Daniela Sea to deliver Pride Alliance keynote April 5

Skidmore's Pride Alliance will present keynote speaker Daniela Sea on Monday, April 5. Sea's talk, titled "Vagabond Expressions: Explorations in Gender, Acting, and Activism," begins at 7 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public.

An artist, an actor and a musician, Sea was raised by artist/surfer/hippie parents on the shores of Malibu. She has surfed since the age of six and was winning competitions by the time she was 13. Her earliest memories are of the ocean, which, according to one source, inspired her pseudonym.

Before deciding to explore acting, Sea traveled extensively throughout Western and Eastern Europe, culminating with an 18-month trek on foot - walking and hitchhiking from Poland into the hills of India, where she lived as a man for nearly a year. Sea currently resides in New York City and is writing an original screenplay and working collaboratively on the performance, film, and music project titled The Exciting Conclusion.

Sea played the groundbreaking role of "Max Sweeney" on Showtime's The L Word. She can also be seen in John Cameron Mitchell's feature film, Shortbus, which swept the Cannes Film Festival in 2006, as well as Jamie Babbitt's Itty Bitty Titty Committee, and in Fruit Chan's Don't Look Up.

She published her own books of poetry, speaks Polish, and plays accordion, guitar, and penny whistle. Sea considers Vandana Shiva, Judy Bari and Arthur Rimbaud her role models.