Candis Cayne life and biography

Candis Cayne is an American actress and performance artist.

Known in the New York City nightclub scene since the 1990s, Cayne came to national attention in 2007 for portraying transgender mistress Carmelita on ABC's prime time drama Dirty Sexy Money. The role makes Cayne the first transgender actress to play a recurring transgender character in prime time.

Cayne, known as Brendan McDaniel prior to her transition, and fraternal twin brother Dylan were born in 1971 in Maui where their parents taught at a Waldorf school, and the family lived on campus. McDaniel graduated from Maui's Baldwin High School in 1989 and then spent a year in Los Angeles, where she trained as a dancer.

McDaniel moved to New York in the early 1990s, making a name for herself as a choreographer and drag performer. Unaware of "what a transsexual was" until she lived in New York, about three years after her arrival McDaniel realized that the term described how she felt about herself. Already performing as "Candis Cayne" at New York gay bar Boy Bar and as a featured performer at Tour in New York's Chelsea, the entertainer also participated in Wigstock, the annual drag festival in the East Village. In 1995 Cayne appeared in the related documentary film Wigstock: The Movie, the comedy-drama film Stonewall, and the Universal Studios comedy film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, for which she also did choreography. Cayne began transitioning in 1996. In 1997 Cayne co-starred in the music video for RuPaul's "A Little Bit of Love" with female impersonator Jazzmun. Cayne also starred as the title character in the 1998 independent film Mob Queen, and won the 2001 Miss Continental pageant.In 2007 Cayne was cast as Annaka Manners in the 2007 RuPaul film Starrbooty.

From 2007 to 2008 Cayne played Carmelita Rainer, a trans woman having an affair with married New York Attorney General Patrick Darling (played by William Baldwin), on the ABC prime time drama Dirty Sexy Money. The role makes Cayne the first transgender actor to play a recurring transgender character in prime time. She had a recurring role as the transgender character Alexis Stone in season six of Nip/Tuck. Cayne appeared as a judge and Dean of Dance, on episode 5 of RuPaul's Drag U. As a dance teacher, she taught three women original choreography to No Scrubs by TLC.

Cayne has stated, "I'm not trying to be a spokeswoman for the transgender community; I just want to be looked at as a living, breathing, happy human being." She calls the LGBT community "the last great minority" and supports the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

As of March 2009, Cayne was engaged to a disc jockey named Marco and lives in Los Angeles. However they broke up late March 2010.

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