page_title: Ivory Aquino
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Ivory Aquino / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Cecilia Chung stands with "When We Rise" miniseries actors Ivory Aquino (who portrayed Chung in that series) and Emily Skeggs at Trans March San Francisco 2017.
context_page_description: Ivory Aquino is a Filipina-American actress. She is known for portraying transgender activist Cecilia Chung in the 2017 miniseries When We Rise.
context_section_description: In 2015, Aquino performed the role of Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet in New York City with The Drilling Company's Bryant Park Presents. Other stage roles she has played  include Desdemona in Othello, Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, and Isabella in Measure for Measure, all with The Drilling Company's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot on the Lower East Side of New York.
  Aquino was cast in the role of transgender activist Cecilia Chung for the 2017 docudrama miniseries, When We Rise. At the time she auditioned, she had played mostly cisgender roles, and was not open about being trans, as "There never was a reason to talk about it." Aquino made sure to let series writer Dustin Black know that she was transgender, which helped her secure the part, as Black was specifically looking for trans actresses. She publicly came out as transgender during a January 2017 press conference for the series.
  Aquino met with Chung in person to prepare for her part on When We Rise. They became friends; Aquino considers Chung to be a mentor and "older sister" figure in her life.
caption: Aquino with Cecilia Chung and fellow When We Rise actress Emily Skeggs at the 2017 San Francisco Trans March
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