Drag Race winners

What are all the winners of RuPaul’s Drag Race up to now?

Raja starred in The Simpsons


After 13 seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, five seasons of All Stars and several global franchise spin offs, it’s easy to lose track of what all the winners have been up to since they took home a crown.

Here’s a round up of what the winning queens have been doing with their careers since winning the competition and completing their reign.

Bebe Zahara Benet (Season One)

Bebe, the first ever winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, first took home the crown back in 2009.

Since then, she has appeared on numerous TV shows, including RuPaul’s Drag U and is the only queen of the Drag Race winners to return for a second crown in All Stars 3 where she reached the top four. She’s been the star of two documentaries about her life, the latest is called Being Bebe and came out this year.

She’s been releasing numerous singles and EPs on the music side of things, and co-produced and created the touring drag show Nubia, celebrating black excellence in drag and featuring her fellow Drag Race stars Bob The Drag Queen, Peppermint, Shea Couleé, The Vixen and Monique Hart.

Tyra Sanchez (Season Two)

The controversial winner of season two has, as of March 2020, retired from drag. She is the only one out of the Drag Race winners to no longer perform in drag.

This was following numerous controversies from Tyra on social media. Tyra first faced backlash for calling victims of suicide “selfish cowards”. In 2017, she posted a false obituary for fellow season two queen Morgan McMichaels that linked to Tyra’s Soundcloud.

In 2018, Tyra made threats that violence would be going down at DragCon, which she was then permanently banned from on the grounds of terrorism. Tyra’s website had had a timer on it to the DragCon date titled “B.O.O.M.”

Raja (Season Three)

Since winning, Raja has never left the Drag Race spotlight thanks to the hugely popular and highly watched webshow Fashion Photo RuView she hosts with Raven, where they toot and boot the looks from episodes of Drag Race and from queens’ instagrams.

As well as this, Raja has appeared in Blondie’s music video for their single Fun back in 2017 and in an episode of The Simpsons.

Sharon Needles (Season Four)

Sharon Needles took the crown home back in 2012, and since then her native town of Pittsburgh has officially named June 12th “Sharon Needles Day”!

Sharon has been very focussed on her music and touring, with three albums under her belt now including 2013’s PG-13, 2015’s Taxidermy and then Battle Axe in 2017.

Jinkx Monsoon (Season Five)

Jinkx has had a widely successful career since winning Drag Race.

She has toured the world with her one woman show The Vaudevillians, has collaborated numerous times in theatre residencies with fellow Seattle based queen BenDeLaCreme, has released two albums and starred alongside RuPaul in his Netflix show AJ and the Queen.

Bianca Del Rio (Season Six)

Bianca has had major success since she took home the Drag Race crown.

She had a full feature film centred around a fictional version of her that was a cult hit titled Hurricane Bianca. The film got a sequel in 2018.

She’s toured the globe with her comedy shows and became the first drag queen EVER to headline Wembley Arena in 2019.

Violet Chachki (Season Seven)

Violet has been huge in the fashion world since establishing herself and winning season seven of Drag Race in 2015.

She’s walked for Moschino in 2015, and attended the Met Gala for Camp: Notes on Fashion in 2019, becoming one of the first drag queens to ever get an invite.

She’s been releasing music too and performing her aerial loop acrobatics in shows produced by legendary burlesque artist Dita Von Teese.

Bob The Drag Queen (Season Eight)

Bob has been a fan favourite since winning season eight and is constantly at the forefront of online Drag Race culture.

They’ve starred in numerous TV shows including Tales of the City and hosts We’re Here on HBO alongside Eureka and Shangela.

Bob set up a Podcast named Sibling Rivalry with fellow winner and good friend Monet X Change back in 2018, which is hugely popular in the Drag Race community.

Sasha Velour (Season Nine)

Sasha has been creating nonstop since her win in 2017.

She created and expanded her drag nightlife review NightGowns that thrives in New York City and had her own New York Fashion Week show that she produced and featured 40+ LGBTQ+ models of her choosing and had a surprise performance from Christina Aguilera in it.

Sasha also is the editor a drag magazine called Velour.

