Queer singer-songwriter Seann Miley Moore and trans queen playwright and performer Glace Chase each had to leave Australia to forge their careers because of a lack of opportunities for gender diverse artists here. Each has now returned to remedy that lack of authentic representation, playing versions of themselves.

Moore, currently starring as Angel in Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent at Sydney Opera House, a character Moore wants known as a gender non-specific “goddess” rather than labelled a drag queen, bought a one-way ticket to Britain five years ago.

Seann Miley Moore as Angel with Callum Francis as Collins in Rent at the Sydney Opera House. Photograph © Prudence Upton

Born in Indonesia to a Filipino mother and English father, and schooled in Sydney, where “I got teased a lot for the colour of my skin”, Moore became an X Factor UK contestant and performs self-penned songs at Pride gatherings across Europe, sometimes wearing earrings, gloss, heels and dresses, both on and off stage.

Now 28, Moore has no regrets about relocating to London because it is “a mixing pot with so many beautiful ethnicities in all walks of life”, surrounded by “all my crazy, sexy,...