Directing

Madison Young

Born 20 September 1980 · Loveland, Ohio, USA · 46

Madison Young (they/she) is an award-winning filmmaker, curator, author, community activist, and performance artist whose work dismantles boundaries between art, politics, and the body. A true multi-hyphenate force in contemporary independent media, Young has spent more than a quarter of a century crafting a radical and deeply human body of work that has been studied in university courses on feminist and gender studies at institutions around the world. At the forefront of Young’s filmmaking practice is Submission Possible, the LGBTQ+ travel documentary television series Young created, writes, directs, produces, and hosts, currently streaming on Revry TV. The series brings Young’s signature blend of intimacy, politics, and wit to queer travel and community storytelling — threading the personal with the political across every frame. Young also serves as Executive Producer under their production banner, Empress in Lavender Media. Young was one of the pioneers of the feminist porn movement of the early 2000s — a groundbreaking era of image-making that reclaimed erotic filmmaking as a site of feminist resistance and joyful self-determination. Their contributions to that movement are documented in the academic text The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure (The Feminist Press at CUNY), as well as in Pornography Feminism: As Powerful as She Wants to Be (Zero Books) and America Unzipped: In Search of Sex and Satisfaction (Broadway Books). Young’s essay “Authenticity and Its Role in Feminist Pornography” was published in the Routledge Porn Studies Journal, released by the University of Sunderland. Young’s fearless artistic vision extends to the stage. Their off-Broadway solo theater performance Reveal All Fear Nothing — developed in collaboration with legendary artist and activist Annie Sprinkle — toured the United States from 2016 to 2019, following a celebrated Off-Broadway run at The Tank NYC. The show also received national television exposure on Viceland’s Slutever. Academy Award-nominated actress Maggie Gyllenhaal called the show “Radical” and “Inspired,” while musician and television personality Dave Navarro described it as “A Provocative and Brave One Woman Show.” Young is the author of three books. Their memoir Daddy (Rare Bird/Barnacle Books), which Academy Award winner Diablo Cody praised by saying “Madison Young goes deep and brings some universal truths to light,” has been adapted into the film By the Roots. The memoir was also translated into Spanish as Papi (Melusina). Young’s subsequent titles include The Ultimate Guide to Sex Through Pregnancy and Motherhood (Cleis Press) and The DIY Porn Handbook: Documenting Our Own Sexual Revolution (Greenery Press). Their writing has appeared in anthologies including Coming Out Like a Porn Star, Rad Families: A Celebration, and Subversive Motherhood, as well as in feature publications including Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Romper, Bustle, and Vice. Across every medium they inhabit — film, television, the stage, the page, the gallery — Madison Young’s work is defined by an unwavering commitment to authentic storytelling, radical visibility, and the transformative power of telling one’s own story on one’s own terms.