Nando Messias is a Brazilian-born performance artist, actor, and academic working between art, dance, theater, and queer theory who holds a PhD in queer theory and performance practice from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London. Their performances combine beauty with a fierce critique of gender, visibility, and violence. Messias has performed in the UK and internationally, at venues such as The Royal Court, Hayward Gallery, V&A, Tate Britain, Roundhouse, Royal Vauxhall Tavern, and ICA. Published texts include: “Bibi is a Sissy: Drag, Death by Silence and the Journey to Self-Determination from Brazil to Britain,” in Drag Histories, Herstories and Hairstories (2020); “Injurious Acts: A Struggle With Sissy in Performance,” Choros International Dance Journal (2018); “Visibility: Performance and Activism,” Performing Interdiscisplinarity (2017), and “Sissy that Walk: The Sissy’s Progress,” Queer Dramaturgies (2016). In 2019, they were awarded a commission to develop The Pink Supper, which deals with their experience of trans violence and leaving Brazil. Messias lives and works in London.