Daniel Sea

Daniel Sea (born July 26, 1973) is an American filmmaker, actor and musician. They rose to prominence through their role as Max Sweeney on Showtime's drama series The L Word. Sea (he/they) is a trans non-binary actor, musician and artist who has worked in film, theater, TV, and the fine arts. They played the first recurring transmasculine role on television, appearing from 2006-2009 as Max in Showtime's The L Word. In 2022, they revised the role as Max for the current iteration of the L Word: Generation Q. They acted in films such as John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, and Barbara Albert's film . Personal life Daniel grew up in Malibu, California, raised by hippie parents. When their father came out as gay, their mom was understanding and accepting. Their parents encouraged self expression and they weren’t forced to do stereotypical girl things. Despite an accepting home environment, they still had a rough childhood due to the way society viewed being queer and trans. Sea came of age as an artist as a part of the queer punk, art and activist scenes of the San Francisco Bay Area, California in the 1990’s. They ran away when they were 16 from L.A. and moved to the Bay Area, "like a good gay kid would." While there in Berkeley, they joined the DIY/punk/feminist/artist space Gilman Street Project, studied improv acting in Laney College, and played in several punk rock bands, including The Gr'ups and Cypher in the Snow. In an article in LA Times Sea noted that when they left LA for the Bay Area, as many queer and trans people did in the pre-internet early ‘90s "[they] found a community in punk that helped [them] become a working artist at the age of 19, touring internationally with an East Bay punk band the Gr’ups, and organizing with both the Gilman Street and Q-TIP, Queers Together in Punkness, collectives." Sea traveled all over Europe and Asia. They hitchhiked through Turkey, did some street theatre, and performed as a fire juggler with a traveling circus in Poland. As a punk rocker, Sea and their band often performed in drag. At one point in their world travels, they lived in India for eight months as a man.