Miriam (entertainer)

Miriam Rivera (born circa 1981) is a Mexican pre-operative transsexual who appeared on the reality television shows There's Something About Miriam and Big Brother Australia 2004.

Early life
Born in Mexico, Miriam told Sun reporter Emily Smith that she knew she wanted to be a girl by age four, noting that her three brothers liked baseball, but she preferred Barbie dolls. she said strangers assumed she was a girl: They used to come to my mother and say, "Oh you have a beautiful daughter," and my mother used to say "That's my son," and I used to get angry. And I have always been attracted to men. When I was 11 I met someone who's gay and start talking to me about hormones, which I got very interested in.

She soon started taking hormones, and when she came out after being suspended from school at age 12, her family was supportive. After not fitting in at a new school, Miriam ran away at age 14 and spent six months working at a strip club. When her mother found her, she suggested Miriam live with a relative in America, where she attended Hollywood High School from the age of 15. After she was outed there, she moved to New York to live with her uncle and started work in her real estate agency. she has stated she does not plan to have sex reassignment surgery at the moment, citing concerns about complications or loss of sensation: "My mother always says to me, 'Why would you want to be half-and-half? Why don't you want to be a complete woman?' But I just love myself and I'm really enjoying my life."

Film and television appearances


In 1999 Miriam posed for a transsexual photography website and performed under the name Victoria in several pornographic videos produced by Androgeny Productions and released starting in 2000.

She was filmed in Ibiza for There's Something About Miriam in 2003, but the show's airdate was delayed until 2004, following out-of-court settlement of litigation by the contestants. Miriam enjoyed the attention she got following the show.

After the good ratings for There's Something About Miriam, she was cast as a guest visitor on Big Brother Australia 2004, also produced by Endemol. A documentary about her life was commissioned but not aired.

Recently
In recent times Miriam has been living "a very private life" in New York, after recovering from being brutally beaten and thrown from a 4th story window over drugs. .

She spend some time in June 2008 on holiday in Guadalajara, Mexico and is now back from Puerto Vallarta to New York City.

Filmography

 * Transsexual Beauty Queens 9 (2000, Androgeny Productions)
 * Transsexual Beauty Queens 10 (2002, Androgeny Productions)
 * There's Something About Miriam (2003, Brighter Pictures)
 * Big Brother Australia 2004 (2004, Endemol)
 * Transsexual Celebrity Look-A-Likes 2 (2005, Androgeny Productions)
 * Transsexual Beauty Queens Unleashed (2005, Androgeny Productions)
 * Transsexual Beauty Queens Superstars Volume 1 (2005, Androgeny Productions)
 * There's Something Extra Special About Miriam (2008, Avalon)