diff --git a/src/sentry/api/serializers/base.py b/src/sentry/api/serializers/base.py
index 96432586c89e..2537d3782c4e 100644
--- a/src/sentry/api/serializers/base.py
+++ b/src/sentry/api/serializers/base.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 import logging
 from collections.abc import Callable, Mapping, MutableMapping, Sequence
-from typing import Any, Generic, TypeVar, overload
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Generic, TypeAlias, TypeVar, overload
 
 from django.contrib.auth.models import AnonymousUser
 from sentry_sdk import traces
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@
 from sentry.users.models.user import User
 from sentry.users.services.user.model import RpcUser
 
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from sentry.auth.principal import RequestPrincipal
+
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 K = TypeVar("K")
@@ -21,7 +24,7 @@
 # is migrated.
 T = TypeVar("T", default=Any)
 
-_User = User | RpcUser | AnonymousUser | None
+_User: TypeAlias = "RequestPrincipal | None"
 
 registry: MutableMapping[Any, Any] = {}