Miriam (entertainer)

For other uses, see Miriam (disambiguation).

Miriam
Born	Unconfirmed[1] ca. 1981[2] Hermosillo, Mexico[3][4]
Alias(es)	Victoria, Miriam Rivera, Miriam Xtravaganza, Miriam, Miriam D'Abo
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight	121 lb (55 kg)
Eye colour	Brown
Hair colour	Brown
Ethnicity	Hispanic/Mexican
No. of adult films	5 (per IAFD)

Miriam Rivera (born circa 1981)^[2] is a Mexican transsexual woman who appeared on the reality television shows There's Something About Miriam and Big Brother Australia 2004. Miriam has also worked as an adult model under the name Victoria and as a non-adult model.^[5]

Life and career

Miriam told Sun reporter Emily Smith she was born in Mexico and wanted to be a girl by age four. She said while her three brothers liked baseball, Miriam preferred Barbie dolls.^[3][6][7] Miriam says 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.^[8]

Miriam said she soon started taking hormones. She told reporters she came out after being suspended from school at age 12, and her family was supportive.^[9][10] After not fitting in at a new school, Miriam says she ran away at age 14 and spent six months working at a strip club.^[9] She says that when her mother found her, she suggested Miriam live with a relative in America, where she says she attended Hollywood High School from the age of 15. She told reporters that after she was outed there, she moved to New York to live with her uncle and started work in her uncle's real estate agency.^[7]

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.^[5]

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.^[11] 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.^[12]

She has stated she does not plan to have sex reassignment surgery, citing concerns about complications or loss of sensation.^[8][13][14] "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."^[15]

The New York Post reported that Miriam was seriously injured in spring 2007 when she was thrown out of a third-story window at her home.^[16] Miriam later told reporters she fell out of a fourth-story window while trying to escape a burglar.^[17]

In 2008 she was a special guest Ewa Drzyzga's TVN show Rozmowy w toku in Poland. In a 2010 interview, Miriam told a British tabloid she was working as an escort in the London area. Miriam is now living and working in Valencia, Spain.^[17]

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)

Notes and references

1. ^ Birth name is unconfirmed in published reports. Swain of The Sun reports "her passport identifies him as male and carries her original name, which she refuses to reveal."
2. ^ ^{a b} Birthdate is unconfirmed. Emily Smith of The Sun gives Miriam's age as 22 on February 13, 2004.
3. ^ ^{a b} Birthplace is disputed. Smith of The Sun and others report Hermosa, Mexico. Agencia Reforma reported Hermosillo. Miriam's now-defunct official site gave both in 2004.
4. ^ "Goza transexual mexicano popularidad en Europa Sábado, 21 de Febrero de 2009", El Manana "Miriam es mexicana y es de Hermosillo"
5. ^ ^{a b} Bob's Tgirls - Transsexual, Shemale, Tgirl, Transgender, tranny, transvestite
6. ^ "Dinner Date—Miriam," Rachael Popow, Press Association, February 25, 2004.
7. ^ ^{a b} Miriam's secret. Emily Smith, The Sun (UK), February 13, 2004.
8. ^ ^{a b} Miriam, There's something about Miriam, episode 1 (aired February 22, 2004).
9. ^ ^{a b} Swain, Gill (February 21, 2004). Duped by the most beautiful woman in the body of a man.Daily Express
10. ^ Agencia Reforma (August 28, 2004). La transexual mas bella del planeta según revista anglosajona. New Magazine.
11. ^ "Miriam's glad to be recognised," BBC, February 20, 2004.
12. ^ Mutel, Glen (19 February 2004). Miriam prepares to bare all in doc about 'her' life. Broadcast
13. ^ "Miriam pulls it off!," Sally Brook, The Sun (UK), February 24, 2004.
14. ^ Miriam, There's something about Miriam, episode 1 (aired February 22, 2004).
15. ^ "Miriam Opts Out Of Op," Sky One.
16. ^ Miriam ducks (4 October 2007). "MIRIAM DUCKS 'MIRIAM' BOW". New York Post. pp. 1. http://www.nypost.com/seven/10042007/gossip/pagesix/miriam_ducks_miriam_bow.htm. 
17. ^ ^{a b} Hills, Susanna (17 January 2010). "Transsexual reality star Miriam Rivera is a £300-an-hour 'escort'". Sunday Mirror. pp. 1. http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/01/17/transsexual-reality-star-miriam-rivera-is-a-300-an-hour-escort-115875-21973351/. 

External links

• Miriam at the Internet Movie Database
• Miriam at the Internet Adult Film Database
• Miriam's old official site via Internet Archive (online April - September 2004)

Persondata
Name	Miriam
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth	Hermosillo, Mexico
Date of death
Place of death