Serena Magiliw | Artistic Associate

Serena Magiliw (she/they) is a Manila-based independent transpinay actor, performance-maker, and cultural worker.

Her works employ practice-based research, counter-narratives, and transmedia storytelling to highlight the lived experiences of queer and trans folx—inviting deeper understanding of resistance against cistems of power.

In 2021, she conducted a performance research titled Rampa at the Asian Performing Arts Camp. The following year, she directed the exploratory performance What Does it Mean to Be Queer and Asian? for the Farm-Lab Exhibition at the Tokyo Festival Farm. She also wrote KASARIAN 101 for the New Perspectives Theater Company in New York City; and has contributed as a performance artist with SIPA-Pinas and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, among others.

They produce an independent Queer-Trans Embodiment practice called SARÍ/SÁRI and tends Trans Midya, an independent creative platform for Filipino trans artists.

Magiliw is currently one of the Membership and Alliance Coordinator of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, an organization of Filipino artists and cultural workers advocating for freedom of expression, justice, and democracy; and a member of The Society of Trans Women of the Philippines, the pioneer support group and human rights advocacy organization of Transpinays.