Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is one of the world’s most famous drag queens. He is a successful actor, advocate, author, spokes model, singer, producer and television host. Today's Out Spotlight is RuPaul.

Born RuPaul Andre Charles. November 17, 1960 in San Diego, California, the only son and middle child (between older twin sisters Renae and Renetta and baby sister Rosalind) to Ernestine and Irving Charles  he learned about fashion from his mother and his sisters. 

At four he saw "The Supremes" on the Ed Sullivan TV show. As he put it, "I fell in love with them, particularly, the skinny one in the middle." (Diana Ross)  His sister remembers him playing out in the yard in one of her pink dresses in 1965, while RuPaul remembers that year him lip-sinking "The Supremes" hit song "Baby Love" by the side of the garage. Neighborhood kids informed him that was a sissy.

After years of fighting his parents divorced when he was 7.  He and his sisters ended up taking care of his mother who shut down for several years after the nasty and ugly divorce.  At 16, he moved to Atlanta to live with his sister and brother-in-law to get a fresh start.

In Atlanta, RuPaul studied acting, performed as a bar dancer and sang with a band. He gained national exposure with a cameo role dancing in the video for the B-52s’ “Love Shack.” In 1987, RuPaul moved to New York, where he became a popular entertainer in the Manhattan nightclub scene. He was crowned “Queen of Manhattan 1990.”

In 1993, RuPaul collaborated with Elton John on a remake of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” The following year, RuPaul had his first solo hit single, “Supermodel (You Better Work),” which topped the dance music charts. Three more dance hits followed: “Back to My Roots,” “A Shade Shady” and “House of Love.”

Small guest parts in television shows (in and out of drag) in the early 90's led him to  branch out into movies with appearances in "To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" (1995),  “The Brady Bunch Movie” (1995) and Spike Lee’s “Crooklyn” (1995).  Those  roles aalong with the release of his autobiography “Lettin It All Hang Out” (1996), landed RuPaul a talk show on VH1.

He described the “The RuPaul Show” as “the most creatively satisfying, fun-filled working experience I’ve ever had.” The show had RuPaul (in drag) interviewing celebrity guests and musical acts including his life long celebrity crush Diana Ross, as well as other notable guests   Nirvana, Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Mary J. Blige, Bea Arthur, Dionne Warwick, Cyndi Lauper, Olivia Newton-John, Beenie Man, Pete Burns, Bow Wow Wow, and the Backstreet Boys. His co-host was Michelle Visage, with whom he also co-hosted on WKTU radio. On one episode, RuPaul featured guests Chi Chi LaRue and Tom Chase speaking about the gay porn industry.

That same year, he became a spokesperson for M.A.C Cosmetics, making him the first drag queen supermodel. In six years, RuPaul helped raise over $22 million for the M.A.C AIDS Fund.

His morning  show on WKTU-FM with Michelle Visage, on a New York dance music station was the inspiration for him to  produced and starred in the film “Starrbooty” (2007), which he adapted into a nightclub act.

In 2009 he created, produced and hosted of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (as herself, in drag) for Logo Television and the next year added “RuPaul’s Drag U” (as himself, out of drag) for Logo as well.

In 1999, RuPaul was named Entertainer of The Year at the GLAAD Media Awards. In 2002, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Most Beautiful Transsexuals in the World Association.

 “With hair, heels, and attitude, honey, I am through the roof.”