Who Is TS Madison? The 'Bros' Star Talks Journey From Vine to Screen

Backstage at RuPaul’s DragCon in May 2022, I was in the midst of a fashion emergency. I was about to go on stage and moderate a panel, but my hair was in bad shape and needed some product to tame it. Looking schlubby in front of a convention floor of straight people is one thing. But an audience full of wanna be drag queens and queer people? Hell no.

I made out the silhouette of a woman having her makeup done through a curtain and thought she must have something. I barged in, sort of rudely asking for what I needed. In the chair sat TS Madison looking absolutely stunning but also looking like she was in a hurry, too.

Like a pro, without turning her head, Madison told me: “Of course, baby … after we finish my quick change.”

That frankness and candor is what the unapologetic media personality, who is transgender, is known for.

If you’re not already familiar with Madison, the 44-year-old is getting ready to star in "Bros," the new rom-com written by and starring Billy Eichner, out Sept. 30. The movie makes history with the first cast ever to be comprised of only LGBTQ people (albeit one hilarious cameo by Debra Messing), and puts a sweet boy-meets-boy love story at its center.

Eichner’s character in the film is trying to launch the first-ever LGBTQ history museum, and is supported by a board of other queer people in his journey. Among them? Madison's Angela.

It's in these meetings that some of the movie's most authentic dialogue takes place, and shows the power of on-screen representation. While conference room in-fighting between lesbians and bisexuals is riotous, it’s Madison's performance that especially speaks volumes — and she's well aware of that.

“You know who TS Madison is. She’s loud, live and in color,” Madison told TODAY via Zoom hours before the film’s premiere in New York City.

“She brings the noise and things like that. My character in this movie, her presence being on the board is powerful ... there are not enough trans women of color occupying these rooms, making decisions on what is going to be the future of all of us as LGBTQ people.

“It was important that my presence was there to represent the voices of Black trans women,” Madison added. “Strong women who make power moves and decisions.”

Madison's presence in "Bros" is also a poignant marker of her journey from struggling phone operator to movie star.

Speaking to TODAY, Madison reflects on her journey and the "power moves and decisions" she's had to make along the way to get where where she is today. Her story is one of defying odds no matter how staggering, while always making sure to keep it 100 percent real at all the times.

'I just wanted to survive in the world'

Born and raised in South Florida, Madison knew she was different from a young age, but being bombarded with anti-gay sentiments in church left her struggling, she told TODAY in a series of interviews conducted this month.

At 15, she saw the film “The Crying Game,” and the character Dil — who is transgender — resonated with her. This was the first time she had a touchstone for what may be going on inside of her. Around the same time, RuPaul released her debut album in 1993 and those striking images of a drag queen in mainstream media also helped Madison form a vision for herself of what her own future may have in store for her.

In her teens, Madison started sneaking out of the house and getting into drag. She began experimenting with hormones and undergoing surgeries in the back alleys of Miami to begin her transition. From there, her relationship with her religious mother became strained, and she soon moved out onto her own.

In her early 20s, Madison worked as a phone operator at call centers for cable companies or phone service providers. Keeping a job was nearly impossible, and after one especially traumatizing firing, she turned to online sex work, feeling like she had no other options.

"I got fired because they told me that I couldn't keep coming to work, that I was causing a disruption at the job," she said. "I had started working on my body, so I would come to work as a woman. I am a woman! I remember going to work and upsetting that place because I had a body. It was bad. I just wanted to work but everyone else had another idea."

In the earlier years of the internet, Madison started creating content and selling it in 2004 — building her own OnlyFans before OnlyFans actually existed — and finding other, more PG rated ways to promote her work and herself.

“During that time that I was just trying to find my foot on how I was going to make more money,” she said. “I wasn’t even thinking about trying to try to even be anybody important girl. Money. I just wanted to survive in the world.”

A Vine star is born

Almost a decade later in 2013, one short clip Madison shared on Vine went viral, showing her gushing and twerking over a fierce new wig … in the nude. Her naked body defied cisgender beauty standards, challenging traditional norms and a mainstream binary of what woman and men are supposed to look like.

According to Madison, the video was spread across the internet by toxic voyeurism and people who weren’t actually her fans or followers. But her visibility initiated many conversations people weren’t ready to have about the transgender experience and how physical attributes can be separated from how a person identifies.

That same year, Laverne Cox was on the cover of Time magazine. While Cox was sharing her own experience with the type of person who would pick up a news magazine, Madison was reaching others in a whole other way via a very different medium. Some people — even members of her own community — labeled one as right and the other wrong. For Madison, she was just being herself.

"I reached an urban secular level of people who probably is not going to pick up a Time magazine," she said. "They’re going to be really introduced to this conversation."

"People started to vilify me," she added. "The LGBTQ community started to say, 'Oh, well, Madison, you're a bad representation of the community ... (Laverne) was getting a lot of glory at the time and they were they were telling me how I was awful. I didn't do anything but post my video in a place that I thought was safe for me to post like others were doing."

Not only did that viral Vine pose new questions for people, it also garnered Madison more of a following, and from there she posted even more than before. From dashboard videos of her driving to clips of her eating dinner on her TV tray, she shared whatever she wanted.

Sailey Williams, founder of TENz magazine — a publication for the LGBTQ POC community —  has been covering Madison for the last decade.

“TS has dominated the internet from days on Vine to YouTube, television, film and countless memes by being herself and keeping all her intersecting communities in mind,” he told TODAY.

"Her ability to own all of her truth while expanding her knowledge on social issues and maintaining her unbothered brand of humor is why she continues to reign supreme."

A life-changing bond with RuPaul

Her realness soon caught the eye of RuPaul, the same person who inspired her so many years ago.

