Welcome to Never Before. I'm your host, Janet Mock.

I have been a longtime admirer of my guest today, Amaya Scott.

Amaya plays cotton on the Fox musical drama, Star.

But long before she embarked on TV stardom,

Amaya built a name for herself online and in the ballroom community.

With her impeccable hair and makeup skills, seriously, she slays.

Amaya branded herself as a unicorn with the invisible horn and attracted over a million followers on Instagram alone.

One of those followers was director and producer Lee Daniels, who cast

Amaya as Queen Latifah's trans daughter on his latest TV hit. Today, on Never Before,

I sit with Amaya to discuss her journey from the ballrooms of the South to Hollywood and how she was

able to become a star without the help of mainstream media.

We also discuss the passing of her friend, China Gibson, who was shot and killed in February.

China and Amaya grew up and transitioned together in New Orleans as young trans girls of color.

She was only 31.

But first, Amaya and I love on each other. Hashtag girls like us.

Amaya.

Hello, Janet. Hello. How are you?

I am so good. I am beaming. I can't believe that I have you. Seeing your rise to prominence has been so awe-inspiring for me.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be having a conversation with you. I've seen

you do such great things. How are you able to build such a huge following without ever having any

kind of interaction with mainstream media? I'm baffled by that myself.

Like, I sit back and I look and think how things happened.

...