Trae Harris is an artistic shapeshifter, born in Baltimore, bred in Brooklyn, and currently based in Los Angeles, whose work fluidly moves across film, performance, poetry, visual art, and esoteric mysticism. Their interdisciplinary practice amplifies the voices of queer women of color across the Americas, with a focus on the intersections of identity, memory, mythology, and migration. Guided by a deep instinct for uncovering hidden truths, Trae’s work bridges the personal and the collective, offering narrative spaces that challenge, transform, and reimagine.

Their journey began in performance, debuting as a teenager on HBO’s The Wire, and has since unfolded across stages and screens with bold, boundary-defying roles. Trae starred in the Sundance feature Newlyweeds (2013), Naomi Wallace’s And I and Silence at Signature Theatre (2014), and Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. Their performances in the award-winning shorts Hair Wolf (2019, Sundance U.S. Fiction Winner) and The Vacation (2022, Sundance Directors Award) reflect a commitment to character-driven storytelling that is both intimate and visionary.

As a filmmaker and creative producer, Trae’s lens is expansive, blending speculative narratives with grounded emotional textures. They are currently producing several projects in development: It’s Always Sunni, a coming-of-age feature in late development with support from the Ruby Artist Grant; Vanishing Point, a feature-length social thriller exploring digital identity, currently in revision; Down in the Gullah, a Southern Gothic television series in early development with support from the Sundance Institute; and Hysterical, a comedy-forward documentary in active pre-production with support from BlackStar Film Festival. In 2025, they co-produced NightSong, a hybrid film installation created in collaboration with visual artist Derek Fordjour, presented at David Kordansky Gallery, further expanding their footprint within contemporary art and interdisciplinary narrative.

Trae is also the co-founder of Two Birds One Key, a publishing and creative arts incubator rooted in Black queer intellectual intimacy, archival practice, and sonic experimentation. In 2024, Trae initiated an ongoing research-based conversation and storytelling project focused on Black queer intimacy as both freedom and offering, bridging oral history, portraiture, and community memory.

Their visual practice includes illustration, book design, and art direction, with works ranging from narrative coloring books to tour graphics for recording artists. Across mediums, they remain committed to accessibility, joy, and storytelling as a communal act.

Their chapbook Hindsight (2020) marked a pivotal turn in their writing life—a lyrical meditation on grief, desire, and survival. It laid the foundation for future work across the page, stage, and screen, underscoring their belief that language is a portal, not a container.

Trae’s work has been supported by institutions including the Sundance Institute, the Gotham Film & Media Institute, NALIP, BlackStar Film Festival, and the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. They are a recipient of the Ruby Artist Grant and have been featured in campaigns with brands such as Adidas, Calvin Klein, Carol’s Daughter, and Shea Moisture, embodying an ethos that resists genre and moves toward freedom.

At the center of their practice is a radical curiosity about what it means to be alive, to remember, and to imagine otherwise. Whether through film, poetry, or visual language, Trae builds bridges between what was, what is, and what could be, inviting audiences to meet them in the in-between.