Octavia St. Laurent

Who was Octavia St. Laurent?

Octavia St. Laurent was an American trans woman and performer featured in the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning.

Octavia was also a very talented and soulful singer and had some original material which she began to work on in collaboration with Hartford CT resident Greg Field. In late summer and fall of 2005, after a few impromptu test sessions, Field was engaged to produce her recordings at his home digital recording studio, but the project was interrupted when Field went to Iceland to play in piano bars for an extended period and ultimately the recordings were never completed.

When How Do I Look, the LGBT Historic Art Documentary directed by Wolfgang Busch was released, Octavia was using the name Heavenly Angel Octavia St. Laurent Manolo Blahnik. In the film she discussed her drug use, sex work, and fight with AIDS.

Later known as Octavia St. Laurent Mizrahi, she suffered from AIDS and died after a long battle with cancer on May 17, 2009.