Born Robert Arquette on July 28, 1969 in Los Angeles, California, Alexis boasts a career in the movies that spans almost two decades, where he primarily took on transgender roles. She, her sisters Patricia and Rosanna, and her brothers Richmond and David virtually form an acting dynasty. Alexis' first big break came at age 22 in the 1989 cult classic Last Exit to Brooklyn, where she played the character of Georgette, a male-to-female transvestite. Most of her work was in low-budget but critically acclaimed independent films, with around 40 screen credits to her name. The more notable ones include I Think I Do, Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror, and Killer Drag Queens on Dope. She has also starred in mainstream films, such as Pulp Fiction, Threesome, Bride of Chucky, and The Wedding Singer. She has also graced television screens in episodes of Xena: The Warrior Princess, Felicity, and Friends. Yet perhaps most memorable is a 2007 independently produced documentary, Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother, which followed her on her sex reassignment surgery after which she finally became a woman.
In 2006, Arquette was cast in the VH1 reality show The Surreal Life season 6. The show features celebrities who are said to be past their primes and puts them in a Hollywood Hills mansion for two weeks. Fans hailed Arquette's appearance on the show as it brought to fore the struggle of the transgender community for representation. It is, after all, the first time that a transsexual will be cast alongside other sexually “normal” people in a reality show, putting the issue of gender into topics of conversation. Other than this, though, her mysterious and capricious personality was said to have brought The Surreal Life house upside down. In Season 6, the cast was made to shoot a music video, produce and broadcast a live news program, host their own talk show, and participate in a battle of the bands competition.
(Photo courtesy of VH1)