RuPaul's Drag Race would be nothing without its colorful cast of talented drag queens.
But the big question is: What happens to them after they've sashayed away?
Here's the scoop on what the following Drag Race alums are up to today.
Since winning of Season 3 of Drag Race All Stars, Trixie Mattel has been keeping busy,
especially on her Viceland comedy series, The Trixie & Katya Show, alongside her fellow
drag queen and friend, Katya.
When she's not hilariously talking about anything and everything for the cameras, she's also
found the time for starring in a documentary.
Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts focuses on the more serious side of her life, like her dark
childhood and turbulent friendship with Katya.
Mattel is also a talented folk artist, having released the albums Two Birds in 2017 and
One Stone in 2018.
She spoke to Rolling Stone about how although the albums are related to one another, they're
supposed to be listened to separately, noting,
"It's always been intended that the listener hears them [as] a breakup...The first album
is like, 'Something was done to me, why me, someone hurt me.'
And then One Stone is a lot more mature and it's a lot more like, 'Well maybe the problem
is you, maybe you bring things on yourself.'"
Katya has been spending plenty of time laughing it up with Trixie Mattel on The Trixie & Katya
Show, but it hasn't been all fun and games for her.
In a January 2018 episode of the Whimsically Volatile podcast, she shared that she had
checked herself into rehab.
She's admitted to drug use in the past, so this reveal probably didn't come as too big
of a shock to some fans.
However, the state of exactly how low she went may have been surprising, as she confessed
that she suffered a psychotic breakdown.
"I could not tell what was real…"
"Mm-hm."
"...and what was not real."
"So that would manifest itself how?"
"Layers of self and reality were intermingling."
But through her turbulent time, Katya has thankfully had her closest queens there to
support her.
Trixie Mattel, for one, told Digital Spy,
"It's difficult but if you're somebody's real friend I don't think there's really a flip
side.
It's like any affliction, of course, it's awful but there's no way around it, you just
have to go through it.
It was difficult for us in a professional sense, because we are partners and because
we have obligations to one another."
Like any dedicated diva, though, Katya has jumped back into work, including a 2019 tour
called Help Me I'm Dying, which included comedy, dancing, and even an elaborate violin performance.
Bianca Del Rio won over plenty of fans on her way to taking the crown in Season 6 of
Drag Race.
Since then, she's been tremendously busy, by acting, doing insult comedy, and even writing
a self-help book called Blame It on Bianca Del Rio: The Expert on Nothing with an Opinion
on Everything.
Opening up to Good Morning America, Del Rio bluntly explained,
"Advice is always unwarranted.
People give it to you whether you want it or not.
Especially with social media, people feel the need to tell you or school on you how
your life should be.
But the best advice I think usually doesn't play into effect till later."
With her fame reaching mainstream heights, the acid-tongued Del Rio has been called a
role model by some.
But her response has been to say: Thanks, but no thanks.
She told Digital Spy in 2019,
"I'm a man in a wig who is an entertainer, I'm not a role model.
I don't want that responsibility and how dare anyone put you on that platform…No matter
what I do, you're going to be upset by something.
It's like putting your mother on a pedestal, she may be wonderful but she is going to do
something that will piss you off at some point.
Love her, respect her for who she is."
Season 8 Drag Race winner Bob the Drag Queen has enjoyed being on the big screen since
leaving the show.
She landed a role in the musical comedy flick Cherry Pop, and she dropped her stand-up special,
Bob the Drag Queen: Suspiciously Large Woman.
In 2017, she told LA Weekly about her globetrotting life since slaying Drag Race, revealing,
"I got to travel the world.
Also [I got to] collaborate with other artists, working with queens who I've really admired
for a long time, and getting to travel alongside them was really cool."
In her spare time, Bob also speaks out as a gay rights activist, using her fame to attend
protests and speak to multiple publications.
She talked to LA Weekly about her involvement in a group called Queer Rising, noting,
"They said, 'Do you want to get arrested for your cause?' and I was like, 'Yeah, sure!'
So we blocked traffic in Bryant Park to call attention to marriage inequality.
I wasn't in jail for weeks, I was in jail for like 30 minutes.
I'm not a hero.
At the time I didn't know I was going to be out in 30 minutes.
I was just like whatever happens, happens!"
Although pageant queen Alyssa Edwards hasn't gone all the way in any of her Drag Race appearances,
she's still become a fan favorite and gone on to enjoy a fruitful career.
She's a trained choreographer and dance teacher and the owner of the Beyond Belief Dance Company
in Texas.
She's managed to turn that business into a Netflix show called Dancing Queen, in which
she prepares adorable divas-in-the-making for a dance competition.
What makes Dancing Queen so unique is that it follows Edwards, whose real name is Justin
Johnson, outside of drag, thus giving viewers a perspective on how he blends his two lives
together.
As he once said in an interview,
"I think...it's easier for me, because I have a whole other life.
I do my shows and my touring, and I kind of go home.
Alyssa stays up in her room, and I put on my dance-teacher hat."
Besides dominating TV screens, Edwards has also ensured that she's on our laptops as
well.
