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Alok Vaid-Menon
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Alok Vaid-Menon
Comedian & Performance Artist
b. July 1, 1991
“Beauty is about looking like yourself.”
Alok Vaid-Menon (they/them) is an internationally acclaimed nonbinary, transfeminine comedian, performance artist, author, and fashion designer who explores themes of trauma, gender identity, self-expression, and acceptance in their art.
Vaid-Menon was raised in a tight-knit Indian American community in College Station, Texas. From a young age, they experienced racism and bullying for their gender expression. As a gender-nonconforming ethnic minority in the South, they began creating art as an outlet to process their experiences.
Vaid-Menon attended Stanford University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in feminist, gender, and sexuality studies and comparative studies in race and ethnicity, before earning a master’s degree in sociology in 2013.
From 2013 to 2017, Vaid-Menon (also known simply as ALOK) performed with a former classmate, Janani Balasubramanian, in DarkMatter, a slam poetry collective that drew on both of their queer, South Asian identities. In 2017, ALOK released their first book of poetry, “Femme in Public,” which focuses on discrimination against the transfeminine community, and subsequently began performing eclectic, genre-busting shows internationally.
In 2019, ALOK completed an artist-in-residency program at The Invisible Dog, a prominent Brooklyn-based art center, and returned to their hometown as host of a pride celebration honoring the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
The creator of #DeGenderFashion — a movement promoting gender neutrality in clothing and cosmetics/beauty — ALOK is a noted designer of androgynous Indian-Western fusion fashion. Unique and colorful, ALOK’s collections reflect what they may have worn as a youth had circumstances permitted. ALOK has modeled for and collaborated with multiple fashion brands, including Opening Ceremony, UGG, and Polaroid eyewear, and has appeared in Vogue and other high-fashion magazines.
ALOK published their second book, “Beyond the Gender Binary,” in 2020 and their third book, “Your Wound/My Garden,” in 2021. They have appeared on HBO, Hulu, and Netflix, and were the subject of the documentary short “ALOK,” which premiered at Sundance in 2024. The same year, ALOK toured 36 countries with their first comedy special, “BIOLOGY!”
In 2025, ALOK began touring internationally with their recent show, “Hairy Situation.” They appeared in the Netflix Is a Joke Festival in Los Angeles in May 2026.
Among other honors, ALOK has received the Live Works Performance Act Award, the Bill of Rights Award from the ACLU of Southern California, and the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment Trailblazer Award. They were named the University
of Pennsylvania’s inaugural LGBTQ+ Scholar in Residence in 2023.