RuPaul got her producing partners at the company World of Wonder to invest in Madison. They greenlit a few web series for her, and featured her as a guest judge on "RuPaul's Drag Race."

This full circle-ness of her journey is not lost on Madison, and she has made sure to let RuPaul know every chance she gets.

"I say, 'I know these girls coming here every season (of 'RuPaul's Drag Race') and they tell you how much you mean to them but girl, you really have no idea how much you really mean to me,'" Madison said, getting emotional. "'I know you hear it all the time. It’s a cliche thing for you by now but I gotta tell you for me, I was so lost and trying to figure out where I’m going to be in the world and then I saw you. I sat on my floor and something spoke to me."

World of Wonder co-founders Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey told TODAY via email: "TS is a key member of our chosen family. She is a larger-than-life personality completely true to herself and who brings light love and laughter wherever she goes."

Why are people so drawn to her? According to them: "People are always going to respond to those who refuse to be less than themselves."

"This is why I always say that stuff is bigger than you," Madison said. "You really go through the world and you're trying to figure it out but it’s just so much bigger than anyone of us. One of the biggest support systems for me — World of Wonder and all that stuff — all the people that were part of RuPaul's life are now a part of mine. You think about who your tribe is, who you are weaved together with in this world and how you are even connected to people in this world. I was trying to figure out where was I for so long and finally ... I found it."

From online exhibitionist to movie star

With the support of RuPaul and World of Wonder, doors began cracking open for Madison but she still had to knock first. She's written her own autobiography, released numerous songs over the last few years, and in 2021 became the first Black trans woman to star and produce her own reality show for WeTV, a cable station owned by AMC. (That series "The TS Madison Experience" was renewed for a second season and will premiere in 2023.)

“TS is a prophet,” Alaska — Season Two winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" — told TODAY via email. “Her work and her words are always inspiring, and if you’ve had the chance to work with her you know that her energy is uplifting, captivating, effervescent and unforgettable.”

Madison’s captivating energy even reached the queen bee herself, and Beyoncé included a speech of hers in a track on her groundbreaking album "Renaissance" that came out this past summer. The song "Cozy" features Madison pontificating, "I'm dark brown, dark skin, light skin, beige, fluorescent, beige, b----, I'm Black." It's a testament that darkness is not the absence of light, but a culmination of so much more.

“Thank you to @beyonce for understanding culture and knowing my staple and Place in the COMMUNITY as a whole and choosing to use me as a part of this monumental album,” Madison wrote on Instagram when the album came out in July.

Of all these esteemed accomplishments, Madison’s crossover from viral online exhibitionist to movie star may be the most impressive.

In 2018, she was cast in “Zola” as Hollywood, a stripper momma bear and mirror image of her own online persona. Janicza Bravo — who co-wrote “Zola” — told the New York Times she watched her Vine “maybe 20 times in a row,” adding, “I became kind of obsessed with her."

According to Madison, the "Zola" credit booked her more roles — like the one for "Bros" and a Gabrielle Union-led project coming out next year called "The Perfect Find."

“The thought of TS Madison being in 'Bros' was such an exciting idea because she is an actress and an LGBTQ+ activist,” Gayle Keller, "Bros" casting director, told TODAY via email.

According to Keller, Eichner and director Nicholas Stoller were “really excited about her auditioning.”

“TS brought lots of comedic energy and style to the role. Since Nick and Billy really like actors to improv, TS proved herself on all levels and won the role of Angela,” Keller added. “She was a brilliant and exciting actress to have in the film, along with the entire cast of LGBTQ+ talent.”

Stoller — who's also directed "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Neighbors" — told TODAY via email: "Billy and I were aware of TS Madison from her social media and then from 'Zola.' However, it was her audition that really caught my eye. She was so naturally funny and just jumped off the screen. She has a complete comic persona that is true and honest to who she is that we both immediately loved."

'I am standing here'

With all of these impressive contacts she's formed in Hollywood, the most important relationship of Madison’s life is the one with her mother.

Despite being strained after she first came out as trans, their relationship mended when in 2003 Madison got sick from some of the implants she received off the black market. Because of a lack of resources or insurance, many trans people resort to procuring implants or hormones in illegal ways, often leading to botched surgeries that create horrifying medical complications down the road.

This silicone poisoning nearly killed her, and she moved back home with her aunt. Almost losing her child was enough of a wake up call for her mom, lovingly referred to as Mrs. Mary. She didn’t want to spend another moment estranged from her daughter.

"When you come home sick the first thing they think, 'Oh you have AIDS?' It was the silicone black market stuff I had injected into my body which was poisoning me," Madison said. "I was very sick. My mom came and she saw me and that was it for us. She was like, 'Oh no. Nope! I'm not gonna be separated from my child anymore.'"

That rekindling with her mom gave Madison the emotional boost she needed to keep going and fighting for herself.

"I can go through it now," she said. "Something's gonna give somewhere. I felt that something's gonna happen for me. Just like Ariel, 'I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know something's starting right now.'"

And it has.

On the red carpet at the “Bros” premiere in New York on Sept. 20, 2022, Madison got out of a black Escalade, her phone in hand going live on Instagram, sharing every step of the way with her more than 700,000 followers on the platform. In a sleek black sequined dress and an even more sleek black bob, she radiated under the flashing bulbs of photographers.

"I am standing here in New York City at the premiere of 'Bros' in front of AMC Lincoln Square baby, and I am TS Madison," she told me on the carpet. "If you don't really understand what that means — TS Madison on a red carpet, at a Universal Pictures film, with such great major characters and actors? Oh honey, you don't even know.

"I am overjoyed, I am ecstatic, and I am where I belong."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com