D’Lo is a queer/transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American speaker and performer whose work ranges from keynotes and workshops to stand-up comedy, from one-person shows to poetry and spoken word. He focuses on social justice, queer/trans issues, immigration, family, and art.
D'Lo was a keynote at the 2018 National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE), demonstrating his ability to make people laugh and think while tackling some of today's most challenging issues. Rooted in social justice, D'Lo brings the fierce with the funny through his stories about being a queer/trans person raised within an immigrant family and community, as well as his tales about being an artist who was schooled by hip-hop, feminists, and queer artist elders.
While touring universities and colleges, D'Lo loves to engage students in dialogue around issues that matter to them. D'Lo's time on campuses is a great opportunity to bring together different campus groups and departments - Asian/South Asian, Women/Queer/LGBTQ, Creative Writing and Theater/Performance departments and other performance/comedy/hip-hop communities.
D’Lo’s life and work is featured in the award-winning documentary by Crescent Diamond, Performing Girl, which won the best short documentary award at Outfest 2013. He was part of the Emmy-nominated mini-doc series THIS IS ME and his other tv/film credits include co-starring in the HBO series LOOKING as Taj, on the Amazon series TRANSPARENT, the Netflix series SENSE 8, and BRUISING FOR BESOS in the supporting lead role of Rani. D'Lo also appears in various Buzzfeed videos, on the web series EASTSIDERS and DYKE CENTRAL and the upcoming Issa Rae/Project Greenlight-produced MINIMUM WAGE. His own web-series PRIVATE DICK is in post-production and set to be released this fall. D'Lo is currently in development on a scripted series based on his life that is set up at BTR Media and Paul Feig's Powderkeg Media.
D'Lo's writing has been published in various academic publications including Nitasha Sharma’s book Desi Rap: Hip Hop and South Asia and the anthologies, The Austin Project: Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics and the new release of Monologues for Men of Color.
He is also the creator of the “Coming Out, Coming Home” writing workshop series which has taken place with South Asian and/or Immigrant LGBTQ organizations nationally, providing a transformative space for workshop participants to write through their personal narratives and share their truths through a public reading. These workshops are specifically designed to provide emotional and spiritual support for individuals working through the complexity of their intersecting identities.