All About Hunter Schafer's 'Euphoria' Journey — and How She Developed Her Character Jules

HBO's teen drama series Euphoria has been generating buzz since its debut in December 2020. With its explicit and sometimes unsettling content, along with Zendaya's impressive transformation from her Disney Channel days, the show’s compelling storyline and scenes keeps viewers hooked.

With two seasons completed and a third season on the way, despite delays due to scheduling and scriptwriting issues, fans remain captivated by Jules, played by trans model and activist Hunter Schafer. The show first introduced Jules as the trans girl who rides her bike everywhere and befriends Rue (played by Zendaya) after moving into town.

Keep reading for everything you need to know about Jules Vaughn and Hunter Schafer, 25, and the the actress who plays her.

You might recognize Hunter as being one of today's leading models. She's walked the runway for Dior, Miu Miu, Rick Owens, Helmut Lang, and Marc Jacobs, but even before that, she got her start as a trans activist.

Back in 2016, when she was 17, the Raleigh native was asked to be the youngest plaintiff in the ACLU's lawsuit against North Carolina for its discriminatory "bathroom bill." "We are on the forefront of a revolution in which identity and expression will take priority over the labels assigned to us at birth. In which gender will fall away entirely," she wrote at the time.

In the three years since involvement in the lawsuit, Hunter has grown her career exponentially.

Hunter went from high school student to activist to successful model, designer, and standout actor.

Hunter stars opposite Zendaya in HBO's drug-addled drama, as Jules, a transgender girl who just moved to town following her parents' divorce.

"I have not acted before and was not planning on it really either," she candidly revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "I was modeling for about a year in New York and had my sights set on fashion school afterward."

Since landing the gig, Hunter admitted in a GQ interview published in April 2024 that she has been offered "tons of trans roles" since her breakout, though she is no longer interested in playing those roles. "I don’t want to be [reduced to] that, and I find it ultimately demeaning to me and what I want to do. I worked so hard to get to where I am, past these really hard points in my transition, and now I just want to be a girl and finally move on," Hunter explained.

Hunter came across a casting call on Instagram that sent her down a path that would lead her to become the TV star that she is today. "It was for trans girls, who didn't have to be experienced and it didn't say Euphoria or anything but I was like, 'Huh,'" she said.

The rest of the journey to Euphoria, which Hunter describes as "the wildest process," flew by: "My model agency ... hooked me up with an acting coach ... and he cracked me like an egg and I kind of, like, started falling in love with the script and, like, acting itself over that period of time and it happened, like I got cast," she said.

In addition to starring in the drama series, Hunter also had a hand in writing her character, Jules. "Entering this project [was worrisome] not only just being a completely inexperienced actor but also, like, the script was written by a white, cis, straight man," she said.

The process of writing the script, and her character specifically, ended up being a collaborative one along with show creator Sam Levinson, who relied on her to better understand being a transgender teen girl.

"It was a very collaborative process, and Jules had a similar storyline to my life, at least as far as transition timelines — not what happens within Euphoria," Schafer said to W.

"Sam Levinson was really open to collaboration because he can only write to some identities," Hunter added, "so it was up to us to help him fill in little pieces."

While waiting for the highly anticipated Season 3 to drop, stream past seasons of Euphoria on Max (formerly HBO).