RuPaul Andre Charles is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, singer, producer, and writer. He produces, hosts, and judges the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race and has received several accolades, including 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, three GLAAD Media Awards, a Critics' Choice Television Award, two Billboard Music Awards, and a Tony Award. He has been dubbed the "Queen of Drag" and is considered the most commercially successful drag queen in the United States, with Fortune saying that he is "easily the world's most famous drag queen."
Lady Bunny, originally known as "Bunny Hickory Dickory Dock", is an American drag queen, nightclub DJ, actor, comedian, and event organizer. She is the founder of the annual Wigstock event, as well as an occasional television and radio personality. She has released disco singles such as "Shame, Shame, Shame!" and "The Pussycat Song", and has hosted two one-woman comedy shows, 'That Ain't No Lady!' and 'Clowns Syndrome'.
Supermodel of the World is the debut studio album by American singer and drag queen RuPaul, released on June 8, 1993, by Tommy Boy Records. It is his second album overall, his first release being a soundtrack album. With the release of the Supermodel of the World album, RuPaul obtained higher celebrity status, notably due to the album's first single, "Supermodel ". Before the release of this album, he had done some modeling work as a drag queen, hence the album title.
Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of the American educator Booker T. Washington (1856–1915). The book describes his experience of working to rise up from being enslaved as a child during the Civil War, the obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton Institute, and his work establishing vocational schools like the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to help Black people and other persecuted people of color learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of teachers and philanthropists who helped educate Black and Native Americans. He describes his efforts to instill manners, breeding, health and dignity into students. His educational philosophy stresses combining academic subjects with learning a trade. Washington explained that the integration of practical subjects is partly designed to "reassure the White community of the usefulness of educating Black people".
RuPaul is: Starbooty! is a 1987 low-budget underground film trilogy starring and co-produced by a then-unknown drag queen, RuPaul. Because it was produced on a very low budget, various posters, advertisements and video covers alternate the spelling between "Starbooty" and "Starrbooty".
"Supermodel (You Better Work)" is a song by American dance music singer and drag queen RuPaul. It was released as a double A-sided single alongside "House of Love" in November 1992. The song served as the lead single from his debut major label album, Supermodel of the World. The song became a dance club anthem that, though particularly popular within the gay handbag house scene, found mainstream success. The song consists of RuPaul giving advice to a young black supermodel, and briefly several other models, largely consisting of "sashay, shantay!", "work, turn to the left", "work, now turn to the right", and "you better work". The music video for the song, featuring RuPaul in various outfits cavorting around town, became a staple on MTV. Singer Kurt Cobain of Nirvana cited the song as one of his favorites of 1993, and the two were photographed together at the MTV Video Music Awards that year.
Starrbooty is a 2007 film written by and starring drag queen RuPaul. It is the fourth in a series of films starring the title character, a top secret government agent and supermodel. The original three films were all made in the mid-1980s by RuPaul and his friends with a budget of around $100, and were sold out of shopping carts around gay bars in Atlanta, Georgia.
David Petruschin, best known as Raven, is an American drag queen, make-up artist, and reality television personality from Riverside, California. Raven was a fixture in the Southern California nightclub scene before gaining international prominence for appearing in both the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race and the first season of All Stars. Raven placed as the runner-up on both seasons. Petruschin has been RuPaul's makeup artist since Drag Race's ninth season and has since become a creative producer of both RuPaul’s Drag Race and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. For his make-up work on the show, Petruschin received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Makeup for a Multi-Camera Series or Special (Non-Prosthetic) in 2020.
Antoine Ashley, better known by the name Sahara Davenport, was an American drag queen, singer, reality television personality, and classically trained dancer. Davenport was best known as a contestant on the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race.
How Music Works is a non-fiction book by David Byrne, a musician, composer, and writer best known for his work with the group Talking Heads. He discusses the form and influence of music in a non-linear narrative fashion, using a variety of experiences from his career to create something part autobiography and part music theory. The book was published through McSweeney's on September 12, 2012, and was named as one of Amazon.com's "Best Books of the Month" in that same month. It has received mainly positive reviews.
Michael W. Feliciano, known by their stage name Roxxxy Andrews, is an American drag performer who came to international attention for being a contestant on the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.
No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel is an autobiography by fashion model, photographer, author and talent agent Janice Dickinson. It was published in hardcover format in 2002 by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins. The author's friend make-up artist Way Bandy advised her to begin putting her past experiences down on paper as a form of therapy from prior trauma in her life. After gaining sobriety, she started compiling her notes into book format. She contacted book publisher Judith Regan who agreed to help her publish her book after hearing her tale on the phone, without first seeing a writing sample. In November 2014, Dickinson asserted in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that pressure from Bill Cosby and his lawyers resulted in the removal of an account of sexual assault and rape by Cosby when she visited him at a hotel in Lake Tahoe, California in 1982. After Cosby's attorney disputed this account, she reappeared on the program to proclaim she was telling the truth and explained she was speaking out publicly because of a need to be heard and to represent other women who stated they experienced a similar trauma.
Chapters from My Autobiography are 25 pieces of autobiographical work published by American author Mark Twain in the North American Review between September 1906 and December 1907. Rather than following the standard form of an autobiography, they comprise a rambling collection of anecdotes and ruminations. Much of the text was dictated.
Joshua Jamal Jones, better known by the stage name Trinity Kardashian Bonét, is an American drag queen, performer, celebrity impersonator, actor and singer who came to international attention on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2014. Bonet released her first single, "I'm a Drag Queen" on September 6, 2017, and the accompanying music video was later released on October, 18. On May 26, 2021, she was announced as part of the cast for RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 6 alongside 12 other contestants.
Pierre Leverne Dease, better known by the stage name Nina Bo'nina Brown, is an American drag queen and television personality best known for starring on the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, where she placed sixth.
The American Music Show is a weekly public access variety television program, produced from 1981 to 2005 in Atlanta, Georgia by Dick Richards, James Bond, Potsy Duncan, and Bud "Beebo" Lowry. It aired on People TV and featured drag and musical performances, parodic sketch comedy, interviews, and reports from around Atlanta. The show became very influential in Atlanta's queer subculture, and due to its longevity, it has been described as "one of the most thorough archives of queer Atlanta history." RuPaul also made frequent appearances on the show.
GuRu is a 2018 autobiography and life guide from American drag queen and entrepreneur RuPaul. Released in October 2018 by HarperCollins, with a foreword by actress and author Jane Fonda, included are quotes, phrases, advice and insight to help readers navigate the “chaos of modern life”, such as self-love, harnessing one’s inner critic, and finding your tribe. Her previous books were Lettin' It All Hang Out (1995), an autobiography, and Workin' It! RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style (2010).
Bimini Bon-Boulash is the stage name of Thomas George Graeme Hibbitts, an English drag queen, author, recording artist and model based in East London, and born in Great Yarmouth, England. They are best known for competing on the second series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, where they placed as a runner-up.
George Ward, better known by the stage name Cherry Valentine, was an English drag queen and mental health nurse who competed in the second series of the television show RuPaul's Drag Race UK. Raised in a Romanichal community, Ward has been credited as the first contestant on the Drag Race franchise to acknowledge his Romani heritage. In 2022, he addressed his background in the BBC documentary film Cherry Valentine: Gypsy Queen and Proud, and in an episode of the documentary series God Shave the Queens. Following Ward's suicide in 2022, a memorial concert and fundraiser was held at London's Clapham Grand.
Joseph Lewis Black is a British musician and drag queen from Brighton, England. He is best known for competing on the second series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK and getting eliminated first and fifth, after being voted back on to the show in episode five.
