Ava Davis
About Ava Davis
Ava Davis is the kind of artist whose career doesn’t fit neatly into a single lane… and that’s precisely the point. An actor, producer, creative executive, and cultural force within the Southern independent film ecosystem, Davis has become one of Atlanta’s most visible champions for queer cinema, while continuing to build a body of on-screen work rooted in wit, vulnerability, and undeniable presence.
For many, she is best known as Her Grace, the Duchess of Atlanta (formerly the Duchess of Grant Park), a modern civic persona equal parts pageantry and purpose, deployed not as novelty but as strategy: a highly legible symbol of queer visibility and Southern cultural leadership. But behind the crown is a disciplined storyteller and organizer with a rare ability to move between artistry and infrastructure, the sort of person who doesn’t simply appear in the room… she changes what the room can become.
As a producer and collaborator, Davis has helped bring Atlanta-made queer stories to life, supporting and producing short films by LGBTQ creators across the region, and helping position independent work for broader industry attention. She is equally fluent in the language of story and the mechanics of production… from talent and tone to logistics, festival positioning, and audience.
And still, she remains what she has always been at the center: an actress.
Her performances span indie comedy and character-forward storytelling, with screen credits including Tom Slick: Mystery Hunter, Lick, and Give Me an A, among others, showcasing a presence that is both self-aware and emotionally grounded.
On stage, Davis brings the same precision and magnetism to live performance, most recently originating a role in the world premiere of Topher Payne’s first play in eight years, The First Lady’s Guide to…, which premiered in September 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. Davis’s acting carries an ease that reads as effortless, but on closer inspection reveals craft: the ability to land a joke, hold a silence, or turn the temperature of a scene in a single beat. She plays characters like someone who understands people… and understands the room.
Davis serves as a board member of Out on Film, Atlanta’s internationally recognized LGBTQ film festival and an Oscar-qualifying institution for short films. In recent years, she has helped shape and lead the festival’s industry-facing programming, including Out on Film’s Queer Film Summits, carving out space not just for screenings, but for careers, networks, and the long game of sustainable queer filmmaking in the South. Where many talk about community, Davis has built it in public, with the consistency of someone who understands that culture isn’t a vibe… it’s an ecosystem.
That ecosystem-building extends beyond the festival world. Through her work hosting and expanding the Queer Film Alliance, Davis has created a recurring gathering space for filmmakers and creatives who are often overlooked by coastal industry pipelines. The Alliance has become a living crossroads: part salon, part strategy session, part sanctuary, where emerging voices connect with resources, visibility, and each other.
Davis’s civic involvement extends beyond film. She is also a Newsreader for This Way Out, the only internationally distributed weekly LGBTQ radio program, airing on nearly 200 community radio stations worldwide. The award-winning half-hour magazine-format broadcast delivers coverage of major events, interviews with key queer figures, and a summary of some of the most important news affecting LGBTQ communities. For Davis, the role is a natural bridge between artistry and public life: a commitment to keeping communities informed, connected, and culturally engaged.
She also serves as a board member of the publication, an extension of the journalism roots that first shaped her public voice. Davis began her academic path with a brief stint at Grady’s School of Journalism, before turning toward Comparative Literature and Creative Writing, a pivot that would later define the signature of her career, a storyteller fluent in both narrative beauty and the stakes of the real world.
What makes Davis especially compelling in this moment is her timing. As the entertainment industry rapidly shifts, flattening art into “content” and forcing independent artists to function as studios of one, she has leaned in with clarity rather than compromise. Her work isn’t chasing attention… it’s directing it.
And she isn’t slowing down.
Upcoming projects include In The Midst Of, along with appearances at Sundance 2026 and international premieres currently in the works, a slate of momentum that would be notable for any artist… and for Davis, it’s only Q1.
Or, as she puts it herself: “We enter a new era… and I have no plans to be subtle about it.”
Ava Davis is represented by Laura Magner at Alexander White Agency.