Hari Nef was born October 21, 1992 and is an American actress, model, and writer.
Hari Nef was born in Philadelphia into a Jewish family. Her parents are David Neff, an advertising executive, and Robin Clebnik. Her parents divorced when she was two and she was raised by her mother in Newton, Massachusetts.
Nef graduated from Columbia University in May 2015 with a degree in theater.
Nef starred as Tante Gittel in the 2015 Emmy-winning television series Transparent. Gittel’s character is a Pfefferman family ancestor that lived her life as a cross-dresser in Berlin, Germany during the Weimar Republic and eventually was murdered during the Holocaust. Creator Joey Soloway wrote the part for Nef after the two connected on social media and attended a PFLAG party together.
In 2018, Nef starred as a major lead in Sam Levinson’s comedy thriller Assassination Nation. In the same year, she had a recurring role as Blythe on the Lifetime psychological thriller television series You. In 2018, Nef made her New York theater debut as a lead in Jeremy O. Harris’ Daddy.
Nef is scheduled to star in the upcoming American comedy film, 1Up, alongside Ruby Rose, Paris Berelc, Taylor Zakhar Perez, and Nicholas Coombe. She is also set to star in the upcoming HBO drama series The Idol.
Nef has written profiles on various artists and cultural figures including director John Waters, singer/actress Cristina Ortiz Rodriguez, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s Spanish biopic Veneno, and painter Nash Glynn. Nef wrote a regular sex advice and experience column for Sarah Nicole Prickett’s Adult magazine. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, Dazed, Vice, Original Plumbing, L’Officiel, and BlackBook.
In 2015, she walked shows during New York Fashion Week, including Adam Selman, VFiles, Vejas, Degen, and Eckhaus Latta once more. In May of the same year, Nef was signed to IMG Models, making her the first openly transgender model signed to that agency. In the summer of 2015, Nef was cast in the second season of Amazon Prime’s Transparent, which debuted in December 2015. She also starred in The Drums’ music video “There Is Nothing Left” in August.
Elle printed special collectors’ covers for their September 2016 issue, and one of them featured Nef, which was the first time an openly transgender woman had been on the cover of a major commercial British magazine.
In January 2017, Nef starred in a television commercial for the L’Oréal Paris True Match line alongside Blake Lively, Lara Stone, and Xiao Wen Ju. The campaign was premiered at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards telecast.
