Everything to Know About Eva Reign, the Breakout Star of Billy Porter's 'Anything's Possible'

Eva Reign is shaking up the high school movie genre.

The actress, 26, serves her breakout starring performance in Amazon Prime Video's Anything's Possible (which also marks Billy Porter's directorial debut), a coming-of-age romance that centers on the experience of a Black transgender teenager.

She stars in the film as Kelsa, a confident high school senior with big dreams to fulfill after graduation. When her classmate Khal (Abubakr Ali) asks her out, a romance sparks, but a rift grows between her friends and the school's other social groups.

Reign tells PEOPLE she "related a lot" to the character, who shares her journey on YouTube. She hopes that the movie will have the same impact as similar YouTubers had on her growing up.

"I just hope that this movie ... really reaches people. I hope that it reaches people in major cities like New York and also in the smallest of towns in the middle of Oregon because I feel like this is something that we haven't really seen before, at least not in this way," she tells PEOPLE. "And I just hope that it has a positive impact."

Born and raised in St. Louis, Mo., Reign's journey to the big screen has been unconventional to say the least. With a background in both acting and journalism, she opens up about her first starring role and what's next.

Learn more about the actress below.

Anything's Possible is her first starring role

Reign appeared in a few indie projects before Porter, 52, discovered her. "My friend sent me an email about the casting call for Kelsa and that's how I got the part," she says.

Before Anything's Possible, Reign appeared in the series Sideways Smile in 2020.

She also starred in Tourmaline's 2019 short Salacia, about a Black trans woman who lived in New York over 200 years ago, which has since become part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

She did theater and speech in school

Reign caught the acting bug in fifth grade during a theater workshop where she learned about stage presence, improvisation and musical theater. From there, she began competing on speech team in middle school and doing theater in high school.

"But then halfway through high school, my director ... I just realized that she wasn't going to cast me in any of the shows just because I was going through a lot of gender stuff and it was very apparent," she recalls. "And it was something that I was talking about with a lot of people and it was a pretty close-minded environment where I went to school.

"So, sadly I stopped acting during that time, but it's something I always wanted to dive back into," Reign adds. Upon moving to New York City, Reign's love of acting was reignited when a friend encouraged her to "just dive in."

"And so, I started taking classes in the village and just doing little indie projects. Very, very short things," Reign says.

She's a journalist

Reign has previously worked as a journalist, with her writing appearing in Vogue, New York Magazine and Them, to name a few.

She also hosted an episode of the Vice News docuseries Transnational, which won a Peabody and a GLAAD Media Award. In the episode, she reported on the Detroit ballroom scene as they honored the life of Kelly Stough, a Black trans woman who was killed in 2018. "I definitely think that's my proudest moment," Reign says.

"That's something I never really imagined," she explains. "Just being able to uplift the story of another Black trans girl from the Midwest is something that I feel very honored to have done because there's a lot that goes into the coverage of trans murders."

"For the most part, a lot of that isn't being covered by trans journalists and when those things occur, trans folks often times are not the ones being handed the mic to talk about how that violence occurs. And also the people who knew and loved these different people often times are trans people. And they're not really the ones being centered in the media coverage," Reign adds.

Next, Reign hopes to tackle screenwriting and author some books.

She accompanied Billy Porter to the Tony Awards

After wrapping Anything's Possible, Porter brought the rising star to last month's 75th Tony Awards, where A Strange Loop, which he co-produced, won Best Musical.

"That was so, so surreal. All of this is surreal, but I feel like the Tony's is when I was like, 'Oh wow, I'm really doing this right now,'" Reign says, adding: "And then to go with Billy, a Broadway living legend, it was just the best, best time. Everyone was so sweet. It just felt like I was living in a fairytale the whole night."

Reign also raves about being directed by Porter in her first feature film, noting that she "gained a friend, a mentor" in the process. "I always tell people working with Billy was a dream because it actually was and is," she says.

She explains that Porter "gave me so much trust on set every day" as they worked together to bring her leading lady Kelsa to life.

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"He was just like, 'Let me just help guide you to get the best performance possible,'" she says. "We would sit and talk about what we imagined Kelsa's backstory to be, what we imagined her hopes and dreams to be. Just going beyond what was written on the page."

"I just felt like I gained a friend, a mentor, because I got to witness one of the greatest talents of our time and to get to work with him is something that I still have to wrap my head around at times. Billy was super fun," Reign adds.

See Eva Reign in Billy Porter's Anything's Possible, premiering Friday, July 22 on Amazon Prime Video.