Jewish actor Liev Schreiber is bringing his daughter Kai, 16, to a benefit for the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing and support for houseless LGBTQ youth. Ahead of the annual gala, A Place at the Table, which takes place today, Friday, May 9, in New York City, the “Ray Donovan” and “A Small Light” actor spoke about raising and embracing a trans child. He shared with Variety’s Marc Malkin, the co-chair of the gala, that Kai never came out to her parents as trans. “Kai was always who Kai is,” he said. “I suppose the most profound moment was her asking us to change her pronouns. To be honest with you, it didn’t feel like that big of a deal to me only because Kai had been so feminine for so long.”
Kai is one of Schreiber’s three children. He shares Sasha and Kai with ex-wife Naomi Watts, and he and his wife Taylor Neisen welcomed a daughter, Hazel Bee, in 2023. Kai is signed with IMG Models and made her modeling runway debut this year at Paris Fashion week, for the brand Valentino. Her father was kvelling hard: “Ladies and gentlemen the one, the only, the indomitable @kaischreiberr!” he wrote on Instagram. Kai also participated in a glamorous campaign for the Italian fashion house, which was shot in Rome — her mother joined her for that adventure.
The model definitely leans into her trans identity, posting cheeky videos on TikTok. “Protect trans youth,” reads her bio on the social media app. And her father is really proud of her for embracing who she is. “Kai is such a fighter,” he told Variety. “It’s important that she goes, ‘Hey, I am trans,’ and, ‘Look at me.’”
“This isn’t just about representing the trans community,” Schreiber said of the gala. “This is actually a community of people who don’t have great resources, who don’t have access to help, who aren’t being protected and looked after by their families. These are people who are being rejected. These are people who are experiencing the harshest version of humanity that we can offer, and some of them are not surviving it.”
It’s one of many causes that the actor has avidly spoken up for. The grandson of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, he’s been an outspoken advocate for his ancestors’ home country, cooking brisket for Ukrainian refugees on Passover and co-founding BlueCheck Ukraine, which helps NGOs working on the front lines. He has also publicly spoken about his love for his Jewish identity, sharing a moving and timely ode to Judaism in January of last year.
Schreiber has also spoken about how important it is to him to share that Jewish identity with his children. “I tell my kids who they are, I tell them who their parents are, who their grandparents and great-grandparents are. You try to let them know what it means to be a family,” he shared with Global News in 2017. Kai has shared pictures of herself with a Star of David necklace in the past, so it’s clear that her Jewish identity is a part of her. We’re so excited to see what the future holds for this talented teen.
