Asia Kate Dillon Bio
Asia Kate Dillon (born November 15, 1984) is an American actor who identifies as non-binary and uses singular they pronouns. They are best known for playing Brandy Epps on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black and Taylor Mason on the Showtime drama Billions, the latter widely cited as the first non-binary main character on North American television. Their film work includes the Adjudicator in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, and they have also contributed voice acting to the animated series Gen:Lock. Beyond performing, Dillon is the founder and producing director of MIRROR/FIRE Productions, a company that has developed theatrical works addressing racism and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Across stage and screen, Dillon has built a career on unconventional casting, gender-neutral category discussions at major awards shows, and a public advocacy practice focused on LGBTQ representation. Their presence in mainstream television and action film has drawn sustained media attention and industry recognition.
Early Life and Background
Asia Kate Dillon was born on November 15, 1984, in Ithaca, New York. They grew up in the same small upstate city where they later began their formal acting training, an environment that allowed them to pursue the craft from an unusually young age. Public sources describe their formative years in Ithaca as a period shaped by community theater and a sustained interest in performance.
Dillon enrolled in and completed the Meisner training program at The Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca during their junior year of high school, at the age of 16. They were the youngest student ever admitted to that particular class, an early signal of the seriousness with which they approached the discipline.
After high school, Dillon continued their training at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, a conservatory-style program known for preparing performers for work across theater, film, and television. Their formal education was rooted in classical acting technique, which would later inform both their stage and screen performances.
Path to Acting
Dillon’s professional career began in 2007, when they took the title role of Rachel Corrie in the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie. The production placed them on stage in a demanding lead role and introduced them to the broader New York theatrical community. Following that performance, they participated in a workshop of new plays that included work with Academy Award- and Tony Award-winning playwrights, an experience that sharpened their ensemble skills and stage instincts.
They went on to play the featured lead role of Lucifer in The Mysteries, and also appeared in a production of The Tempest at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. These theater credits established Dillon as a performer comfortable with both classical material and experimental work, and gave them a foundation of stage experience before moving into television and film.
Their transition to screen acting began with guest and recurring roles, gradually building toward larger parts. The combination of classical training, contemporary workshop experience, and a willingness to take on challenging material positioned them for the casting opportunities that would soon follow in major television productions.
Asia Kate Dillon Career
Early Career (2007–2015)
During the first phase of their career, Dillon focused primarily on stage work in New York and Washington, D.C. Their title role in My Name Is Rachel Corrie in 2007 served as their professional debut and helped establish them within independent theater circles. Subsequent roles in The Mysteries and The Tempest at the Shakespeare Theatre Company demonstrated their range across classical and devised performance.
These early productions, along with continued participation in playwright workshops, allowed Dillon to refine their craft and build a network of collaborators. While they had not yet broken into mainstream film or television, this period laid the groundwork for the screen career that would follow, and positioned them as a serious stage actor with classical training.
Breakthrough (2016–2019)
Dillon’s screen breakthrough came in 2016, when they were cast as Brandy Epps, a white supremacist penitentiary inmate, in eight episodes of Orange Is the New Black. The role made them one of the first openly non-binary actors cast in a major television series and brought them to a much wider audience.
They followed that performance with a recurring role in the second season of the Showtime drama Billions in 2017, playing Taylor Mason, a hedge fund intern whose gender identity is non-binary. In April 2017, Showtime confirmed that Mason would be promoted to the main cast beginning with season 3, a move widely reported as the first non-binary main character on mainstream North American television. The performance earned Dillon a Critics’ Choice Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
Dillon’s advocacy around gender categories intersected with their casting. When submitting their name for Emmy consideration for Billions, they chose to submit for the actor category rather than the actress category, on the grounds that the word actor is gender-neutral. The effort helped prompt the MTV Movie & TV Awards to combine their previously gender-segregated acting categories. Dillon presented the award for Best Actor at the MTV Movie & TV Awards on May 7, 2017.
Expanding into film, Dillon was announced in November 2018 to appear in The Outside Story, and in 2019 they played the Adjudicator, a major antagonist, in the action film John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. That same year, they voiced a character in the animated series Gen:Lock, further diversifying their screen work.
Notable Works and Milestones
Dillon’s signature works include Orange Is the New Black, Billions, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, and Gen:Lock. Their casting as Taylor Mason on Billions is widely regarded as a career-defining milestone, marking the first non-binary main character on mainstream North American television and prompting industry-wide conversations about gendered awards categories. They have also founded MIRROR/FIRE Productions and released the EP Handsomehands in 2020, with proceeds donated to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute.
Asia Kate Dillon Award Nominations
Asia Kate Dillon has received recognition from critics’ organizations and television awards bodies for their work in dramatic television. Their nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards, for their role as Taylor Mason on Billions, reflects both their individual performance and the broader cultural significance of the non-binary character they portrayed on the series.
Asia Kate Dillon Awards Won
Publicly verified award wins for Asia Kate Dillon have not been confirmed in the available sources. This section is included for structural completeness, and verified wins will be added as additional confirmed information becomes available.
Asia Kate Dillon Family
Verified public information about Asia Kate Dillon’s parents, siblings, or other family members is limited in the available sources. They were raised in Ithaca, New York, where they began their formal acting training during high school.
Personal Life
Asia Kate Dillon identifies as non-binary and uses singular they pronouns. They were assigned female at birth and have explained that, around 2015, they began removing gendered pronouns from their biography; auditioning for the role of Taylor Mason on Billions helped them articulate their gender identity more clearly. In a September 2021 conversation with The Hollywood Reporter’s “Hollywood Remixed” podcast, they described their gender identity as falling outside the categories of man or woman and discussed gender as a spectrum.
Dillon has also spoken publicly about their sexuality, identifying as pansexual and stating that they are attracted to people across multiple genders. In June 2019, Queerty named them one of the Pride50 “trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people,” honoring their advocacy alongside their on-screen work.