Characters / RuPaul's Drag Race Season 4

WARNING: Contestants are listed in order of elimination and there are unmarked spoilers on this page, potentially including spoilers for previous seasons.

Main (RuPaul, hosts and judges)

RuPaul's Drag Race (USA) seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

Drag Race around the world:

Canada | Chile | Down Under | France | Holland | Italy | Mexico | Philippines | Spain | Thailand | UK | USA

All Stars & Vs. the World

All Stars (USA) | Canada vs. the World | UK vs the World

All names, ages, and locations stated are at the time of filming.

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Shangela

Age: 29

From: Los Angeles, California

"Noooooooo! Halleloo!"

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• Iron Butt Monkey: Locked in a box, set on fire, attacked by a rabid honey badger, and finally eaten by zombies ... and she still makes it back for a cameo in the Reunion Show!
• Running Gag: Her very presence in Season 4's opener, and subsequent unceremonious removal from the work-room, is a sportingly knowing Take That! at her Season 3 surprise appearance.
• Sacrificial Lamb: She was brought back (in a manner very similar to her big reveal in Season 3) only to be eaten by zombies during the apocalypse-themed challenge in the first episode.
• Too Dumb to Live: Played for Laughs, but gets her box taken out back and set aflame (after having a rabid Honey Badger thrown in there for good measure) all for calling RuPaul OLD, no one insults the top queen!
  Ru: Pit crew! Take this box out back, throw in a rabid honey badger, and set. it. on. FIRE!!!

Alisa Summers (13th)

Age: 23

From: Tampa, Florida

"I'm definitely a fishy queen, I can walk down the street and I can never get clocked!"

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• Big-Breast Pride: Like India before her, she insisted that she wanted to use her breast plate as the focus of her Apocalyptic runway, despite warnings from Ru that the plate alone should not make or break the look.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Alisa was very proud of the fact that no man on the street, straight or gay, could clock her while in drag.
• My Greatest Failure: Was arrested once for a DUI in full drag, she goes on to explain how the police made her de-drag in the middle of the station, and how having that on her record has made finding a job almost impossible.
• Phrase Catcher: "A queen for all seasons." Ru only got to say it once, but it would have most likely become her catchphrase for Alisa had she stuck around.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Rather ironically, considering one of her Confession Cam quotes during the first episode (in which she was eliminated) was, "I'm ready for all of America to know who Alisa Summers is".

Lashauwn Beyond (12th)

Age: 21

From: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

"I don't have to be your best friend to win this show! This is not RuPaul's Best Friend Race!"

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• Book Dumb: Could not pronounce "apocalyptic," so she called the first challenge "apopaloptic". This becomes a Brick Joke in both the season rewind and reunion episodes.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Her famous, memetastic quote.
• Naïve Newcomer: Despite being well known in her drag community, she was more of a seamstress than a queen. She commented that she had missed out on her "Drag Childhood" and was hoping to use the show to make up for lost time.
• Not So Stoic: She had no problem being sassy towards Jiggly, but would become as quiet as a church mouse in front of RuPaul
• Skilled, but Naive: Was a highly skilled dressmaker and designer, but her naivety in competitive drag caused her to constantly second guess herself and she repeatedly got outshined by the other queens.
• Shrinking Violet: While in the top three of the first challenge, she kept claiming she couldn't believe she was actually in the competition and commenting on how nervous she was. Eventually her lack of nerve and confidence had the judges rethink her position and place her in the bottom instead in the second episode.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She was only in the show for a mere two episodes yet spawned one of the most infamous, memetastic and oft-quoted one-liners in Drag Race herstory with "This is not RuPaul's Best Friend Race!"
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Is renowned as a drag designer.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Her design skills are renowned in the drag world, and many thought she was booted from the show way too early.

The Princess (11th)

Age: 32

From: Chicago, Illinois

"I'm basically an introvert."

