Meet August Aiden, the Trans Star of 'The Village'

For August Aiden getting cast for the lead role The Village was crazy random. “Dano [Cery], the director, actually found me on Instagram," he reveals.

"I had just  found the confidence to start using hashtags such as actor, trans actor, model, etc., and within 24 hours I received a call. I sent in a self-tape audition, got the role and we started shooting that week.”  

Aiden has been drawn to acting since he was a kid, but The Village was actually his first real role.

According to People: Wrabel (né Stephen Wrabel) wrote the song the day after President Donald Trump removed federal protections for transgender students in public schools in February [of 2017], and he immediately thought of two of his biggest fans who are trans teenagers.

“It broke my heart,” Wrabel said. “I was on my way to the studio and I sat down with two of my good friends and said, ‘Can we try to write something for these two kids?’ I sent it to them and my managers and they agreed that I needed to put it out.”

Ironically, being cast in the video solved Aiden's one big problem that held him back from really acting. “I couldn't see myself as a woman on the big screen. I wasn't comfortable in my skin. So, I put it on the sideline and focused on other sides of the production industry. When I finally confronted myself and my gender identity, the acting dream came flooding back and it all made sense.”  

Aiden is openly trans.

Does he represent himself solely as a trans actor? “No, but that part of me is something I am proud of. The goal is to be a working actor who happens to also be trans.  I can’t say I have faced too many Issues yet. It’s complicated. Being pre-top surgery makes going out for cis roles a lot more difficult. Hopefully in the near future this isn’t something I will have to worry about.”

Aiden was born in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and grew up with his five siblings. "My older brother, sister, and I were raised on snowboards. I started competing around five-years-old. On the east coast we bounced around in middle school until we moved to Utah. From there I was homeschooled from 4th grade to 7th."

In 2008 he started at the Winter Sports School, a high school geared to competitive winter athletes. Unfortunately due to an injury snowboarding,  "that was no longer possible as part of my path. So I took to Los Angeles to see what else was out there, and here I am still figuring life out one day at a time."

For now, Aiden is keeping his nose to the grind stone. 

We can’t wait to see what he does next.

Watch The Village below.

Photos by Jo Valerio.