RuPaul
RuPaul, born RuPaul Andre Charles on November 17, 1960, in San Diego, California, is a prominent openly gay performer known for his striking presence and charisma, standing at six feet, seven inches tall. He rose to fame as a drag performer and has significantly influenced the acceptance of alternative lifestyles in American society. RuPaul's career began in the mid-1980s as he performed in New York City, eventually gaining recognition through public-access television and the 1993 hit single "Supermodel (You Better Work)." He achieved further acclaim as the host of the talk show *The RuPaul Show* and starred in various films and television series throughout the 1990s.
In 2009, he launched the reality competition series *RuPaul's Drag Race*, which became a cultural phenomenon, earning him numerous Emmy Awards and generating several successful spin-offs. RuPaul has also made significant contributions to the music industry with multiple albums and collaborations, including a duet with Elton John. Beyond entertainment, he has been an advocate for the LGBTQ community, receiving the GLAAD award for his impact on representation. RuPaul married painter Georges LeBar in 2017, continuing to be a prominent figure in both the entertainment industry and LGBTQ advocacy.
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Subject Terms
RuPaul
Drag Performer
- Born: November 17, 1960
- Place of Birth: San Diego, California
RuPaul is an openly gay performer whose good looks and friendly persona in an astounding frame (six feet, seven inches) made him hard to ignore. His talent as a performer and his charisma promoted a successful career on television, in films, and in other entertainment venues, helping to make alternative lifestyles more acceptable to American society.
Drag Performer. RuPaul Andre Charles was born on November 17, 1960, in San Diego, California. He grew up with three sisters and, from a young age, would dress in their clothes and emulate famous women such as Diana Ross. His parents divorced when he was seven, and he moved from San Diego to Atlanta at age fifteen with his sister and her husband. He attended Northside School of Performing Arts and made regular appearances on local television and in clubs with different bands. He moved to New York City in the mid-1980s and became a popular drag performer. He was named "Queen of Manhattan" in 1989. In the early 1990s, he began performing on public-access television on a Channel 4 series Manhattan Cable. In 1993, he got a recording contract with Tommy Boy Records. His first album, Supermodel of the World (1993), had a hit single,“Supermodel (You Better Work),” whose music video was nominated for Best Dance Video at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards. Other records and videos included “Back to My Roots” and “A Shade Shady (Now Prance),” hits on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts. He recorded a hit duet of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with the British singer Elton John. RuPaul’s music and his “love everyone” attitude made him easy to promote not only as a drag queen but also as a singer and actor.
Between 1993 and 1999, RuPaul acted, sometimes in drag, in various television shows and films: Veronica’s Closet; Walker, Texas Ranger; Sabrina, the Teenage Witch; Nash Bridges; Saturday Night Live; Crooklyn (1994); The Brady Bunch Movie (1995); and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995). In 1996, he hosted a talk show on VH1 that lasted three seasons, The RuPaul Show, with celebrity interviews and musical acts. He continued recording albums, including a 1997 Christmas album titled Ho, Ho, Ho.
RuPaul created his “Glamazon Look” with the help of a makeup artist and a costumer. Having a good fashion sense, he knew what looked good for him. He became the “First Face of MAC” spokesperson for Make-up Art Cosmetics in 1998, and his face and full-drag figure graced billboards. With RuPaul’s help, the company raised millions of dollars for its AIDS fund. In 1999, he received the Vito Russo Entertainer of the Year Award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) media awards. His autobiography, Lettin’ It All Hang Out, came out in 1995, selling more than 400,000 copies on Amazon alone.
RuPaul continued to record albums in the early 2000s, such as Red Hot (2004) and Reworked (2006), but otherwise, his career hit a lull. He released his second book, Workin' It!: RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style, in 2006. His career turned around in 2009 when the reality show RuPaul's Drag Race premiered on Logo TV. The reality show features a number of drag queens competing in various performances and challenges. The show proved a major success and earned RuPaul the 2016 Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program. By 2021, RuPaul had broken the record for most Emmy Awards won by a person of color. Between hosting awards and nominations for the show itself, RuPaul's Drag Race had earned fourteen Emmy Awards by 2023. The show continued winning awards, including the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Competition Program in 2024. The show has also created several spin-offs, like All Stars, RuPaul's Drag-U, and RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race. Since the start of the show, he has released a number of additional albums, including Glamazon (2011), Born Naked (2014), Realness (2015), American (2017), and Mamaru (2022).
After hosting the short-lived game show Gay for Pay (2016–17), RuPaul appeared in a number of television shows, including in a recurring role on the Netflix original series Girlboss (2017) and guest roles on comedies like Broad City (2017) and Grace and Frankie (2019). In 2019, he premiered the daytime talk show RuPaul, though the show only lasted one season. In the third decade of the twenty-first century, RuPaul continued with multiple ventures in the business and entertainment industries. In 2020, he served as cocreator and star of the Netflix original series AJ and the Queen, which ran for ten episodes before Netflix canceled the show after its first season. RuPaul released his fourth book and first memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings, in 2024.
Impact
RuPaul won the 1999 GLAAD award for his success as an openly gay entertainer who furthered understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community through his work. With his many talents, he showed a slowly changing society that alternative lifestyles were not threatening and that LGBTQ individuals could make valued contributions to society. In March 2018, RuPaul was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
RuPaul married his longtime partner, painter Georges LeBar, in 2017.
Bibliography
Feinberg, Leslie. Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
Jung, E. Alex. "Real Talk with RuPaul." Vulture. New York Media, 23 Mar. 2016. Web. 23 June 2016.
"RuPaul." IMDb, 2023, www.imdb.com/name/nm0750412/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.
RuPaul. Lettin’ It All Hang Out. New York: Hyperion, 1995.
RuPaul. "RuPaul Opens Up in New Memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings." Interview by Robin Roberts. Good Morning America, 4 Mar. 2024, ww.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/video/rupaul-opens-new-memoir-house-hidden-meanings-107766858. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
Shepherd, Julianne Escobedo. "RuPaul Runs the World." Spin. SpinMedia Group, 1 Apr. 2013. Web. 23 June 2016.
Tangcay, Jazz, and Andrew Wallenstein. “RuPaul Breaks Record for the Most Emmy Wins by a Person of Color.” Variety, 19 Sept. 2021, variety.com/2021/tv/awards/rupaul-person-of-color-most-emmys-1235067923/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.