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• All Love Is Unrequited: The first couple of episodes hint that Princess may have a bit of a crush on Sharon, with some mild flirting on display and Princess outright commenting that out-of-drag Sharon is just the kind of guy she normally goes for. Lampshaded even further in the third episode of Untucked where Princess actually states that she's more disappointed that Sharon critized her not changing her voice in drag than she was to be eliminated from the show! Sharon never expresses any interest back (and is already in a relationship in any event), so it never goes anywhere.
• Ambiguous Gender: Purposely incorporates masculinity into her drag to present an androgynous look.
• Cyberpunk: Like Nina Flowers before her, her make-up and hairstyles often evoke this look.
• Ironic Nickname: Her drag name is "The Princess" even though her style is much more anarchist and punk.
• Overly Long Name: Although it never came up in the show itself, "The Princess" is actually short for "The Punk Phunk Phairytale Princess".
• Shrinking Violet: Much shyer than the other queens, she tended to fade into the background.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Although the queens just refer to her as "Princess".
• The Stoic: A self-described introvert. This ends up being her undoing when she is eliminated for not showing enough passion and drive in the competition.
• Vocal Dissonance: Keeps her very masculine voice when in drag which gets clocked by Sharon (who has a very feminine drag voice) on the main stage during the third episode and leads to a little friction between the two later in Untucked.

Madame LaQueer (10th)

Age: 29

From: Carolina, Puerto Rico

"Finally! I'm not gonna get picked last!!!!"

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• Acrofatic: One half of the winning team for the wrestling challenge, one of the most physically demanding challenges in the entire run of the show, on a busted ankle no less!
• All of the Other Reindeer: Was picked last for every challenge she wasn't a captain of, and was once likened to previous season queen, Stacy Layne Matthews, in her lack of runway polish.
• Big Beautiful Woman: She has a very pretty face in drag and usually dresses well for her larger body type, the platinum and gold runway notwithstanding...
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Jiggly called Madame a "Pointer Sister" during her lip sync, as she kept pointing here, there, and everywhere to add emphasis.
• Handicapped Badass: She had recently recovered from a broken ankle, although that did not stop her from participating in (and winning!) the wrestling challenge.
• Informed Ability: She went on and on about her acting ability and the fact she worked in an acting studio, yet in the "Hot In Tuckahoe" acting challenge she kept messing up her lines, losing her English accent, and being incapable of taking stage direction.
• Large Ham: She is incredibly over the top in her mannerisms whenever she performs (and even out of drag she has a larger than life way of speaking), something which is lampshaded by Sharon who says that Madame is so hammy that she wants to glaze her and put pineapple chunks on her!
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: She naturally has a thick Puerto Rican accent and during the "Hot In Tuckahoe" challenge she tried to speak with an uptight British accent, but it slipped up all over the place, leading the judges to admit they had no idea what her accent was, but at one point they thought it might have been Russian.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: In one of the acting challenges she was asked to emulate Lucille Ball's famous "Eeeeew!" from I Love Lucy, however this seemed to go completely over Madame's head and she kept doing it her own way regardless of Ru's constant direction.
• Questionable Casting: In-universe. Also in the "Hot in Tuckahoe" challenge, she casts Kenya Michaels as the butch prison guard, on the grounds that it would be funny to see an intimidating guard played by a little person. Unfortunately, Kenya is also extremely femme, and does not pull it off well.

Milan (9th)

Age: 36

From: New York City, New York

"Milan is FIERCE! She's FABULOUS, she's DIVA! She can act, sing, dance, produce, and you don't want it from her!"

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• Ambiguous Gender: She purposely incorporates varying degrees of masculinity in her drag to present an androgynous look, such as making her grand entrance in a pimp-style pantsuit, and cites performance artist Kevin Aviance as an influence. Much like Ongina before her, she also did gender-blended drag king once on the runway, which the judges thought looked beautiful but just wasn't the point of the show.
• Gender-Blender Name: Her full drag name outside the show is Dwayne Milan.
• Genre Savvy: Played for Laughs during the first challenge when they had to get the materials for their outfits from zombified contestants of previous ''Drag Race'' seasons.
  Milan: Black people don't stand there when zombies are coming at them, they run bitch!
• The Gimmick: Ripping her damn wig off! It gets to the point where the other queens are sick of it and Michelle Visage outright comments to Ru that Milan better not rip her wig off again if she ends up lip syncing for the third time. Of course, Milan does it and promptly gets eliminated.
• Informed Ability: Claims that she is a trained actor, however during the Hot in Tuckahoe challenge the judges were baffled by her performance, and say outright if they had to guess anyone on her team was a trained actor, it wouldn't have been Milan.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Was harshly read for her Janelle Monae-inspired runway look, since she simply looked like a man in a tuxedo.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: During any lip-sync for her life she would always give a high energy performance, but also always rip off her wig halfway through the number, always. It got to the point where Michelle Visage said outright that Milan had better not rip off her wig during her next lip-sync. She did, and was ultimately eliminated.
• Phrase Catcher: "Paris ... London ... Milan!"
• Shameless Self-Promoter: This is part of what gets her sent home; the judges being offended that she put her name on the side of her parade float when the challenge was supposed to be about LGBT pride. Willam did the exact same thing up to eleven and won that same challenge, though. The other critiques about Milan's boat were that the message just didn't come across and that it looked unprofessional.
• Shattering the Illusion: Along with her wig ripping antics, she for some reason also liked to strip down during a lip sync. In the episode she got eliminated she wasn't wearing any breasts so pretty much just looked like a man in makeup sans wig and dress, completely shattering the feminine illusion.
  Phi Phi: Milan... girl... That's clearly a dude.
• Toothy Issue: One of the many queens in this season to have obvious dental issues.
• Waif-Fu: Her lipsynch against Madame LaQueer invoked this.
  Willam: I was looking at Madame like, "Milan is dancing circles around you and is swiffering the floor with his taint."

