IO Tillett Wright

iO Tillett Wright (born September 2, 1985) is an American author, photographer, TV host, and activist.

Early life and education

Wright grew up in New York City with his mother, Rebecca Wright, a photographer.

During early childhood, Wright rejected gender norms and lived for eight years as a boy.

He was since 2016 in a show 'MTV SUSPECT' which aired on 9/10c at 9:30. And then ended as news that Nev (Yanev) Schulman had to leave the show to take care of his wife due to her pregnancy.

IO put up a status on facebook that announced the show was yet over "Yes, it's officially over. Nev is going to be a father to a beautiful child & I respect his idea that he leaves the show to part ways into looking after his wife in the potential of having a son or daughter."

Career

Editor

In 2002, at the age of 18, Wright founded and served as editor-in-chief of a street art magazine, Overspray.

Blogger and writer

Wright then became a featured columnist for T Magazine, at The New York Times. In addition, Wright had two regular blogs called Notes From The Underground—for which iO reviewed underground performance—and The Lowdown.

Wright's first book, Darling Days, A Memoir was released on September 27, 2016, by Ecco Books, an imprint of Harper Collins.

Speaker

In 2012, Wright delivered a talk at TEDxWomen in Washington, DC, called Fifty Shades Of Gay, discussing sexuality and gender as a spectrum. The talk has been viewed nearly 2.5 million times.

Photographer

Wright is a self-taught photographer whose first camera was a Pentax KX.

iO's current project Self Evident Truths examines Americans, asking them whether they are "other than straight", and photographing respondents who self-evaluate themselves to be "anything other than 100% straight". To date iO has photographed 9,803 people in all 50 States of the USA.

Wright's photographs appeared on the cover of The New York Times magazine in August 2010, marking the beginning of iO's public photography career. On September 22, 2010, Wright opened Breedings, iO's first solo show of photographs, at Fuse Gallery in Manhattan. In August 2011, iO debuted Camila, his second solo show, and Act Like You're Fine, a group show iO curated at Tokyo's Vacant Gallery.

Television personality

In 2016, Wright began co-hosting MTV's TV show "Suspect" with Nev Schulman.

Actor

As an actor, Wright appeared in numerous independent films, on Sex and The City, and most recently, after an almost decade long hiatus, in feature film "Holy New York".

Personal life

Wright prefers the use of the gendered pronouns "he/him" or no pronouns at all, just his legal first name, "iO". Furthermore, Wright has written in an article for the Huffington Post that "there is nothing wrong with being a ‘they’, but, STRICTLY speaking [for himself], the shoe doesn’t fit."

As of May 2016, Wright has stated that he currently prefers the use of the pronouns 'he/him', or none "(just my name, not 'they/them') . he has stated, "That may change, as it has already changed many times, and I'm good with that".

In June 2016, Wright spoke out in support of his friend Amber Heard in her claims of physical abuse at the hands of Johnny Depp. Wright was embroiled in the scandal when he called 911 after hearing Depp attack Heard at their home in Los Angeles. At Heard's request, Wright wrote a piece about his experience, coming to her defense, for Refinery29.