Daniela Sea’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Daniela Sea (born 1977) is an American filmmaker, actress and musician. She rose to prominence through her role as Max Sweeney on Showtime’s drama series The L Word.

Biography

She grew up in Malibu, California, raised by her hippie parents. When she was a child, her father came out as gay. Her stepfather taught her to surf and moved the family to Hawaii so they could enjoy better surfing. Her earliest memories are of the ocean, later inspiring her pseudonym.

She ran away when she was 16 from L.A. and moved to the Bay Area, “like a good gay kid would.” While there in Berkeley, she joined the DIY/punk/feminist/artist space Gilman Street Project, studied improv acting in Laney College, and played in several punk rock bands, including The Gr’ups and Cypher in the Snow.

Sea traveled all over Europe and Asia. She hitchhiked through Turkey, did some street theatre, and performed as a fire juggler with a traveling circus in Poland. As a punk rocker, she and her band cross-dressed. At one point in her world travels, she lived in India for eight months as a man.

She said about her sexuality:

Sea is a longtime vegan and has made a PSA video for PETA.

Career

After Sea returned from Europe, she moved to New York City and decided to re-enter the acting world, giving an audition tape to a friend who worked on The L Word’s writing staff. Sea then got a call at her restaurant job in New York and was asked to fly to Los Angeles for an audition. She was then offered to perform the role of Moira Sweeney, an androgynous computer technician who moves from the Midwest with Jenny (Mia Kirshner). Over the course of the season, Moira comes out as a trans man, adopting the name Max Sweeney.

With her girlfriend of the time, Bitch, formerly of Bitch and Animal, she helped to form a band called Bitch and the Exciting Conclusion. She was part of the band The Thorns of Life with her longtime friends Blake Schwarzenbach (formerly of Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil) and Aaron Cometbus (of Pinhead Gunpowder and formerly Crimpshrine). The band toured the West Coast and played in New York City and Philadelphia from fall 2008 through winter 2009. Besides The L Word, Sea’s filmography also includes the films Shortbus (2006) (with Bitch, both as themselves) and Itty Bitty Titty Committee, released in 2007. She also appeared in the John Cameron Mitchell-directed music video for Bright Eyes’ “First Day of My Life” with Bitch. On February 17, 2009, she guest starred on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a transgender man, playing a similar role to Max Sweeney.

Daniela was cast in a leading role in the film The Casserole Club. Co-starring Susan Traylor, Kevin Richardson, Pleasant Gehman, and Garrett Swann, the film is set in 1969 and deals with damaged relationships. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Steve Balderson, filming took place in Wamego, Kansas during fall of 2010.

Sea currently plays in an unnamed music project with Will Schwartz. They played their second show at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California, in October 2010.

Filmography