Jiggly Caliente (8th)

Age: 30

From: Queens, New York

"One small corset, plus another small corset, equals one fat ass corset!"

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• Acrofatic: She is a very agile dancer for a queen of her size, even capable of performing a jumping split.
• Asian and Nerdy: She wears an Avengers shirt in the work room during an episode and the first part of her drag name is taken from the Pokémon, Jigglypuff.
• Asian Speekee Engrish: Invoked during the "Glamazons vs. Champions" informercial challenge when Jiggly plays a rather stereotypical Asian airhead complete with this kind of accent.
• Big Beautiful Woman: One of three plus sized queens in this season with Latrice Royale and Madame LaQueer.
• Book Dumb: Despite being a year older than both Sharon and Willam, she comes across as being much younger and more immature than them due to her comparative ignorance and lack of knowledge about LGBTQ history and culture. As a New York queen she even regularly performs at Stonewall and yet confesses to not knowing the bar's history or even ever stopping to read the plaque outside.
• Brutal Honesty: Her "being 100" with the other queens usually led to her accidentally insulting her competitors. The queens realized that this was more a result of Jiggly's own low self-esteem caused by her weight and the emotional loss caused by her mother's recent passing.
• Catchphrase: "I'mma be 100 with you ..." and "Let's get real, now ..."
• Drama Queen: Hoo boy, is she ever! Having a total emotional meltdown (complete with tears and screaming) during Untucked becomes a Once an Episode thing for Jiggly during her tenure on the show. It was clear to the other queens that she had a lot of unresolved issues that she needed to work through and they (especially Latrice) tried to help her as much as they could.
• Dull Surprise: Appeared to be her default expression, her mouth slightly ajar and an empty look in her eyes.
• Fish out of Water: She came across as bewildered and fairly inept prior to any of the challenges the girls were tasked with. Many of the other queens commented that they were surprised she stayed in as long as she did.
• Girly Girl: Very much her aesthetic; her runways outfits, hair and makeup were always ultra girly and traditionally feminine.
• Glass Cannon: Happy to dish it out and be "100" and "real" with the other queens, but any criticism volleyed back at her resulted in sulkiness at best, and a full-blown meltdown in the reunion show.
• Informed Ability: She was often touted by the judges as being "warm", "talented" and "so funny" but these qualities never really came across in the show edit. In fact, she appeared to be permanently baffled by the tasks in hand.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Despite having Filipino heritage, she plays a clearly meant to be Japanese character in the informercial challenge (complete with kimono) after team captain Phi Phi tells her to "just look super Asian".
• Limited Wardrobe: Her runway looks (with the exeptions of "apocalypse couture" and "gold and platinum") consist entirely of extremely similar looking girly prom style gowns, just in various different colors.
• Missing Mom: She recalls how her mother finally came to terms with her drag lifestyle just months before she passed away, and her death still affected Jiggly throughout the competition.
• Naïve Newcomer: One of the greenest queens presented by the series up to that point.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Her first name is taken after Jigglypuff, one of the mascots of the Pokémon franchise.
• Never My Fault: During the Reunion, she fully blamed Phi Phi for sabotaging her in the Dragazine challenge. While it is true that Phi Phi helped Jiggly to shoot herself in the foot, it was Jiggly herself who adamantly wanted to go in a serious direction with her magazine, even though Chad Michaels, Latrice Royale, and even RuPaul herself begged her to go with her strengths in comedy.
• Phrase Catcher: "May I call you Jiggly?" ^note "Yes Mama, everything jiggles!"
• Rank Up: Following the announcement of Drag Race Philippines, Jiggly was later confirmed to be joining the judging panel.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: Goes into the show not knowing how to sew a single stitch or make her own outfits, something which causes a major blow out between her and Lashauwn (a renowned seamstress) in the first episode of Untucked, Lashauwn rightly pointing out that it's the fourth season and Jiggly should really know better by that point.
• Rummage Sale Reject: Her infamous Apocalyptic Couture look in the first episode was read as this, as it was incredibly sloppy and poorly put together. Needless to say, this landed her in the bottom.
• Self-Deprecating Humor: While some of her jokes were funny, the other queens accused her of using humor to mask her insecurity. Ironically, her failure to embrace this type of humor during the Dragazines challenge leads to her elimination. When assigned a health and fitness magazine, Jiggly takes a serious approach despite most of the other queens advising her that she will probably be more successful if she pokes fun at her weight and makes it funny.
• Toothy Issue: During a read, Chad Michaels hands Jiggly the card of her personal dentist and tells Jiggly to go get her teeth fixed.
• You Are Fat: A sensitive subject for her, so she actually inverts this trope, constantly making jokes about her own weight before anyone else could.
• You Know I'm Black, Right?: Starts talking about how gross it is for drag queens to sleep with each other, not even realizing that some of the other drag queens might actually do that. In fact, this is what caused a rather nasty argument with Sharon Needles in Untucked who, at the time, was in a long term relationship with fellow drag queen (and season 5 competitor), Alaska Thunderfuck.
• Weight Woe: Admits to Ru during a work room chat that she suffered from bulimia in the past and that being one of the reasons why she wants to take a serious approach to her weight loss "dragazine", because she doesn't see the subject as a laughing matter.