Aquaria (Season 10)

Aquaria has made absolute waves in the fashion world  compared to other Drag Race winners since her season 10 win.

She’s worked with the likes of Rihanna, Vogue Italia, Moschino and H&M – including a signing to IMG Models.

Yvie Oddly (Season 11)

Yvie has been very vocal since winning about her background and beliefs regarding the expectations put on her fashion-wise as a winner, which she deems classist and has continued to go against the grain with what’s expected from a winner with her looks.

She has thrived in live shows like the Werq The World tour and got a coveted roll in RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Vegas residency, which got a reality tv documentary spin off. She also returned during All Stars 5 as a lip-sync assassin.

Jaida Essence Hall (Season 12)

Jaida’s win occurred mid 2020 in the height of the pandemic, and as such hasn’t had much chance to do the big stuff previous winners have achieved.

Despite this, she has starred in the music video for Legends Never Die by gay country singer Orville Peck and Shania Twain, and has worked with Rihanna in her acclaimed Savage X Fenty show in October 2020.

Symone (Season 13)

With Symone only just winning Drag Race in April 2021, her legacy is still being made!

Since winning, she has done Pride campaigns with SKYY Vodka alongside German pop star Kim Petras.

Chad Michaels (All Stars 1)

Since Chad won the first ever season of All Stars, she has been solidifying herself as THEE queen of celebrity impersonations.

She’s featured as Cher in numerous TV shows since winning, including Jane The Virgin and 2 Broke Girls. She’s also starred as Cher alongside Farrah Moan as Christina Aguilera in a theatrical tribute to Burlesque.

Alaska (All Stars 2)

Alaska has worked prolifically since winning All Stars 2.

She has got an established podcast with Willam called Race Chaser, that is extremely popular in the Drag Race community. She starred on the reality show Scared Famous on VH1, has released some of the most popular Drag Race music across her albums and has set up her own pageant.

Trixie Mattel (All Stars 3)

Trixie is arguably the most famous winner of Drag Race these days, and is a huge fan favourite.

She’s stayed consistently acclaimed for her webshow UNHhhh that she stars in with best friend and season seven queen Katya. The show is incredibly popular and got a TV show adaptation on Viceland. She has launched her own makeup line too, named Trixie Cosmetics.

She is the star of the award winning documentary Moving Parts. It’s on Netflix, and is a must-see for Drag Race fans.

Trixie’s music career has been thriving, and she’s recently released a single with Orville Peck.

Monet X Change and Trinity The Tuck (All Stars 4)

Monet has thrived since Drag Race, with her hugely popular podcast she shares with Bob and with her touring of her one woman shows.

She has guested on The View, released her own music prolifically and appeared on RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race as a mentor.

Trinity has hosted her own drag competition on Twitch and notably starred in Taylor Swift’s music video for You Need To Calm Down, which won a VMA and got Trinity her very own engraved Moon Man award.

Shea Couleé (All Stars 5)

Shea has only recently won her crown, but has announced she has been working on a new album.

She’s appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair and has been signed up to United Talent Agency.

The Vivienne (Drag Race UK S1)

Since The Viv won Drag Race UK, she’s been a Drag Race winner who hasn’t stopped in Britain.

Like many of her competitors, she’s guested on many shows including Celebrity Juice. She has also been working on releasing music, her latest single Bitch On Heels was penned by hitmaker Diane Warren.

Priyanka (Canada’s Drag Race S1)

Priyanka has been smashing it since winning, and has become the first contestant of Indo-Caribbean descent to win the show.

She has hosted Pride Toronto and will be heading drag music festival Drag Fest in 2021.

Lawrence Chaney (Drag Race UK S2)

Lawrence has only just won Drag Race, but has become one of the most loved winners yet with his Scottish charm and wit.

Due to the pandemic, Lawrence hasn’t had much time to shine yet. So far, he’s been a panelist for Student Pride UK and has starred alongside season one winner The Vivienne in Netflix’s popular webshow Queens Who Like To Watch.

Recommended stories by this writer:

• Drag Race Down Under: Crown Kita Mean if you want to bother with a second season

• A scientifically correct ranking of every rusical from RuPaul’s Drag Race

• The ultimate ranking of every season of RuPaul’s Drag Race