Alexis Arquette (born male on January 1, 1969 in Los Angeles, California) is a transgendered American actress, musician, L.A. area underground cartoonist, and drag performer who is part of a family of actors including siblings Patricia, David, Richmond, and Rosanna Arquette, her father Lewis Arquette and her grandfather Cliff Arquette.

Biography
 

Alexis Arquette has spent the majority of her career in the public eye identifying as a male. When appearing as a woman it was primarily as a drag performer and frequently under the name "Eva Destruction." It is only later in her career that she made public her desire to complete gender reassignment, and that she has begun that process. To this end, though still anatomically male, Arquette has publicly declared that she considers her gender identity to be female, and should be referred to as such. Statutes in California, where Ms. Arquette lives, prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity, whether or not that identity conforms to the sex assigned at birth. Given that physical sex and psychological gender are divisible and separable, individuals such as Ms. Arquette may determine that their gender differs from their sex sufficiently enough that they identify as a member of the opposite sex. Such an individual has a right to self-determination and self-identification under the constitutional right to privacy.

Lesser known than Patricia, David, and Rosanna, the majority of her film work has been limited to low-budget or independent films. These have included her critically acclaimed debut performance as male-to-female transsexual Georgette in Last Exit to Brooklyn. She also appeared in I Think I Do, Children of the Corn V, and Killer Drag Queens on Dope, among 40 other independent pictures.

Alexis Arquette has appeared in supporting roles in mainstream films, including Pulp Fiction, Threesome, Bride of Chucky and a memorable appearance as a Boy George fanatic in The Wedding Singer, singing "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" over and over. Arquette has also performed in low-budget pornographic films as her "Destruction" persona.

In 2004 Alexis Arquette expressed an interest in undergoing formal male-to-female transitioning by the use of hormone treatments and, ultimately, a sex reassignment surgery, but this process has not been completed. Many of her roles and appearances in film and elsewhere were performed when she expressed a male identity.

In September 2005, VH1 announced her casting in an upcoming season of the reality show The Surreal Life. She mentioned on the show, unscripted, that she does not want people to call her either a man or a woman, but a transgendered individual—in her words, a "tranny."

Filmography

• Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)
• Death of a Schoolboy (1990)
• Miracle Beach (1992)
• Jumpin' at the Boneyard (1992)
• Terminal Bliss (1992)
• Of Mice and Men (1992)
• The Killing Box (1993)
• Grief (1993)
• Jack Be Nimble (1993)
• Frank and Jesse (1994)
• Threesome (1994)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Don't Do It (1994)
• Paradise Framed (1995)
• Wigstock The Movie (1995) (documentary)
• Frisk (1995)
• White Man's Burden (1995)
• Kiss & Tell (1996)
• Sometimes They Come Back... Again (1996)
• Things I Never Told You (1996)
• Never Met Picasso (1996)
• Scream, Teen, Scream (1996) (short subject)
• Inside Out (1997) (short subject)
• I Think I Do (1997)
• Goodbye America (1997)
• Close To (1997) (short subject)
• Love Kills (1998)
• Fool's Gold (1998)
• The Wedding Singer (1998)
• Cleopatra's Second Husband (1998)
• Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998)
• Bride of Chucky (1998)
• Tomorrow by Midnight (1999)
• Out in Fifty (1999)
• She's All That (1999)
• Clubland (1999)
• Citizens of Perpetual Indulgence (2000)
• Piccadilly Pickups (2000)
• The Price of Air (2000)
• Boys Life 3 (2000)
• The Woman Every Man Wants (2001)
• Audit (2001) (short subject)
• Digital Sex (2001) (documentary)
• The Trip (2002)
• Spun (2002)
• Killer Drag Queens On Dope (2003)
• The Movie Hero (2003)
• Wasabi Tuna (2003)
• Lords of Dogtown (2005)
• Hubert Selby Jr: It'll Be Better Tomorrow (2005) (documentary)

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This Alexis Arquette Biography Page is Copyright The Planets © 2004 - 2006 Chuck Ayoub