Early life

Candis Cayne was born Brendan McDanniel in 1971 on Maui, Hawaii. She has a fraternal twin brother named Dylan. Their parents taught at a Waldorf School, and the family lived on campus. She graduated from Maui's Baldwin High School in 1989 and then spent a year in Los Angeles, where she trained as a dancer.

Career

Cayne then moved to New York in the early 1990s, making a name for herself as a choreographer and drag performer. Unaware of what a transsexual was until she lived in New York, about three years after her arrival Cayne realized that the term described how she felt about herself. Already performing as "Candis Cayne" at New York gay bar Boy Bar and as a featured performer at Tour in New York's Chelsea, the entertainer also participated in Wigstock, the annual drag festival in Manhattan's East Village. In 1995 Cayne appeared in the related documentary film Wigstock: The Movie, the comedy-drama film Stonewall, and the Universal Studios comedy feature film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, for which she also did choreography.

In 1996, she had a supporting role in the comedy-drama film Always Something Better (a.k.a. Never Look Back). In 1997 Cayne co-starred in the music video for RuPaul's "A Little Bit of Love" with female impersonator Jazzmun. Cayne also starred as the title character in the 1998 independent film Mob Queen, and won the 2001 Miss Continental pageant. In 2007 Cayne was cast as Annaka Manners in the 2007 RuPaul film Starrbooty.

From 2007 to 2008 Cayne played Carmelita Rainer, a trans woman having an affair with married New York Attorney General Patrick Darling (played by William Baldwin), on the ABC prime time drama Dirty Sexy Money. She had a recurring role as the transgender character Alexis Stone in season six of Nip/Tuck. Cayne has appeared as a judge and Dean of Dance on RuPaul's Drag U. As a dance teacher, she taught contestants original choreography to "No Scrubs" by TLC and Kelis's song "Milkshake". In 2011, she guest-starred on the TV show Necessary Roughness as Geraldine.

In 2015, Cayne started making appearances in seasons 1 and 2 of Caitlyn Jenner's reality show I Am Cait.

Activism and personal life

Cayne began transitioning circa 1996.

Cayne has stated, "I'm not trying to be a spokeswoman for the transgender community; I just want to be looked at as a living, breathing, happy human being." She calls the LGBT community "the last great minority" and supports the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

In August 2015 Candis Cayne teamed up with the global LGBT social network MOOVZ as the new global creative director.

She was married to DJ Marco McDermott for eight years; the couple divorced in 2010. However, during season 2 of their reality show, "I Am Cait", Caitlyn Jenner revealed Cayne had never been married before.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Wigstock: The Movie	Herself	Credited as Brendan McDaniel
1995	Stonewall	Diva
1995	To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar	Candis Cayne	Credited as Brendan McDaniel
1996	Always Something Better	Billee
1998	Mob Queen	Glorice Kalsheim
1999	Charlie!		Short film
1999	In the Closet
2006	My Heart Belongs to Data	Candis	Short film
2007	Starrbooty	Annaka Manners
2008	Libanesa Loira	Libanesa	Portuguese language
2011	Making The Boys	Herself
2012	Meth Head	Pinkie
2012	Groom's Cake	Candis	Short film
2014	Crazy Bitches	Vivianna

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	CSI: NY	Quentin Conrad	Episode "The Lying Game"
2008	Sordid Lives: The Series'	Therapist #19	Episode "An Audacious Affair"
2007-08	Dirty Sexy Money	Carmelita Rainer	11 episodes
2009	Nip/Tuck	Alexis Stone	2 episodes
2010	Drop Dead Diva	Allison Webb	Episode "Queen of Mean"
2011	Necessary Roughness	Geraldine	Episode "Dream On"
2011	RuPaul's Drag U	Herself	Episode: "Naughty Nurses"
2012	She's Living for This	Herself	Episode "The Candis Cayne Episode"
2012-15	RuPaul's Drag Race	Herself	3 episodes
2013-14	Elementary	Ms. Hudson	3 episodes
2015-present	I Am Cait	Herself	14 episodes
2016	Heartbeat	Ava	Episode: "Permanent Glitter"

Music videos

Year	Title	Performer	Notes
1997	"A Little Bit of Love"	RuPaul	Dancer
1999	"No Scrubs"	TLC	Dance teacher
2003	"Milkshake"	Kelis	Dance teacher

[ Source: Wikipedia ]