RuPaul Biography

Fast Facts

• Performed with the San Diego Children's Theater in 1972
• Crowned Best Afro and Best Dancer of his ninth-grade class
• First TV appearance was in 1982 on The American Music Show, a local public-access program
• Made movie debut in the 1983 indie film The Blue Boy Terror
• A year later was cast in Trilogy of Terror, which marked his first performance in drag
• Wrote, published and distributed first autobiography If You Love Me, Give It to Me in 1984
• Can be seen in the B-52s' 1989 video for "Love Shack
• " Spokesmodel for M
• A
• C Cosmetics' VIiva Glam products
• Throughout the 1980s found local success as a singer; gained national attention in 1993 with the tune he cowrote called "Supermodel (You Better Work)," which received an MTV Video Music Awards nomination for Best Dance Video
• Cohosted a morning radio show in New York City in 1996
• Received the 1999 Vito Russo Entertainer Award by GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and in 2010 won honors from the group for reality program RuPaul's Drag Race