Monroe Alise is a trans activist, actor, host, spiritual advisor, motivational speaker, connecting conversationalist and media personality. After hitting the pavement for years, she recently achieved her big break in the entertainment industry, starring in the second season of the television sensation “P-Valley.”
Alise sat down with rolling out to chat about her life before “P-Valley” — including how she came out to her family — and the promising future of her soon-to-be major career as an actor, musician and entrepreneur.
Make way. A bad b—– has arrived.
On growing up in Washington, D.C.:
“It was so cultured. I come from a very low-income community. My parents were lucky enough to raise a little to middle class, but life wasn’t always easy. I have two other siblings, and my mom and dad are the parents that took in the community … It’s just me and my brothers, and then the next day, it’s the entire community; the floors are covered with people. My mom and dad [often offered] to feed and support everyone, but it was all love. It was nothing but love and fun.”
On seeing and performing the LGBTQ+ experience onscreen:
“I absolutely love it. It’s refreshing. This is what visibility and representation look like in regards to the LGBT community, in regards to transness, in regards to actually showing what human experiences look like day to day at any given time. And let’s be clear: the Black experience.
There was an episode in [the TV show] ‘The Chi’ where they were playing spades, and they were talking about making sure that the person doesn’t renege. Listen, I’m a hell of a spades player — one to be fearful of. And so that reference felt like I was at the table dealing.”
