Lilly Wachowski

Lilly Wachowski is a transgender filmmaker and writer who, with her sister Lana, created The Matrix trilogy (1999–2003) — one of the most influential science fiction franchises in film history — as well as Cloud Atlas (2012), Jupiter Ascending (2015), the Netflix series Sense8 (2015–2018), and The Matrix Resurrections (2021). Lilly came out as a transgender woman in March 2016 in a statement to the Windy City Times, after a journalist from the Daily Mail appeared at her home threatening to out her. She described the decision to come out on her own terms as reclaiming her story. She and Lana have both reflected publicly on how The Matrix's narrative of a person discovering their true identity and transitioning out of a false world reads as a trans allegory — a reading both sisters have warmly confirmed. Lilly has been the more publicly visible trans rights advocate of the two.