Mena Nizam

Mena Nizam is a trans budding fantasy/comic author/historian of Pakistani who graduated from Drew University in 2017 with a degree in Art History and History, minoring in Medieval Studies. They are currently a second year graduate student at Monmouth University, where they study History and plans to write a thesis about film. Mena is also working on a fantasy series, titled United Kingdoms of Eslanda, and plans to be published eventually at some point. Their biggest influences in the writing world are J.R.R. Tolkien, and classic literature such as Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, and Gilgamesh. Mena enjoys alternative culture and recently interviewed for Weirdo Zine, a zine dedicated to South Asian alternative creators. Mena has worked as a museum educator for several well known institutions including The Cloisters, the New York Transit Museum, and the Brooklyn Historical Society. They decided to pursue filmmaking to tell their story about being stalked, harassed, swatted, abused and more by a group of anime cosplayers, surviving their suicide attempt over being stalked for posting Lord of the Rings thirst tweets and hopes to continue working with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and to tell their story about being a transgender man and his experiences via documentary format, and through acting. He plans to attend New York University after finishing his degree at Monmouth University to study under Spike Lee. He also plans to lose 30 lbs to tell his story of being stalked/harassed by a group of anime cosplayers in a fictional format, to reflect more accurately what he looked like back in 2017-2018 when he first came out as a trans man. Mena is also the victim of date rape and abuse from a roommate/landlord they lived with for six months who was reported to the police/served a restraining from their previous university. Mena is also the victim of excessive victim blaming/transphobia/racism/antisemitism/islamophobia from the same group of anime cosplayers who caused his suicide attempt. He is also peaceful and nonviolent/loves animals. Especially dogs, which is what his stalker called him, woof woof. I want to share my experiences with TED, about filmmaking, about being stalked by a group of anime cosplayers over thirst tweets, about history, loving fantasy, and more.