trans people from using bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. She wrote about her participation in the lawsuit in an essay for Teen Vogue, making her a national spokesperson for trans youth. She completed her high school education at the North Carolina School of the Arts, then moved to New York City after graduation, where she was signed with Elite Model Management. She became a successful runway model for design houses including Dior, Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu, House of Holland, Converse, Gucci, Helmut Lang and Versus Versace, becoming one of the first openly trans models to appear in fashion magazines including Elle, Vogue Italia, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan andMarie Claire. In 2019, she made her screen acting debut in the TV drama series Euphoria, playing a trans high school student who has an affair with the closeted gay father of one of her classmates. Schafer worked closely with the show’s creators and costume designers to ensure the authenticity of her character. Her performance was widely praised, earning her a series of awards from LGBTQ media groups. Newly minted as a celebrity, she became a spokesmodel for Shiseido Makeup, Prada and Mugler, modelled for fashion houses including Alexander McQueen and Schiaparelli, and directed a music video for Anohni and the Johnsons’ song Why Am I Alive Now? In 2021, she returned for the second season of Euphoria, earning praise for an episode in which her character describes her gender transition and experiences as a trans woman. She also starred in the Hollywood franchise prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the horror film Cuckoo and in Yorgos Lanthimos’ surrealist drama Kinds of Kindness. A vocal advocate for trans rights, in 2025 she publicly criticised the administration of US President Donald Trump for changing her passport gender marker from female to male without her consent and knowledge. Schafer has identified variously as lesbian, bisexual and pansexual, and has been in relationships with pop singer Rosalía and her Euphoria co-star Dominic Fike. Her current relationship status is unknown.