20 Facts About Laith Ashley

Laith Ashley De La Cruz was born on July 6,1989 and is an American model, actor, activist, singer-songwriter and entertainer of Dominican descent.

Laith Ashley practiced individual and team sports and by age 9 was already into boxing, baseball and particularly basketball, his preferred sport.

Laith Ashley continued playing sports into high school, including competitively, sometimes in the boys' team.

Laith Ashley was named the top athlete amongst both boys and girls by the school's athletic director.

Laith Ashley's father was Roman Catholic and his mother Pentecostal Christian which influenced some of the attitudes held by family during his coming out.

Laith Ashley began medically transitioning in January 2014 with masculinizing hormone therapy.

Laith Ashley's voice deepened and he quickly grew a beard.

Nine months later, he had a double mastectomy and adopted the name Laith Ashley having admired the works of Laith Ashley Hakeem.

Laith Ashley attended business school and studied psychology at Fairfield University in Connecticut.

Laith Ashley subsequently worked at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, where he worked with LGBT homeless youth as a social worker.

Laith Ashley was on the verge of deleting his Instagram account due to the negative comments, but Laverne Cox then reposted his images on her account.

Since that time, Laith Ashley has modeled for a variety of venues and campaigns, including Barneys, in Calvin Klein and in Diesel becoming the first-ever transgender man to be featured in a Diesel campaign.

Laith Ashley has appeared on the covers of renowned fashion and lifestyle publications including in British GQ, Vogue France, Out Magazine, Elle UK, Attitude UK Gay Times, FTM Magazine and Cassius, amongst others.

In June 2016, Laith Ashley was featured in Attitude UK as the magazine's Summerwear and Underwear Special.

Laith Ashley is represented by the Slay Model Management agency.

In 2016, Laith Ashley appeared in Strut, a television program about transgender models, which was produced by Whoopi Goldberg.

In September 2018, Laith Ashley released a music video for his song "Before You Go".

Furthermore, in 2018, Laith Ashley became the first transgender member of the Pit Crew in RuPaul's Drag Race.

Laith Ashley appeared in the "Pants Down Bottoms Up" mini-challenge in Season 10.

Laith Ashley worked with FLUX, a division of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which is dedicated to raising awareness and providing support to trans and gender-nonconforming people, actively takes part in Pride parades, and has talked on numerous occasions of the dangers of transphobia and visibility of ethnic minorities.