Jamie Clayton

Clayton was raised in San Diego, California^[3] where she was born.^[4] Her father, Howard Clayton, was a criminal defense attorney, and her mother, Shelley, is an event planner. When she was 19, in 1997, Clayton moved to New York City to pursue a career as a makeup artist. In 2008, The New York Observer featured an article describing her as the second most beautiful girl in New York.^[5]

In 2010, Clayton was the makeup artist and co-host on VH1's first makeover show TRANSform Me alongside Laverne Cox and Nina Poon.^[6][7][8] The following year she played the recurring role of Kyla in the third season of the HBO series Hung. In 2012, Clayton played the lead role of Michelle Darnell on the Emmy Award winning interactive web series Dirty Work.^[9][10]

She also narrated the audiobook for the children's novel Melissa about a young transgender girl.^[11]

Clayton starred as one of the eight main characters in the Netflix original television series Sense8 that premiered on June 5, 2015.^[12] In Sense8, she played Nomi Marks, a trans woman, political blogger, and hacker living in San Francisco.^[13] Clayton said that she was primarily interested in Sense8 because of the opportunity to play a transgender character written by filmmakers Lilly and Lana Wachowski and to be on set with them.^[14] Being a fan of science fiction and J. Michael Straczynski in particular also attracted her to this project.^[15]

Clayton appeared in the 2016 film The Neon Demon^[16] and the 2017 thriller film The Snowman.^[17] In 2019, Clayton starred as Sasha Booker in the third season of the Netflix's Designated Survivor.^[18] Beginning in 2019, Clayton starred in The L Word: Generation Q, the sequel to the Showtime original The L Word.^[19] She also guest starred in The CW’s Roswell: New Mexico.^[20] In 2022, Clayton portrayed Pinhead in the 2022 Hellraiser film.^[21]

Clayton is a trans woman.^[22] In 2011, she was honored by Out magazine as part of their annual "Out 100" awards.^[23]