Dashaun Wesley is an American dancer, [1] [2] actor, [3] [4] choreographer, [5] and ballroom performer, [6] [7] MC, [8] [9] and commentator. [10] [11] He is known for hosting the voguing competition series Legendary [12] and for his appearances on the television series America's Best Dance Crew [13] and Pose . [14] He is often called the "King of Vogue". [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]
Wesley was born in Brooklyn, New York [16] and grew up in its Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. [20] He began dancing at age four. [21] Wesley first encountered voguing at 14 [22] and became involved with the ballroom scene as a teenager. [16]
Wesley has worked as a dance [7] [23] and vogue instructor. [24] [25]
Wesley became involved in ballroom as a teenager in the late 1990s [18] and has competed in balls frequently since then, [20] also hosting [18] and commentating at balls. [26] He began emceeing balls in 2003, [14] and first performed voguing "in front of a big crowd" in 2005 or 2006. [20] Wesley has been a member of a number of houses, including the House of Latex (which he joined in 2000), [20] the House of Evisu, [27] and the House of Lanvin, [28] in which he was a father. [29] [18] He is the founder [30] and father [31] of the House of Basquiat, which debuted on the second season of Legendary in 2021. [32] Along with the House of Garçons, he was featured in the 2023 Capital Pride parade in Washington, D.C. [33] [34]
He is a ballroom legend [35] and received icon status in 2018. [36]
In 2009, Wesley competed on the fourth season [37] of America's Best Dance Crew as a member of the group Vogue Evolution. [38] In 2013, he appeared as a dancer [39] on Hit the Floor . [40] In 2015, Wesley appeared in the film Magic Mike XXL , [41] for which he also instructed Channing Tatum in voguing. [42] Later that year he was an ensemble member in The Wiz Live! [43] Wesley played Shadow Wintour (also known as Shadow Khan) [44] in seasons two [45] and three of Pose on FX. [20] In 2020, he was announced as the host of the HBO Max ballroom competition series Legendary , [46] and served as host and MC [47] over the show’s three seasons. [3] In 2022, he was featured in Billy Porter's [48] performance at the BET Awards. [49] In 2024, Wesley hosted the Revry show The Halloween Ball with Jack Mizrahi. [50]
In 2013, Wesley was featured as a dancer in the music video for Fergie's song "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)". [51] In 2015, he performed as a vogue dancer [52] and commentator for FKA Twigs' show "Congregata". [25] Wesley was a dancer for Rihanna's 2016 Anti World Tour [53] and featured in Teyana Taylor's 2018 K.T.S.E. tour. [54] He also appeared in the music video for Taylor's song "Work this Pussy". [36]
Wesley is a member of MikeQ's label Qween Beat [55] [13] and was featured on the track "Walk" on its 2016 collection Qweendom. [56] In 2023, he was featured on the song "Giant Bird in a Man Suit" on the cast recording of the off-Broadway musical Lewberger: The Wizard of Friendship. [57] In 2024, Wesley released the song "Ovah the Top" featuring 808 BEACH and Kiwi Dreams. [58] Later that year he was featured on the vogue remix of "Crazy" by Le Sserafim. [59]