Nicole Maines plays Nia/Dreamer on the CW's "Supergirl" and has become a beloved fan favorite for her crime-fighting expertise on the series. She got her start playing Laurel in 2019's "Bit," a film about a girl who leaves behind her small-town life for LA only to be inducted into a group of girls who turn her into a vampire.
When she first started out on "Supergirl," Maines was "really nervous to kind of show her in any way that wasn't favorable," she told Variety. "I was very nervous to show her making poor choices or have her react poorly to something. I needed her to be a success. I needed Dreamer and Nia to be untouchable." But she's begun to embrace her imperfections. "More and more trans characters [can] be less than perfect and be a–holes and be the villains," Maines said. "We can look at them and be like, 'They're just people."
In addition to playing TV's first trans superhero on "Supergirl," 24-year-old Maines — who was adopted and grew up in New York and Maine — is also something of a real-life superhero. She is the subject of the book "Becoming Nicole: The Extraordinary Transformation of an Ordinary Family," which chronicles her role in a successful case against a school's effort to ban trans kids from using bathrooms that align with their gender identities.
Maines has gone from inhabiting a spotlight she did not ask for to one that she clearly belongs in, and her performance in "Supergirl" foreshadows an impressive career to come. In the meantime, she's also planning on continuing her activism work. "The most important thing that we always need to recognize is that our work is not done," she said in a 2020 interview with Collider. "With every victory that we make, we can't ease up . . . There's still so much work left to be done."
