BIO
Holly Cinnamon (she/they) is an actor, singer-songwriter, music producer, multidisciplinary artist, yoga teacher and coach based in NYC and Toronto. Film and TV credits include Marvel's Daredevil (Disney+), Succession (HBO), Hocus Pocus 2 (Disney) and upcoming, Holly will appear in Kathryn Bigelow's next feature film, The Savant (AppleTV) and Alert: Missing Person's Unit (Fox).
Holly made her Off-Broadway debut in Dear Jane. She stars at the title character in the indie film Velma Major, about an indie queer musician struggling in NYC, which also features her original song “PARADOX” and her cover of Connie Converse’s song “How Sad, How Lovely”, both produced by Holly through her indie record label, Female Gayze Music.
As a singer-songwriter and indie music producer, Holly Cinnamon has released nine singles to-date and is working on their first full length album. You can check out their music on any streaming platform under “Holly Cinnamon” and watch their self-produced and directed music videos on YouTube. They were honored to headline a night recognizing Henrietta Hudson founder Minnie Rivera at the inaugural Weekend of Women in Fire Island in October 2024. She opened for Kat Cunning at Elsewhere for Pride 2024 and frequently performs original music live around New York City, including a regular monthly gig at the iconic Stonewall Inn in the West Village, and at Bar Freda, Gold Sounds Bar, Brooklyn Monarch, Nightwalk and many more.
IDENTITY
Holly identifies as a cis queer femme gender-fluid lesbian and uses both she and they pronouns, typically presenting femme. Holly is comfortable discussing any aspect of her identity or a character’s identity, be it gender or sexuality or beyond, in the casting and/or creative process. Holly also has synaesthesia and is autism-questioning.
In their own words…”My queerness strongly influences the queer femme gayze of my music, but only occasionally influences my work as an actor. Identity is becoming central to our work as actors and artists today, gratefully replacing type. So being visible in my queerness and also conscious of my whiteness and cisness, instead of normalizing those identities by ignoring them, is important to me. In my work as an actor, I enjoy embodying all different kinds of cis white women, from different backgrounds, beliefs and sexualities. I am happy to be out and visible, and welcome any conversations about my identity, my range, and what stories I am passionate about telling right now. Femme lesbian visibility is important to me, as I didn’t grow up seeing stories that I identified with, so accurate and nuanced queer representation is a passion of mine and I welcome all conversations.”
Originally from a small town outside Edmonton (Amiskwaciwâskahikan), Alberta in Canada, Holly has been based in New York City (Lenapehoking) going on 10 years now (where she dreamed of living since she fell in love with Barbra Streisand at 13) and Toronto (Tkaronto) is her home in Canada. Her heritage is white European, with Irish, Scottish, Danish and Norwegian ancestry.
PASSION
“As a woman, a trauma survivor and as an embodiment educator who has studied yoga, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Viewpoints and more, I am constantly curious about exploring and rediscovering my relationship to my body, how I map it and perceive it. My body is the prime source for my curiosity and choices as an actor. I want to bring my whole self to my work, as a 21st-century queer femme woman with personal history, trauma, a multitude of interwoven identities and a resistance to reductive labels. Body sovereignty, female empowerment and queer visibility are at the heart of both my teaching and acting practices.”
Holly is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA, ACTRA, AEA, CAEA, ASCAP, SOCAN and Ring of Keys: an arts advocacy organization of musical theatre professionals who self-identify as queer women, transgender, and gender non-conforming artists.