Ari’s primary goal as an artist is to bring transgender and nonbinary representation to a wider audience. They believe stories are how we change cultural norms and social imagination, and Ari wants to be a part of shaping a world where transgender people, nonbinary people, queer, neurodivergent, polyamorous, Jewish, and disabled people (like Ari) are not seen as threatening but, rather, as whole, complex humans. They imagine a world where people are not othered but rather celebrated for their differences, and they want to help bring this present into that future.

Ari grew up enthralled and confused by gender. They felt out of place amongst their peers in a way he originally attributed to general teenage angst. But as high school friends matured and began playing with their gender expression in the conventional binary ways (girls wearing makeup, boys growing facial hair, etc.), Ari grew increasingly confused. They wanted none of these things for themself. It wasn’t until he heard the term “nonbinary” and searched out nonbinary people on YouTube that Ari suddenly realized that was them.

Years of confusion, self-loathing, and anguish was suddenly righted by evidence that people exist outside of the gender binary. This was before any celebrity was out as nonbinary, before most people had heard of the term. So little representation existed, and yet what was there was enough to change Ari’s life profoundly for the better. How many more people would be happy and thriving if there was greater visibility for the wide expanse of gender expression and human existence?

Ari started acting for fun at the age of 6. Every summer they went to theater camps, honed their craft, but it wasn’t until their young adult years that Ari began considering acting - storytelling - might be the most effective way they could contribute to their communities for the better. As someone with multiple intersecting marginalized identities, Ari could be that representation that their teenage self had so desperately needed.