Willam (7th / disqualified)

Age: 29

From: Los Angeles, California

"I'm not gonna RuPaulogize!"

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• All Women Love Shoes: Is a self-admitted shoe queen, he brought 34 pairs of shoes with him to the competition!
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: The money he spent on his clothes (that he constantly label-dropped) most likely cost more than the prize money.
• Catchphrase: "Sorry 'bout it."
• Cloud Cuckoolander:
  • To the surprise of no one, Willam later admitted to having smoked amazing amounts of weed on set, to eating a pill he found "on the floor", and to getting drunk with the crew (and Sharon) during the boat challenge.
  • During the reunion episode, he tried to lick a Pit Crew guy.
• Comically Missing the Point: Loved to deliver these, like when trying to build an outfit around the color orange Jiggly Caliente complained that she looked like a sweet potato, Willam reminded her that sweet potatoes have antioxidants and were good for you.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the most infamous deadpan snarkers in the history of Drag Race. No one can deliver a totally calm, perfectly measured dry quip or put down quite like Willam can. He even stays completley deadpan while on the receiving end of one of Phi Phi's numerous shrieking fits, nonchalantly firing back, "Your tone seems very pointed right now."
• Emotionless Girl: Rarely showed any genuine emotion in the competition, claiming emotions were for "ugly people". The judges quickly chastise him in that beautiful people can have emotions as well, and that's what they wanted to see from him.
• Establishing Character Moment: From the moment he walked in, looked at the sewing dummies, and said "Size 26? We got some big girls. I hope they don't have diabetes.", and followed suit by telling Jiggly, who said Willam looks very familiar, "You must have a television." Not only that, but when Shangela appears like she's going to be on the show again, Willam was the only queen to clap and run up to give Shangela a high-five!
• Experienced Protagonist: Willam was one of the most commercially successful queens to participate in the show at the start of Season 4, having an acting career in television and movies years before being cast on the show, including a recurring role on Nip/Tuck, and having been part of several bands with drag queens before and after the show.
• The Fashionista: He would label drop his fashions constantly as literally everything he wore on the runway had a pricey designer label.
• Formerly Fat: Confesses in an episode of Untucked that he used to weigh over 200 pounds but that no one would put him on television when he was heavier so he slimmed right down to get more work, and then says that no big queen should ever use their size as an excuse not to do something. Cut to Latrice in a Confession Cam saying that she wants to slap him.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The other queens (except Phi Phi) don't actually seem to hate Willam and they mostly treat him like one of the gang, but they also clearly don't quite know what to make of his schtick and find his constant bragging, self promoting, and label dropping irritating.
• The Gadfly: He got a real kick out of winding the other girls up, and a good portion of his narcissistic schtick was undoubtedly deployed to wobble the other contestants, especially less-seasoned queens like Jiggly and Phi Phi.
• Gender-Blender Name: Uses his real name in drag because he's primarily an actor and it simplifies the process of finding work. He is also perfectly happy to be referred to with male pronouns in drag, unlike most queens.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Likes to talk about sex. A lot. He openly lusts over the Pit Crew (even sniffing one of them in the informercial challenge and attempting to lick one in the reunion show), says he'll "tuck extra tight" for guest judges Rick Fox and John Salley, and has also openly said that (despite being married) he'd definitely kai kai with both Latrice and Sharon because they have "big dicks" and he's down with that.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: Was disqualified for supposedly having conjugal visits with his husband behind the producers' backs. It's become abundantly clear that this story was a complete fake, and what actually happened remained a mystery for quite a long time. Willam later explained it all, see below.
