Jacob Tobia is an American LGBT rights activist, writer, producer, television host and actor. In 2019, they published their memoir titled . They are also the voice of the character in DreamWorks' animated series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
Tobia is a Point Foundation Scholar, Harry S. Truman Scholar, and a recipient of the Campus Pride National Voice and Action Award. Their writing has been featured on MSNBC, MTV, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, Jezebel and other media outlets. They've also served on conference panels and spoken at Harvard University, Princeton University, Columbia University, and various LGBTQ conferences across the United States. They worked for the United Nations Foundation, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice before starting a career in television. In September 2013, Tobia raised over $10,000 for the Ali Forney Center running across the Brooklyn Bridge in five-inch heels as part of their Clinton Global Initiative University commitment to action. They were recently honored again for their larger impact to LGBTQIA+ community by CGI U in 2018 at the University of Chicago. Tobia was featured in MTV's The T Word, where they were interviewed by Laverne Cox. In 2015, Tobia was profiled in the GLAAD Award-nominated episode of True Life: I'm Genderqueer by MTV. In 2016 they were named in Out's 100. Later in 2016, Tobia created, co-produced and hosted Queer 2.0, an original LGBTQ series for NBC News. In 2017, Tobia moved from New York to Los Angeles to begin working on Season 4 of Jill Soloway's series Transparent. In June 2017, Tobia announced they would be releasing a memoir titled Sissy. Tobia also provided the voice of Double Trouble in season 4 of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. In 2018, Tobia became the face of an advertising campaign for the gender non-conforming makeup brand Fluide, promoting a line of lip colors named after queer spaces, such as gay bars. In 2019, Tobia was a guest on Trevor Noah's The Daily Show. They discussed Tobia's book Sissy which addresses the term "gender chill", gendered violence, and the playful nature of non-binary genders. In November 2019, Showtime announced they will be developing a half-hour show based on Tobia's memoir Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story. Tobia will serve as co-writer and co-executive producer for the adaptation, which will follow the life of Tobi Gibran, a non-binary student who moves from North Carolina to New York City.
