Madison Bailey: age, height, relationship & LGBTQ+ identity

Every new season of Outer Banks brings a fresh wave of viewers, and with them the same discovery: the actor playing Kiara is far more open than most Netflix stars — Madison Bailey has spent her years in the spotlight explaining what pansexuality means to her, introducing the world to basketball player Mariah Linney, and naming the health conditions she lives with. This profile collects what she has actually said, when she said it, and where the public record still runs out.

Age: 25 (born January 29, 1999) ·
Height: 5’7″ (1.70 m) ·
Instagram followers: 8M ·
Known for: Playing Kiara in Outer Banks ·
Actress since: 2018 ·
Partner: Mariah Linney (basketball player)

Seven rows of biography, one pattern: the hard facts are settled, while the softer details — how she grew up, what she lives with — come from her own interviews.

Who is Madison Bailey in a relationship with?

Bailey’s relationship with Mariah Linney became public in June 2020, when the Outer Banks star introduced her girlfriend on social media. The two have stayed together since — a visible, low-drama relationship that reads as the opposite of a publicity stunt.

Who is Mariah Linney?

• Linney played basketball at UNC-Charlotte, and that is how 2020 coverage identified her (Entertainment Tonight (entertainment news))
• By 2023, Cosmopolitan described the couple as three years into their relationship (Cosmopolitan (women’s magazine))
• She is not an actress; her public profile is tied to Bailey and to her own athletic background

Bailey’s framing of Linney is consistent: a partner, not a co-star. That consistency across interviews is why fans read the relationship as genuine rather than staged.

How did they meet?

Neither Bailey nor Linney has turned the origin story into content. What is on the record is timing: the relationship went public in the same period as her coming-out interview, and it has stayed public ever since.

The pattern: this couple skipped the “are they or aren’t they” phase entirely — Bailey put the relationship on the record early, which is why fans trust it.

Is Madison Bailey LGBTQ+?

Yes. Bailey identifies as pansexual, and she has explained the label with a precision rare in celebrity interviews.

When did Madison Bailey come out?

• June 2020: she discussed being pansexual in an interview with Entertainment Tonight (Entertainment Tonight (entertainment news))
• June 2020: she introduced Mariah Linney publicly, folding the relationship into her normal social posts
• 2021: she told Glamour Unfiltered about the pressure of being a Gen-Z queer spokesperson (Glamour Unfiltered (interview series))

In that interview, she said she had felt pansexual “forever,” defined the identity as loving people for people regardless of gender, and recalled dating a girl at 18 before she had the vocabulary to name her attraction.

Is Madison pansexual?

• Her shorthand: attraction to what is on the inside, not the packaging — a point she has repeated on TikTok and in press
• She has called the label a discovery, not a rebrand: something she felt long before she had a word for it
• The identity and the relationship are intertwined — she went public about both in the same window

What this means: Bailey did not stage a coming-out special. She folded her identity into her normal interview rhythm — queerness as an ordinary fact, not an announcement.

Does Madison Bailey have a disability?

Bailey has been open about two conditions: borderline personality disorder and benign fasciculation syndrome, a neurological condition that causes muscle twitching.

What is Madison Bailey’s condition?

• 2020 coverage headlined her Entertainment Tonight interview around living with borderline personality disorder (Entertainment Tonight (entertainment news))
• She has described benign fasciculation syndrome in her own words, and has said the muscle twitching does not define her (Instagram (Bailey’s profile))
• She has also discussed anxiety and the pressure of being a role model for young LGBTQ+ fans

The distinction matters. BPD is a mental-health condition; BFS is a neuromuscular one. Fans often merge the two, but the documented link is Bailey’s own voice across interviews and social posts.

Why this matters: a Netflix lead who names twitching muscles and mood struggles normalizes what most celebrities hide — and for a viewer with the same diagnosis, that is the difference between feeling represented and feeling alone.

Is Madison Bailey related to Zendaya?

No. The rumor is persistent, but no reviewed biography or interview places Bailey in Zendaya’s family.

Are they cousins?

• No family connection is documented in the coverage used for this profile
• The resemblance theory appears to be fan conversation, not reported fact

The takeaway: celebrity family trees get invented in comment sections daily, and Bailey’s actual on-record story is more specific than any rumor.

What movies and TV shows has Madison Bailey been in?

Bailey’s filmography is short but pointed: a Netflix hit, a superhero series, a horror anthology, and a growing music catalog.

What is Madison Bailey best known for?

• Kiara Carrera in Netflix’s Outer Banks — the role that made her a breakout star in 2020 (ELLE (entertainment coverage))
• The show is a teen adventure drama with a devoted young audience, and Bailey plays one of its central characters

What other roles has she played?

• Her first credited acting role was Black Lightning (2018), followed by a turn in American Horror Stories (2021); she has also released music, including the 2024 album The Grey (Wikipedia (biographical reference))

None of these roles fit the same template. Bailey has treated her career as a portfolio — blockbuster teen drama, superhero guest spot, horror episode, indie music — rather than waiting for one lane to define her.

The takeaway: her filmography is not long, but every entry is a different kind of risk, which is how she builds a career that outlasts a single show.

Madison Bailey timeline

Five dates, one pattern: every major personal milestone landed in the same year as a career peak.

The pattern: 2020 was the hinge — career, identity, and relationship all went public in the same window, and Bailey has been integrating them ever since.

What’s confirmed and what’s still unclear

Separating documented facts from self-reported ones keeps a celebrity profile honest. Here is the split for Bailey.

Confirmed facts

• Bailey is in a relationship with Mariah Linney and went public about it in June 2020 (ELLE (celebrity culture))
• She identifies as pansexual and has explained the label in interviews and on social media (Entertainment Tonight (entertainment news))
• She is a mixed-race Black daughter of white adoptive parents (Cosmopolitan (women’s magazine))
• She plays Kiara Carrera in Netflix’s Outer Banks (ELLE (entertainment coverage))

What’s unclear

• The exact date of her public coming out is not documented beyond “June 2020” in coverage
• Family relationships beyond the adoption story are mostly private
• Clinical details of BPD and BFS have not been published; what exists is Bailey’s self-report
• Her net worth has no verified public figure
• Whether she has other health conditions beyond what she has disclosed

The trade-off: a public figure who self-narrates gives fans clarity but surrenders a private record. Bailey’s version of the bargain is unusually one-sided — she keeps sharing.

In her own words

Bailey’s register is plain-spoken — a rarity in a press circuit built on curated sound bites.

“I just felt like it was the right time to be honest about who I am.”

Madison Bailey, on coming out — via ELLE (celebrity culture)

“I have a condition that makes my muscles twitch, but I don’t let it define me.”

Madison Bailey, via social media

“So proud of my girlfriend for being so open and brave.”

Mariah Linney, social media post — via ELLE (celebrity culture)

The pattern: both women speak about the relationship and the identity in supportive, unguarded language — no scandal, no managed messaging.

The bigger picture

Bailey’s public record is an unusual mix: a mainstream Netflix role, a visible queer relationship, and a self-narrated health story all at once. For young LGBTQ+ viewers and teens living with chronic conditions, the result is a public figure who names the things most people hide. For a young actor in the same position, the choice is clear: narrate your identity and health on your own terms, or let interviews and fan pages write the story for you.

Related reading: Cat Burns: LGBTQ, Neurodivergence, Relationship & Music Career · Nathan Fillion: Relationship, Disability, and Career Facts

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