• Noodle Incident: The reason for his disqualification from the competition up until the reunion. Even so, several of the queens of the season said that the reason given (conjugal visits from his husband) was not the real reason Willam was eliminated. Much later (on his podcast with Alaska) Willam went on to elaborate on his elimination - he was intentionally misbehaving on set, drinking during filming (along with Sharon), stealing from the show, and having visits with his husband, all in protest of bad working conditions on set which he knew would never be allowed on a SAG-AFTRA union show which Drag Race was most definitely not as well as the mistreatment of his fellow competitors by the crew. Many of the show's more notorious conditions for the contestants (particularly the practice of duct taping their hotel rooms shut to keep them inside) are a direct result of this, though most queens to come in later seasons do still seem to regard their time on the show well.
• Not So Stoic: Later that same challenge he comes out on stage and breaks down in tears, talking about the friends he had made during the show... as the other queens point out though, this breakdown was quite miraculously timed with the judges just saying they wanted to see emotion from him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Although he liked to play the role of the Brainless Beauty, he was much smarter and wittier than he initially let on. In fact, a lot of the queens didn't realize just how threatening he really was until closer to the end of the competition. When asked about the Stonewall riots, he is easily one of the most informed queens and loses all of his silly bravado when discussing it.
• Perma-Stubble: He gets clocked more than once for having 5'o-clock shadow showing through in drag because of his refusual to use traditional drag makeup (preferring the branded everyday makeup used by women), something which becomes a Running Gag among the other queens. Years later, he still doesn't use theater makeup, as evidenced on Trixie Mattel's YouTube channel when Trixie likens the texture of Willam's chin to sandpaper and cactus.
• Pride: One of the vainest contestants to ever compete in the series, although, as mentioned above, a lot of this behavior was deployed to wind the other girls up.
• Shameless Self-Promoter: Loved to mention the shows he's been on and the actors he's met. To him, it was simply relating to the challenges, but the other queens (especially Phi Phi) found it grating.
• Stripperiffic: Loved to show off his ass. In fact, when he was eliminated he pressed a butt print on the mirror just to give the other queens one last look at his backside.
• Stepford Smiler: There are shades of this in one particular runway critique when he freaks guest judge Regina King out by constantly having the exact same glassy eyed, vacant smile on his face every time she looks at him.
• Understatement: Enjoyed delivering these, and it seemed to be his defense against some of the antagonizing he'd receive during the show. When Phi Phi gets in his face and yells at him for being a talentless queen who only knows about shoes, he just replies very flatly "Your tone seems very pointed right now."
• Vocal Dissonance: Has a very soft and feminine voice that was perfect while in drag, but was this trope in action when out of it.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Just prior to his elimination for breaking the rules, he rushes off-set to completely barf his guts up, something which is all mercilessly captured on camera.

Dida Ritz (6th)

Age: 25

From: Chicago, Illinois

"Category is... cheesecake!"

