Nicole Maines

Nicole Amber Maines was born on October 7, 1997. Before entering the entertainment industry, she was the anonymous plaintiff in the landmark Maine Supreme Judicial Court case *Doe v. Regional School Unit 26*, which in 2014 became the first state-court ruling to affirm that barring transgender students from using the bathroom matching their gender identity is unlawful. As an actress, she portrayed Nia Nal on The CW’s *Supergirl* from 2018 to 2021, making her the first performer to play a transgender superhero on television; she later joined the cast of *Yellowjackets* as Lisa. Maines began writing comics in 2022 and has since been credited on 19 issues, with her most frequent work appearing in *Secret Six*, *Suicide Squad: Dream Team*, and the graphic novel *Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story*. She also contributed to *Justice League Intergalactic Special* and *Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton*. Her writing often explores themes of identity and found family, and she has collaborated with artists such as Sweeney Boo. Maines’s activism and creative work have made her a prominent voice in both comics and transgender representation.