• HALO STARLING
  • ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
  • ABOUT
  • Artist Statement
  • Bio
  • CV
  • Director's Portfolio
  • Directing Reel
  • Acting Reel
  • Community
  • Links & Contact
  • ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
  • CURRENT PROJECTS
  • Fairy Prince
  • FILM
  • Portent Soul
  • TestoLupron
  • Dance Dance Resolution
  • PONY
  • SUNRIDER
  • PATRICK
  • Valentine's Day After
  • Hold
  • ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
  • VIDEO
  • Your Love is Giving Me Life
  • The French Chef with Julia Child: Abortifacient Herbs
  • BE NOT AFRAID
  • One Made of Light
  • Plot Points in Our Sexual Development (Excerpt)
  • aph·ro·dis·i·ac
  • POLLINATION
  • Fruitr
  • VARIETY SHOW
  • Yellow Mountain Blue
  • Wait
  • 8 1/2 INCH DICK
  • Eco Vignettes
  • Vagina Dentata
  • ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
  • LIVE ART
  • Planet Femme LIVE
  • GRIEF IN PUBLIC
  • QUEER in PUBLIC
  • SENSE
  • Pleasure Scores
  • ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
  • LIVE PERSONAE
  • Karan Devine
  • Home Depot
  • TORMENTRA
  • Crystal Mermaid
  • Black-Eyed Susan
  • Evangeline Dupree
  • Cleo the Past Teller
  • Cynthia Reid
  • Polyperformance
  • ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
  • WORLDBUILDING
  • Planet Femme
  • The Sagewell Archives
  • ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
  • CURATION
  • WINDOWS AND BLINDS
  • PONY and Friends
  • Positive Futures
  • AUTO ROBO ECO
  • ASYLUM
  • UNDER THE SEAMS RUNS THE PAIN
  • This Literally Happened
  • ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
  • FEATURED
  • 2024
  • USC Libraries
  • USC Cinematic Arts - iMappening 2024
  • ARTFORUM
  • CAA 112th Annual Conference
  • MA+P Stories - WINDOWS AND BLINDS
  • 2023
  • Deadline
  • 2am Photography
  • 2022
  • Expanding the Parameters of Feminist Artivism
  • Trans Cinematic Universe Podcast
  • World of Rex Podcast
  • Queer Forty
  • GAY.IT
  • LA Weekly
  • The Hollywood Times
  • Out News Global
  • TRANSlations (Panel)
  • Women's Screenwriters Workshop (Panel)
  • 2021
  • Final Draft Blog
  • TFMA News
  • Deadline
  • 2020
  • PGN - Film
  • PGN - Portraits
  • cinéSPEAK
  • Women and Hollywood
  • Summer Fall
  • Global Shorts
  • Temple News
  • 2019
  • Business Courier
  • Vox Populi (Exhibition)
  • Vox Populi (Screening)
  • 2017
  • GO Magazine
  • 2016
  • purple ART
  • 2015
  • PACKET
  • Adult Mag
  • KCHUNG
  • Sex-Ed @BHQFU
  • 2014
  • The Brooklyn Rail
  • Nocountrycountry on bel-air radio
  • Labor Day Lectures
  • 2013
  • artcritical
  • NOWHERE
HALO STARLING
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
ABOUT
Artist Statement
Bio
CV
Director's Portfolio
Directing Reel
Acting Reel
Community
Links & Contact
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
CURRENT PROJECTS
Fairy Prince
FILM
Portent Soul
TestoLupron
Dance Dance Resolution
PONY
SUNRIDER
PATRICK
Valentine's Day After
Hold
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
VIDEO
Your Love is Giving Me Life
The French Chef with Julia Child: Abortifacient Herbs
BE NOT AFRAID
One Made of Light
Plot Points in Our Sexual Development (Excerpt)
aph·ro·dis·i·ac
POLLINATION
Fruitr
VARIETY SHOW
Yellow Mountain Blue
Wait
8 1/2 INCH DICK
Eco Vignettes
Vagina Dentata
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
LIVE ART
Planet Femme LIVE
GRIEF IN PUBLIC
QUEER in PUBLIC
SENSE
Pleasure Scores
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
LIVE PERSONAE
Karan Devine
Home Depot
TORMENTRA
Crystal Mermaid
Black-Eyed Susan
Evangeline Dupree
Cleo the Past Teller
Cynthia Reid
Polyperformance
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
WORLDBUILDING
Planet Femme
The Sagewell Archives
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
CURATION
WINDOWS AND BLINDS
PONY and Friends
Positive Futures
AUTO ROBO ECO
ASYLUM
UNDER THE SEAMS RUNS THE PAIN
This Literally Happened
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
FEATURED
2024
USC Libraries
USC Cinematic Arts - iMappening 2024
ARTFORUM
CAA 112th Annual Conference
MA+P Stories - WINDOWS AND BLINDS
2023
Deadline
2am Photography
2022
Expanding the Parameters of Feminist Artivism
Trans Cinematic Universe Podcast
World of Rex Podcast
Queer Forty
GAY.IT
LA Weekly
The Hollywood Times
Out News Global
TRANSlations (Panel)
Women's Screenwriters Workshop (Panel)
2021
Final Draft Blog
TFMA News
Deadline
2020
PGN - Film
PGN - Portraits
cinéSPEAK
Women and Hollywood
Summer Fall
Global Shorts
Temple News
2019
Business Courier
Vox Populi (Exhibition)
Vox Populi (Screening)
2017
GO Magazine
2016
purple ART
2015
PACKET
Adult Mag
KCHUNG
Sex-Ed @BHQFU
2014
The Brooklyn Rail
Nocountrycountry on bel-air radio
Labor Day Lectures
2013
artcritical
NOWHERE

