Filipino-American transgender actress Ivory Aquino, said to be related to Kris Aquino, has been cast in the upcoming film "Batgirl."
Ivory will appear as Alysia Yeoh, the best friend of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, the masked hero played by Leslie Grace, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Other stars in the upcoming DC lice-action movie are Leslie Grace, J.K. Simmons, Brendan Fraser, Michael Keaton, and Jacob Scipio.
When she was a teen, Ivory moved alone from the Philippines to the United States to study music in Boston. She attended the Berklee College of Music and went on to perform as Juliet in a performance of "Romeo and Juliet" in New York City’s Bryant Park, NBC News reported.
In 2017, Ivory made her network television debut in the role of transgender activist Cecilia Chung on ABC miniseries “When We Rise.” It’s Aquino’s first time portraying a transgender character.
“I hope that it really is the beginning of something — it’s a step toward greater visibility for the community, for minority communities, including the API community in the media,” said Ivory, who at that time was portraying a transgender character the first time.
Growing up in the Philippines, Aquino would hide underneath the family table and reenact scenes from her favorite movies and cartoons. It was a safe space where she could be the author and actress of her own story, NBC reported.
“I would go into these scenarios, and it felt safe for me because, looking back, I realized I would be stepping into the shoes of a character ... it did develop my empathy early on,” Ivory also told NBC.
“As soon as I was born, I was always a girl; I was just assigned differently at birth,” Ivory told NBC, during an interview in 2017.
She added: “The reflecting of that...me looking up to these women and playing female characters on the playground, there was that...so as early as then, even though it wasn’t verbalized, it was who I was."
As she grew older, Aquino regularly watched the Miss Universe pageant and spent hours reading stories from women’s magazines, feeling empowered and inspired to chase after her dreams, NBC News reported.
“In the Philippines, there’s the three big Bs: Basketball, boxing, and beauty pageants,” she said. “Beauty pageants were huge, and I remember watching the Miss Universe pageant and being so wowed by these women who were not only physically stunning, but very articulate and intelligent.”