Asia Kate Dillon Biography

Asia Kate Dillon was born on November 15, 1984, in Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York, US. While Dillon was assigned female at birth, they later began identifying as non-binary. Dillon now prefers using the pronouns “they,” “them,” and “their.”

Dillon is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Reportedly, Dillon’s mother’s name is Wendy. Dillon has kept the details of their family away from the media spotlight, so not much is known about them.

After graduating from the Studio Program of New York’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), Dillon went back to Ithaca, where they joined The Actor's Workshop of Ithaca and completed the Meisner training program.

Dillon was 16 when they began their junior year of high school, thus becoming the youngest student in the class in history. Apart from acting with the theater company, Dillon also worked as a teaching assistant and stage manager.

In 2007, Asia Kate Dillon was seen in the titular role of Rachel Corrie in the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie. Dillon had to memorize more than 30 monologues and play more than 7 alternate characters over the course of this “one man show” and received rave reviews for their performance.

Dillon then went back to New York City and was selected from almost 1,000 actors to be part of a workshop at Manhattan’s The Flea Theater, working on 50 new plays by playwrights who had either won or been nominated for the Tony and Academy Awards. The plays were directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar.

Dillon then appeared as Lucifer in The Mysteries, which was also directed by Iskandar. Following this, Dillon traveled to Washington, DC, to appear in The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Tempest.

In 2016, Asia Kate Dillon appeared as white supremacist penitentiary inmate Brandy Epps in 8 episodes of the iconic series Orange is the New Black (2016-2019). Dillon thus also scripted history as one of the first non-binary actors to be cast in a major TV show. Dillon received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2018, along with the entire cast of the series.

In 2017, Dillon started appearing in the recurring role of Taylor Mason in season 2 of Showtime's Wall Street drama series Billions. Taylor Mason’s character was a non-binary hedge fund intern at Axe Capital.

Mason was reportedly also the first non-binary character on mainstream TV in North America. Mason was shown as someone who was appreciated and utilized for their smart and outside-the-box thinking.

In April 2017, Showtime declared Mason would appear as a regular character in season 3 of Billions. While submitting their name for the Emmy Award, Dillon was allowed to choose any gendered category, and they chose "actor" instead of "actress," because “actor” is a gender-neutral word.

Dillon subsequently received submission for “Supporting Actor.” Dillon’s struggle to establish an identity for non-binary people in the entertainment world made the organizers of the MTV Movie & TV Awards combine their “actor” and “actress” categories. Dillon was later nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series thrice (2017, 2018, and 2019) for his role in Billions.

On May 7, 2017, Dillon appeared as a presenter of the Best Actor award at the MTV Movie & TV Awards. In November 2018, an announcement stated that Dillon would appear in The Outside Story. The comedy-drama film was released in 2020, with Dillon playing Inez.

Dillion has also appeared in the comedy drama series Master of None (2015) and in the computer-animated sci-fi series Gen:Lock (2019-2021, as the voice of Valentina Romanyszyn). Dillon has been part of films such as Marcus Garlard: A Necessary Option (as Asia, 2011), Hitting the Wall (as Jocelynn, 2011), and the neo-noir action thriller John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (as The Adjudicator, 2019).

Dillon has also been seen as Albert Cashier in Good Men Wanted at Dixon Place. In early 2016, Dillon co-founded MIRROR/FIRE productions and now serves as one of the company’s producing directors.

Asia Kate Dillon also created, curated, and directed the performance piece Us - An Evening of Storytelling followed by a Talkback. Us explored the burning issue of racism in the US, using original text, audio, and video footage. It thus also explored and supported the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

In 2018, Dillon was seen in the Off-Broadway production of Laramie: A Legacy. In 2022, Dillon played Malcolm in a Broadway production of Macbeth. They also appeared as the voice of Cam Stone in the 2020 video game Fast & Furious Crossroads.

While Asia Kate Dillon was assigned female at birth, around 2015, they stopped using gendered pronouns in their biography. They also stated that auditioning for the role of Taylor Mason had helped them comprehend their non-binary status and put into words the thoughts they had about their gender identity.

Dillon claims he is pansexual, which means they are attracted to people irrespective of their sex and/or gender identity. In September 2021, Dillon stated in The Hollywood Reporter's podcast Hollywood Remixed that the concept of binaries in gender was created and imposed on people.

In December 2017, Dillon began dating theater playwright Corinne Donly. However, Dillon had once mentioned on Instagram that they had been in an on-again/off-again relationship for a while. They had apparently dated for a while in 2008 but had broken up later, only to rekindle their relationship in 2017.

In a 2017 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Dillon stated that they had dated Christopher Hirsh, one of the producing directors at Mirror/Fire production, earlier. Dillon has the German word “Einfühlung,” meaning “empathy,” tattooed on the left side of their neck.