RuPaul Andre Charles is an American drag queen, actor, model, singer, songwriter, and television personality. Since 2009, he has produced and hosted the reality competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race, for which he has received eight Primetime Emmy Awards. As an actor, RuPaul has made appearances in films including Crooklyn, The Brady Bunch Movie, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, But I’m a Cheerleader, Hurricane Bianca, and the Comedy Central series Broad City. He has also played male roles and makes public appearances in male and female drag.
About RuPaul in brief
RuPaul Andre Charles is an American drag queen, actor, model, singer, songwriter, and television personality. Since 2009, he has produced and hosted the reality competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race, for which he has received eight Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2017, he was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In June 2019, his daytime talk show RuPaul premiered, which was cancelled after a three-week test run. As an actor, RuPaul has made appearances in films including Crooklyn, The Brady Bunch Movie, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, But I’m a Cheerleader, Hurricane Bianca, and the Comedy Central series Broad City. He has also played male roles and makes public appearances in male and female drag. RuPaul is indifferent to gender-specific pronouns about him, writing: “You can call me he. You can call her she. I don’t care! Just as long as you call me.’” He was named by his mother, Ernestine “Toni” Charles, a Louisiana native; Ru in his name came from roux which is the term for the base of gumbo and other creole stews and soups. His ancestors were likely former slaves; his Global Ancestry Composition is 70% African, and 30% European. He was born in San Diego and later moved to Atlanta to study performing arts. He settled in New York City where he became a popular fixture on the nightclub scene.
In the early 1990s, he worked the Georgia club scene and was known by his full birth name. He appeared for many years at the annual dragstock festival Wigstock. He played opposite Mona Foote in the one-act science-fiction parody film Homo Homo: The Movie. He also performed as an extra in the 1989 extra in Love Shack with drag queen Vaginal Davis. In 1994, he became the first drag queen to land a major cosmetics campaign with MAC Cosmetics, raising money for the Mac AIDS Fund and becoming a spokesperson for the MAC AIDS Fund. In 1999, he received his own talk show on VH1, The RuPaul Show, which he hosted for over 100 episodes, while co-hosting the morning radio show on WKTU with Michelle Visage. He has had continued success as a recording artist, releasing 14 studio albums to date, including Foxy Lady, Ho Ho Ho, Champion, Glamazon, and Born Naked. He also has published three books: Lettin’ It All Hang Out, Workin’ It! RuPaul’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style, and GuRu. He is also featured as a host on series such as Skin Wars, Good Work, and Gay for Play Game Show Starring RuPaul. In 1989, he debuted on an Atlanta public access variety show called The American Music Show, in which he made frequent appearances.
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This page is based on the article RuPaul published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
