Audiences were introduced to intersex activist River Gallo as a part of the 2023 documentary Every Body, but this year, they got to know them through their first feature film, Ponyboi, which was adapted from a previous stage performance and short. In the Sundance movie that Gallo wrote and stars in with Dylan O’Brien and Murray Bartlett, Gallo plays an intersex sex worker who’s caught with a bag of mob money while looking for love in New Jersey. Gallo delivers a stirring performance that cements them as a Hollywood face to watch.
The rising star says they create art that “helps people remember they belong” and “reflects the layers of my inner chaos, our collective psychosis, the things just beneath the surface that are hard to voice, the quiet struggles we often can’t name — that underpin so much of our lives.”
This year, Gallo is proud to clear the hurdle of “getting sober — and with God.” They are currently writing their sophomore film, “a romantic tragicomedy.” “Lovers of manic pixie dream girls, get ready,” they say. @rivergallo
