Racers, start your engines: A brand “Ru” year is just around the corner, which means the return of RuPaul‘s Drag Race *Original Recipe* is imminent!
Yesterday, the news broke that the Emmy-winning drag competition series would be moving on up from VH1 to sister network MTV, promising the show’s “biggest season yet.” We know that sounds like the kind of empty hyperbole a network would use to promote the return of a long-running show, but today’s Season 15 cast announcement proved that to be true in at least one way: There are 16 drag queens vying for the crown—that’s more than ever before!
By now, you’ve seen images of this fierce new cast flying around the internet, with fans already picking favorites. In addition to the gorgeous, throwback racing themed announcement, the show has also delivered a series of “Meet The Queens” videos to let us see more of who these girls really are. Well, we’ve gone ahead and watched all of them, and are here to share the strangest, funniest, and most surprising facts we learned about each queen.
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Amethyst
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From West Hartford, Connecticut. This comedy queen has racked up millions of views on TikTok, so she may look familiar! When asked what the strangest this about her is, she quips it’d be easier to list the normal things about her… so she does, starting with the fact that she’s a huge Taco Bell fan, especially the seasonal grilled cheese burrito. Taste!
Anetra
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From Las Vegas, Nevada. Sin City diva knows how to put on a show, boasting her “stunt queen” bona fides with splits, dips, and even some Tae Kwon Do skills! Still, we can’t get over Anetra’s deep base-y voice, or the fact that she can flip it in an instant to “vocal fry” mode and sound like a completely different person. We bet she’ll be pulling that one out during comedy challenges this season.
Aura Mayari
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From Nashville, Tennessee. Aura’s a stunning queen born in the Philippines, who actually pulled her name from a bit of Filipino slang: “Aura” is actually gay lingo for someone who is “overacting, overly confident, always trying to get attention—someone who’s horny, someone who’s flirty.” And that’s Miss Mayari in a nutshell! (Also, LOL at her freely sharing she was circumcised… in the third grade?!?)
Irene Dubois
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From Seattle, Washington. Following in the footsteps of other Seattle queens like Jinkx Monsoon and Bosco (her drag sister), Irene has a distinct and quirky style all her own—it’s giving sci-fi princess, it’s giving intergalactic realness. Irene says the strangest thing about her is that she’s completely sober—which we reckon does make her stand out in the drag scene! As she puts it, she’s just “raw-dogging life.”
Jax
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From Queens, New York. Look out for this one—Jax may be the athlete of the cast. She’s just 5’3″ but she also boasts a background in gymnastics and competitive cheerleading, and was even a junior Olympic diver. With that resume, we’ve got to imagine this right here is a potential Lip Sync Assassin. So is she really the Simone Biles of drag? Bring it on, girl–we can’t wait to find out.
Loosey Laduca
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From Ansonia, Connecticut. Right out of the gate, Loosey shares she’s a construction worker by day, drag queen by night. Now, we could’ve sworn that was just a joke, but nope! Turns out she really is out here pouring concrete on the daily—a job she admits is “physically taxing.” Well, so is Drag Race, so maybe that’ll give her a leg up in the competition!
Luxx Noir London
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From East Orange, new Jersey. This charming young queen is so competitive that she apparently used to buy the Guinness Book Of World Records every year just to scout out which world records she can break herself! No word on whether or not she’s actually managed to do that yet, but she ponders maybe she’s earned “The Most Eyelashes Plucked Off A Human,” or “The Most Seatbelts Worn On A Person At One Time” (referencing her promo look).
Malaysia Babydoll Foxx
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From Miami, Florida. Somehow, Malaysia is only the first Miami queen on the show! She’s a professional makeup artist to the stars, and she’s got the mug to prove it. Still, for as classy and gorgeous as she is, Malaysia admits she’s prone to the occasional “silent but deadly” fart, and then will be the first to announce, “Ew! Does anyone smell that?” Girl has clearly not heard of the ancient proverb, “she who smelt it, dealt it.”
Marcia Marcia Marcia
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From New York, New York. “Marcia Cubed” (that’s the nickname we just gave her) admits she’s one of those theater kids who moved to the Big Apple with dreams of Broadway. And though she’s shifted career paths a bit, one thing she’s held onto from her past is her love of children’s shows, citing SpongeBob Squarepants, Gravity Falls, and Hannah Montana as her favorites to this day. (Hannah Montana was even at the top of her Spotify Wrapped!)
Mistress Isabelle Brooks
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From Houston, Texas. Big hair, big personality, and big heart, the Mistress boasts that she’s “Houston’s Heavyweight Champ” of drag and is gunning to be the first “big b*tch” to win a regular season of the show. She shares that she first started doing drag as a kid, putting on her mom’s makeup in the bathroom and hiding it because her family’s never been very accepting of being gay.
Princess Poppy
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From San Francisco, California. Another queen who’s maybe shown up on your For You Page, Princess Poppy has brought her combo of high camp comedy and high fashion from TikTok to the bars of San Francisco. And it turns out that sense of humor was written in the stars for her because she was actually born on April Fool’s Day—no joke!
Robin Fierce
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From Hartford, Connecticut. Robin Fierce is a stunner with a heart of gold. Apparently, her secret talent is that she has the ability to wiggle her ears—though we can’t see it in the Meet the Queens video! Guess we’ll just have to wait for her to turn it out on the main stage; will she be the first queen to bring ear-wiggling to the Talent Show? By the way, she’s one of many Connecticut queens competing this season. We’ll be excited to see if there’s some history (or drama) between them.
Salina EsTitties
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From Los Angeles, California. Oh my god, the personality on this one! The energy is at an 11 already—Miss EsTitties is going to be some darn good television, we can feel it. And she’s not shy about her ambitions either, she says she’s aiming to be an EGOT: The Emmy for “Drag Race acting,” the Grammy for recording a fire track, the Oscar for bringing the drama, and the Tony for this season’s Rusical. Honestly, if anyone can do it, it’s Salina.
Sasha Colby
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From Los Angeles, California. Ladies, gays, and theys: Show some respect—we’ve got some legitimate pageant royalty right here! Sasha was named the winner of the prestigious drag pageant, Miss Continental, in 2012, thus earning the rightful title of “your favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen.” And, if that name sounds familiar, it’s because she’s the drag mother to Season 14’s Kerri Colby. With a daughter that legendary, you know we’ve got an icon right here.
Spice
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From Los Angeles, California. Stunt cast of the season alert! Alongside her twin (more on her below), Spice is the first queen to ever compete against their sibling on the show. In an all black leather get-up, she’s definitely positioning herself as the spikier of the two, but Spice compliments that with a bubbly personality, and says her whole persona was built around her love of the (frankly iconic) Tyra Banks-Lindsay Lohan vehicle, Life Size.
Sugar
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From Los Angeles, California. And, last but not least, is Spice’s twin, Sugar! The two rose to fame through their joint TikTok account, but seem eager to prove themselves on their own in the competition. Unsurprisingly, Sugar grew up with a love of dolls—dressing them, playing with their hair, emulating them—and that’s what’s inspired her whole drag aesthetic. We’re eager to see if these two will duke it out on the show, or form a sibling alliance.
RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 premieres January 6 on MTV, with new episodes airing every Friday.
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