RuPaul’s Drag Race Queens: 10 Best Movies & TV Shows Featuring Them

It’s been a long time coming for RuPaul’s Drag Race to go fully mainstream, but the franchise is finally enjoying an all-time high success when it comes to ratings, Emmy awards, and overall pop culture significance. With so much acclaim attached to the series, it comes as no surprise that its contestants are also becoming Hollywood superstars on their own terms, just like RuPaul.

While many Drag Race queens decided to venture into the music industry after their time in the franchise, other contestants decided to focus on TV shows and movies, sometimes even developing their very own projects. Read below to find out some of the best films and television series that heavily feature queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race.

10 HURRICANE BIANCA

2016’s Hurricane Bianca, along with its 2018 sequel Hurricane Bianca: From Russia With Hate, is one of the most noteworthy projects starring former Drag Race contestants. Starring Bianca Del Rio in and out of drag, these fun comedies also featured Hollywood A-listers such as Margaret Cho, Cheyenne Jackson, Rachel Dratch, Wanda Sykes, and even RuPaul himself.

Besides Bianca Del Rio, the Hurricane Bianca franchise also brought on other Drag Race contestants to star in the film, including Shangela, Willam, Katya, Alyssa Edwards, Kasha Davis, and Joslyn Fox. With such a stacked line-up of Ru Girls, these are certainly must-see films for fans of the Drag Race franchise.

9 SUPER DRAGS

The connections between Super Drags and RuPaul’s Drag Race are so tight, many fans have come to believe that the animated series was directly linked to the reality competition. However, that is not the case. Super Drags is an original Netflix animated series that was developed by a studio in Brazil. In the U.S. voice cast, the show features Drag Race alum Shangela, Ginger Minj, Trixie Mattel, and Willam.

Despite being a fun, colorful animated project featuring drag queens as superheroes, Super Drags was not picked up for a second season on Netflix. With that said, the first season remains available for streaming and is a must-see for fans of the Drag Race franchise.

8 TALES OF THE CITY

The Netflix miniseries Tales of the City premiered in 2019 and told the story of various LGBTQ characters residing in San Francisco. The cast featured not only Laura Linney, Ellen Page, and Murray Bartlett, but also Drag Race season 8 winner Bob The Drag Queen in a recurring role as Ida Best.

Throughout the series, Bob The Drag Queen’s character interacted with Ellen Page’s character the most, prompting the actors to become very friendly during the shoots. What’s more, Tales of the City also briefly featured season 7 and All-Stars 2 contestant Katya and season 11 queen Shuga Cain in one of the episodes.

7 DRAG ME DOWN THE AISLE

Featuring RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Alexis Michelle, Thorgy Thor, BeBe Zahara Benet, and Jujubee, TLC’s Drag Me Down The Aisle has a simple premise: what happens when a bride trusts a bunch of drag queens to throw her wedding?

Despite the fact that we’re still waiting on news regarding whether Drag Me Down The Aisle will have more episodes, this show is certainly a feast for Drag Race fans to be a part of. What’s more, it is a huge achievement for these queens to have landed a series on a major cable network such as TLC.

6 DANCING QUEEN

The 2018 original Netflix docu-series Dancing Queen followed none other than Alyssa Edwards in her day-to-day life as the owner of a dance studio and worldwide drag queen superstar. This series was produced by World of Wonder, the production company behind everything RuPaul’s Drag Race, including RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars and Drag U.

It comes as no surprise that Dancing Queen is an incredible project that follows the life of one of the most iconic Drag Race contestants of all time. On the show, Alyssa Edwards is her usual fun, tough, and quirky self, but also shows a vulnerable side as she explores her family struggles, overcomes the obstacles of owning a business, and even achieves homeownership.

5 DUMPLIN’

Dumplin’ is a Netflix original film based on Julie Murphy’s novel of the same name. Released in 2018, the film stars Jennifer Aniston, Danielle Macdonald, and Odeya Rush, and heavily features the music of Dolly Parton. For Drag Race fans, here is the pull: the movie heavily features season 7 and All-Stars 2 alumni Ginger Minj as one of the drag queens who are responsible for the main character’s overall transformation.

Portraying a drag queen named Candee Disch, Ginger Minj is definitely a significant part of Dumplin’ – not a mere feature that bears no importance in the plot. The film’s storyline that takes place in a drag bar is so important that Julie Murphy, the novel’s author, even makes a cameo appearance there.

4 HEY QWEEN

For fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Hey Qween is the equivalent of The Tonight Show. There is simply no other talk show as big as Hey Qween for Drag Race judges and alum to sit and talk about their experiences in and out of the show. After so many years of streaming on YouTube, this talk show led by Jonny McGovern and Lady Red Couture is now on Netflix’s catalog around the world.

The most popular segment of Hey Qween, titled “Look At Huh!,” has in many ways become as big as the show itself. So much so that the “Look At Huh!” segments stream separately from Hey Qween on Netflix. If you’re looking for RuPaul’s Drag Race queens spilling some tea and throwing a little shade, this is the show for you.

3 THE TRIXIE & KATYA SHOW

Season 7 alum Trixie Mattel and Katya have had a huge success after their time on the show, and that’s not just talking about their respective times on All-Stars 2 and All-Stars 3. Instead, Katya and Trixie are responsible for UNHhhh, the most-watched series produced by World of Wonder (the production company behind Drag Race) for its streaming service WOW Presents Plus.

The success of UNHhhh took Trixie Mattel and Katya’s careers to new heights, even landing them a talk show on Viceland called The Trixie & Katya Show. While the show only had one season, it certainly solidified these queens’ places on TV, propelling UNHhhh to mainstream audiences. All in all, fans of Drag Race will certainly enjoy watching both UNHhhh and The Trixie & Katya Show.

2 POSE

If you like RuPaul’s Drag Race, it is a no-brainer that you will probably enjoy FX’s Pose. Despite the fact that the two series have wildly different approaches to stories surrounding drag queens, Pose can be just as fabulous and gut-wrenching as Drag Race.

What’s more, Pose features one of the all-time favorite queens to ever be on Drag Race: Jiggly Caliente. Jiggly, who is Bianca Castro out of drag, portrays the recurring character of Veronica on Pose. On the show, Veronica is part of the House of Ferocity, which was founded by Lulu and Candy Ferocity.

1 A STAR IS BORN

Directed by Bradley Cooper and starring Lady Gaga, 2018’s A Star Is Born was the talk of the town during Hollywood’s 2019 award season. Within the Drag Race community, the film was also incredibly exciting because it featured Shangela and Willam as friends and co-workers of Ally, Lady Gaga’s character.

Although brief, Willam and Shangela’s appearance in this A Star Is Born remake had significant weight to it, as it was the very first time that the characters of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga were meeting. The queens bonded with Jack (Cooper’s character), and even flirted a little, bringing him into the world of Ally (Gaga’s character). Later in the movie, they appear once again, this time sending Ally a video message to celebrate her success.

About The Author

Bernardo Sim
(1773 Articles Published)

Bernardo Sim writes about TV shows, queer culture, & Brazilian media. Born and raised in the Amazon, he now lives in South Florida. he/him

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