Her web series Alyssa's Secret covers topics ranging from Tinder dating to ebola.
"You're a shady-ass queen, Ms. Ebola."
With her defined cheekbones and legs for days, Raja took the Drag Race Season 3 crown, becoming
the first and thus far only Asian-American winner of the series.
She talked with Diesel about what her life has been like since winning, revealing,
"When Drag Race happened for me, I was sort of at my wits' end...I felt like I needed
to concentrate on being a great makeup artist, and put the drag on the back burner.
And then the universe laid an opportunity in my lap."
Raja has gone on to have plenty of opportunities, as she's done makeup for such high-profile
clients as Dita Von Teese, Pamela Anderson, and Adam Lambert.
Like many other drag queens, she's also been involved in a variety of mega-cool projects,
including an episode of The Simpsons and the music video for the Blondie song "Fun."
The California native knows she's a creative spirit at heart.
In an interview with Instinct Magazine, she revealed what she'd be doing if she wasn't
a makeup artist or drag queen:
"I would always be doing something creative, that's for sure...I am a fabricator, I'm a
designer, I make things, I constantly create."
Valentina may have had the most cringe-worthy exit in Drag Race herstory, in which she attempted
to lip sync while her mouth was covered up.
"I'd like to keep it on, please."
"It's a lip sync.
What part of that do you not understand?"
Despite that lowlight, the queen known for her telenovela personality instantly became
a fan favorite and hasn't let her final sashay get in the way of her success.
She's certainly gained the attention of Vogue, which featured her in a makeup tutorial on
its popular YouTube channel.
Then she landed the coveted cover spot on Vogue Mexico in elegant ensembles that had
her fans screaming with joy.
In other fabulous news, Valentina played the part of Angel in Fox's 2019 presentation of
Rent: Live.
That same year, she came out as non-binary.
She spoke with Billboard about the importance of playing a character like Angel, noting,
"I do take the responsibility of being a gay nonbinary drag queen person taking on a really
important iconic role like Angel and I hope [audiences] tune in for it."
She also told Billboard,
We need to be seen, and we need to be heard, and we need to be fearless…I really am grateful
to this storyline to be seen by a broader audience, and I hope they enjoy it."
Adore Delano made it all the way to the final three of Drag Race Season 6, and since then
she's been working hard on her music career.
The grungy goddess released her debut album, Till Death Do Us Party, shortly after appearing
on Drag Race in 2014.
It made it to number 3 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic charts and number 59 on the Billboard 200,
which made it the highest-charting album by a Drag Race contestant.
What also makes Delano stand out from other Drag Race alums is that she's a sort of anti-drag
queen.
She typically opts against doing a full-glam look during her shows, instead going for more
of a grunge-inspired look, for which she's gotten considerable backlash from both other
drag queens and internet commenters alike.
When Altpress asked her how she feels about criticism in a 2019 interview, she explained,
"If you come to one of my shows, you're coming to a show with a fully thought-out character.
I don't need to 'use drag' to further my career.
It just so happens that I'm one pretty motherf---er in eyelashes.
I'm a fully thought-out character, so it kind of hurt my feelings, especially in the beginning.
But all drag queens are different little universes, and if you can’t see that I’m another
part of the rainbow, then f--- off."
"I don't think Adore's ever going to die.
She's like the leading superhero of my life."
The only other queen to make an exit from Drag Race anywhere nearly as cringeworthy
as Valentina's was Willam, who was disqualified from Season 4.
"I'm afraid you leave me no choice.
Willam, I have to ask you to leave the competition immediately."
In 2018, she finally revealed what truly went down, when comedian Leslie Jones tweeted at
her to ask what happened, and Willam revealed that she had spoken out about various things
that occurred behind the scenes on the Drag Race set.
Besides getting into games of he-said-she-said, Willam has been pursuing her acting career,
including a huge role alongside Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born.
When she's not killing it in front of the camera, she's also an author, having written
the book Suck Less.
As for her beef with RuPaul, that's not ending anytime soon, considering that she claimed
that she screamed at her former boss in the middle of the street in November 2018.
Since becoming runner-up in Drag Race Season 6, Courtney Act has made regular TV appearances,
and she's made waves on every show she's been on.
First, she won Season 21 of Celebrity Big Brother UK, in the process receiving praise
for the way that she discussed gender and sexuality.
Next on her worldwide domination list was competing on Dancing With the Stars: Australia,
where she made history.
Although she performed almost solely in drag, she took the stage for one week with her partner
Joshua Keefe while out of drag.
This was the first time in the show's history that two men who were both presenting as male
performed a number together.
Clearly someone with a focus on bringing awareness to the LGBT community, the Australia-born
Courtney Act also hosted The Bi Life, which was the first-ever British bisexual dating
show.
She explained to Dazed,
"We got a group of bisexual, pansexual and questioning British singletons, took them
to Barcelona, and put them all in a villa where they lived together…The sweet thing
about this, and something that was instantly noticeable, was that it's not queer people
reacting to the straight gaze.
It's queer people in a space with each other, not having to explain their identity, and
feeling supported."
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