RuPaul

RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960) 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 14 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."

Born and raised in San Diego, RuPaul later studied performing arts in Atlanta, before relocating to New York City, where he became a popular fixture on the LGBT nightclub scene. He achieved international fame as a drag queen with the release of his debut single, "Supermodel (You Better Work)", which was included on his debut studio album Supermodel of the World (1993). RuPaul became a spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics in 1994, raising money for the Mac AIDS Fund and becoming the first drag queen to land a major cosmetics campaign. He later received his own television talk show on VH1 titled The RuPaul Show (1996–1998), while co-hosting the morning radio show on WKTU with Michelle Visage.

RuPaul's Drag Race was created in 2009 and has gone on to produce fifteen seasons in the United States. The show has also seen success internationally. There are several international variants of the show, including RuPaul's Drag Race UK (2019–present) and Canada's Drag Race (2020–present). This has also inspired several spin-offs of the main show, including RuPaul's Drag U (2010–2012), RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, (2012–present), and RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race (2020–2022). He has also featured as a host on other reality series, such as Skin Wars (2014–2016), Good Work (2015), and Gay for Play Game Show Starring RuPaul (2016–2017).

RuPaul has made appearances in films, including Crooklyn (1994), The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), and But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), as well as television series, including Girlboss (2017), Broad City (2017), and Grace and Frankie (2019). He created and starred in his own Netflix original series AJ and the Queen (2020). RuPaul has also published three books: Lettin' It All Hang Out (1995), Workin' It! RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style (2010) and GuRu (2018). As a recording artist, he has released fifteen studio albums. He received a Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer for the musical A Strange Loop (2019).