Silas Howard is an American film and television director, writer, and actor. His first feature film By Hook or by Crook (2001) co-directed with Harry Dodge is a seminal trans masc feature. Howard earned an MFA in directing at UCLA and is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow. He began directing episodes during the second season of Transparent, making him the show's first trans director.
Howard grew up in south Vermont. He arrived in San Francisco in the early 1990s. Howard played guitar for Tribe 8, a queer punk rock band originating in the San Francisco area.[1] In San Francisco, he and Harry Dodge, a former band member, opened Red Dora's Bearded Lady Truckstop Café,[2] where artists displayed their art.
Howard was a founding member of queercore band, Tribe 8 and toured across the U.S. Europe and Canada with the band. He was also co-founder of the legendary San Francisco cafe, Red Dora's Bearded Lady Truckstop Cafe, which also served as a gallery and performance space.
Howard's directorial debut is the feature film By Hook or by Crook which he co-wrote and co-directed and in which he co-stars with artist Harry Dodge. The film depicts the tale of two unlikely friends who commit petty crimes as they search for a path to understanding themselves and the outside world. "We totally home-schooled it, we made this feature film without having made a short or anything, because we're like, we have the urgent need to tell this story, to have these different faces on the screen."[3] Howard later earned an MFA in directing at UCLA in 2008.[4] He currently is a visiting lecturer at Cornell University. Twenty years after its release, the film has had a resurgence with a limited run at Alamo Draft House, as well as screenings at Outfest, Newfest, BFI, Metrograph and more. The film was also released on The Criterion Channel and widely lauded as a seminal trans masc film.
Howard was the first trans director for Transparent. The creator Joey Soloway wanted trans directors to tell their own stories.[5] He directed the episodes "Bulnerable" (2015), "When the Battle Is Over", and "Just the Facts" (both in 2016). In September 2017's article in LGBT Weekly, one writer speaks of Howard as:
Howard's essays have been published in several anthologies including Zosia Mamet's My First Popsicle, Without a Net, edited by Michelle Tea and Live Through This, edited by Sabrina Chap. Howard wrote and performed with the spoken-word series, Sister Spit and toured a one-man show Thank you for Being Urgent about the real-life heartbreak of almost having his feature film about Billy Tipton greenlit and then watching it fall through the cracks.
Howard's third feature film A Kid Like Jake starring Claire Danes, Jim Parsons, Octavia Spencer and Transparent actress Amy Landecker premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. And his most recent feature, Darby and the Dead, a teen comedy about grief and friendship between girls premiered on Hulu.
In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, sparking the start of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, Queerty named him one of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people."[6] [7]
Howard married writer and filmmaker Naz Riahi in 2023. He lives in Los Angeles.