RuPaul’s Drag Race has introduced audiences to drag queens for sixteen seasons as they compete for the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar.” Hosted by its namesake, RuPaul’s Drag Race has given rise to several spin-off shows and numerous international series.
RuPaul’s Drag Race, the show that started it all, features RuPaul and other judges who decide the winner of a maxi-challenge each week. Maxi-challenges assess contestants’ skills in areas of drag performance like singing and acting. Additional mini-challenges further put contestants to the test, ultimately paving the way for Ru Paul’s Drag Race to award its coveted crown.
The notoriety of appearing on Ru Paul’s Drag Race has changed the lives of countless contestants, especially the winners. Here’s what the first five Drag Race winners have been up to since they took home the ultimate prize.
5 Season Five: Jinkx Monsoon
After winning Drag Race season five in 2013, Jinkx Monsoon appeared in Season 7 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race All Stars. Monsoon won that season in 2022, taking home the title “Queen of All Queens.”
Monsoon appeared in several stage productions in Seattle before and after her first Drag Race appearance. She released her debut studio album, The Inevitable Album, in May 2014. Her second album, The Ginger Snapped, preceded her first Broadway role in Chicago in 2022. Monsoon played Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors in 2024 after touring her own show, “Jinkx Monsoon: Everything at Stake,” and the annual “Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show” in 2023.
Monsoon has appeared on television shows like Dr. Who and lent her voice to animated projects. After marrying partner Michael Abbott in 2021, the couple separated in February 2024.
4 Season Four: Sharon Needles
Fan favorite and Drag Race stand-out, Needles followed her win in 2012 by posing for PETA and hosting the horror series FEARce! Needles channeled her characteristic ghoulish persona into her studio albums PG-13 and Taxidermy, released in 2013 and 2015, respectively. She also appeared in stage productions of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Silence of the Trans” and has millions of views on her YouTube content.
Needles was the subject of controversy for using racist language as well as for abuse of minors. One of Needles’ fans, Annecy, said the drag star (born Aaron Coady) violated their physical and emotional boundaries during a meet and greet. Needles’ representatives issued a statement asserting:
She vehemently denied the allegations against her and is prepared to defend herself against this individual to the fullest extent possible.
In 2023, a former Drag Race producer (who remained anonymous, had been recently fired, and used Reddit as a forum) said that Needles was “100 percent banned” from the Drag Race universe.
3 Season Three: Raja Gemini
As another winner of an early Drag Race season, Raja Gemini also appeared in RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars seventh season, where they won the title “Queen Of She Done Already Done Had Herses.” Raja found going back to Drag Race to be challenging but validating, too:
It felt validating, first of all, and it also felt very redeeming, like I was able to go there and showcase something, showcase the evolution that an artist should have,
In the years between winning season three in 2011, Raja released several singles, had a weekly series on YouTube called Fashion Photo RuView, and appeared in campaigns for Diesel and Urban Decay.
Like many Drag Race alums, Raja has made television appearances after appearing on the reality series. In 2018, Raja voiced a character on The Simpsons as Sutan Amrullah (their birth name):
In 2017, Raja married Ryan Turner in a surprise wedding in California.
2 Season Two: Tyra Sanchez, Now King Tyra
James William Ross IV won Season 2 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race as Tyra Sanchez, who also goes by King Tyra. The reality show winner released several singles in the years after his win. A subsequent EP called Dear Drag Race Fans Book I from Ross recounted the drama between him and fellow drag queen Morgan McMichaels from 2017.
Ross withdrew from the public until 2019, emerging to apologize for his poor behavior from the previous years. Retirement in 2020 was followed by a return to drag in 2022. In 2023, Ross was arrested for resisting a police officer after a car accident in Florida. According to the authorities:
He came out and was in his little outfit, and he had the police sign, hanging it up and showing and dancing… He was in a little G-string with a black bra on. It still was within the ‘freedom of speech’ category. The problem we had was it was in an intersection within a construction zone, but it wasn’t really causing a traffic problem.
The same disgruntled one-time Drag Race producer said Ross was banned from any of the spinoffs or franchises. Ross made it clear in May 2024 that fans needed to stop asking about any return to Drag Race because he claimed the show “abused and misused me.”
1 Season One: BeBe Zahara Benet
BeBe Zahara Benet won the debut season of Drag Race while simultaneously showing the world that individuals of color could thrive in drag. As Benet noted in 2017 to Vanity Fair, there are drawbacks to being the first winner of Drag Race:
You don’t see a lot of the Season 1 girls working, because a lot of the fans don’t even know [them]. It’s just so sad that a lot of people don’t still know who we are. It really is sad.
Benet continued working, however. Born in Cameroon as Nea Marshall Kudi Ngwa, Benet returned to Drag Race as a Drag Race All Stars contestant and as a “professor” on the short-lived RuPaul’s Drag U.
Benet appeared on the benefit show called Queens United in 2017 as part of the effort to support Puerto Ricans affected by Hurricane Maria. He also recorded several singles and was showcased in a documentary called Being Bebe in 2021.Ngwa co-owns a “decor, design, and event planning” company in Minneapolis called Lavish Labs when not performing.
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