Halo Starling (they/he) is a writer, director, performer, and artist, worldbuilding positive futures in the husk of the capitalist experiment. As a trans and queer immigrant with invisible disabilities, Starling's multi-hyphenate work in film, TV, video and performance explores what it means to be trapped inside of structures that are meant to help you. Starling envisions ways out by building worlds where marginalized people find more resources to fully thrive. Their work asks their audience to consider: how do we collectively find our way to a positive future?


It is no coincidence that the most recent crises faced by democracy and empire have been accompanied by a dramatic increase in queer and trans visibility in the visual arts. The continued success of major entertainers like Laverne Cox and RuPaul and “art world” stars like Wu Tsang and Tourmaline in troubling the gender binary—a source of so much pain and oppression—offers new ways of being precisely at a moment of global upheaval. As a person walking the slippage between binaries, I have often found that my work—evolving from drawing, painting, and sculpture to video, performance, and plays, and finally now to film and television—defies easy categorization. However, I also have a desire to be made legible and to touch a larger public—especially of other queer and trans/non-binary individuals—with my work, which has led me to codify my art into increasingly mainstream forms. The challenge for myself and my peers is to preserve the queer wildness of our work—the intricacies of queer and trans life that are so unintelligible to the cisgender, heterosexual majority that often sets the boundaries of what is considered “mainstream”—while accessing the resources, and the recognition, necessary for such work. In the process, we are creating a New Trans Cinema.

Halo Starling (they/he) is a writer, director, performer, and artist, worldbuilding positive futures in the husk of the capitalist experiment. As a trans and queer immigrant with invisible disabilities, Starling's multi-hyphenate work in film, TV, video and performance explores what it means to be trapped inside of structures that are meant to help you. Starling envisions ways out by building worlds where marginalized people find more resources to fully thrive. Their work asks their audience to consider: how do we collectively find our way to a positive future?


It is no coincidence that the most recent crises faced by democracy and empire have been accompanied by a dramatic increase in queer and trans visibility in the visual arts. The continued success of major entertainers like Laverne Cox and RuPaul and “art world” stars like Wu Tsang and Tourmaline in troubling the gender binary—a source of so much pain and oppression—offers new ways of being precisely at a moment of global upheaval. As a person walking the slippage between binaries, I have often found that my work—evolving from drawing, painting, and sculpture to video, performance, and plays, and finally now to film and television—defies easy categorization. However, I also have a desire to be made legible and to touch a larger public—especially of other queer and trans/non-binary individuals—with my work, which has led me to codify my art into increasingly mainstream forms. The challenge for myself and my peers is to preserve the queer wildness of our work—the intricacies of queer and trans life that are so unintelligible to the cisgender, heterosexual majority that often sets the boundaries of what is considered “mainstream”—while accessing the resources, and the recognition, necessary for such work. In the process, we are creating a New Trans Cinema.