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• Beware the Nice Ones: Dida is easily one of the nicest, sunniest and most considerate queens of the season, but has absolutely no issue with laying a major What the Hell, Hero? down on Jiggly when the latter queen starts shouting and hollering in her face in Untucked while Dida is merely trying to help her. The earrings come off and everything!
• Catchphrase: "Cheesecake!"
• Girly Girl: Just looking at her nightshirt dress and teddy bear skirt, it was obvious that Dida's aesthetic leant more towards the young miss side of things.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Despite her fairly average performance in the competition overall, Dida proved herself to be a fierce lip syncer when she ended up in the bottom two with The Princess after the infomercial challenge, giving a high energy Curb-Stomp Battle performance to Natalie Cole's "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)", one that is still considered one of the best of all time in the series.
  • On the heels of her first time in the bottom, Dida turned in a surprisingly good acting performance in the "Hot in Tuckahoe" sitcom challenge, which guest judge Max Mutchnick specifically called out as one of the best and most natural. It might've been Dida's sole high placement in the entire competition had she not been on the losing team.
• Naïve Newcomer: Her biggest flaw in the competition, she's a genuinely talented but young queen that clearly has less experience and financial means than some of the older and more seasoned queens do, meaning she comes off to the judges as unpolished in comparison. Her biggest critiques on the runway are always her ratty, unstyled wigs and Limited Wardrobe.
• Nice Girl: Was characterized as being an extremely nice, affable and lovable queen who never had a bad word to say and seemed to get on well with all the other queens, even Phi Phi. She may have been a shoo-in for Miss Congeniality if it wasn't for Latrice Royale being in the same season.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: When she came out on the runway in a stunning dress... and ashy knees.
• Out of Focus: She had significantly less camera time than the other queens in the top six, likely because her low key, affable nature meant that she created very little drama.
• Phrase Catcher: "Everything tastes better on a Dida Ritz!"
• Political Overcorrectness: Goes as far as to refuse to eat fried chicken or watermelon in public due to racial stereotypes. Cue Latrice and her 5G's - "Good God Get a Grip Girl".
• So Okay, It's Average: In-universe. Despite coming in a respectable 6th place in the competition, she had little establishing character screen-time and never hit the top three even once during her entire tenure on the show.

Kenya Michaels (5th)

Age: 21

From: Dorado, Puerto Rico

"I'm a little person, but I'm a FIERCE ... BITCH!"

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• Badass Adorable: Was a rather tiny and adorable queen, but as she herself stated, she was a fierce bitch!
• Bad Impressionists: Her Beyoncé impression in the Snatch Game was completely inaccurate, unfunny and rowdy. This landed her in the bottom two where she was eliminated.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She generally presented herself as sweet, but after her elimination she wrote the remaining queens a letter reading them all to filth, something which is interestingly never brought up again when she is brought back to the competition later on.
  • The queens seem to find the authenticity of this letter very doubtful, especially given that it is written in perfect English - a language Kenya (who is Puerto Rican) spoke at a fairly rudimentary level only.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Latrice's "Jesus is a biscuit", but due to her thick accent (or possibly on purpose to be funny) it would come out as "Jesus is a Bisquick!"
• In-Series Nickname: Ru added the "Little" part of her "Little Kenya" nickname around a third of the way through the season, prior to this, she was just known as Kenya Michaels.
• Mean Boss: During the drag make-over challenge she constantly told her drag sister to shut up and stop complaining about the shoes hurting his feet, and also picked a drag name for him^note Little Momma that he obviously did not like. This ended up being her downfall when her drag sister looked miserable on the runway, leading to her second elimination.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Just like Carmen Carrera in Season 3, she was brought back into the competition by the judges after her elimination... Also like Carmen, she was eliminated again in the same episode she was brought back. This was notably also the last time RuPaul let her judges bring back a previously eliminated queen.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Ru dubbed her "Little Kenya" when she wore an outfit and wig that made her bear a striking resemblance to Lil' Kim.
• Older Than They Look: Not only does she look feminine out of drag, but she appeared so young-looking that she could have easily passed for a preteen girl to boot!
• "Shaggy Frog" Story: Quite versed in word salad, although whether this was a fault of the language barrier or just a touch of being a Cloudcuckoolander (or a mix of the two) is not clear.
• The Unintelligible: Most of the time Ru and the other queens hadn't the slightest clue what she was saying, something that was lampshaded in the season finale when they brought on Charo to be her Spanish to English interpreter, and Charo didn't have any clue what she was on about either!
  Sharon Needles:... Okay, I understood about four words of that, but as long as you two came to an understanding, that's what's important.

Latrice Royale (4th + Miss Congeniality)

Age: 39

From: South Beach, Florida

"She is large and in charge, chunky, yet funky. Bold and Beautiful baby!"

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• Acrofatic: Capable of pulling out the dance moves when she needs to, didn't you know her alter-ego was a stripper?
• Big Beautiful Woman: Loves to show off her curves and swerves. Because she's chunky and yet funky, bold and beautiful baby!
• Big Eater: While portraying Aretha Franklin she's eating "something that really satisfies her"... however before the Snatch Game is even over she's already completely polished off her plate, and actually had to be brought back-up snacks!
• Big Fun: She has a positive and cheerful attitude throughout most of the competition (except when Willam or Phi Phi are getting on her nerves), and has the most infectious laugh arguably ever featured on the show.
• Catchphrase: She had quite a few, "5 G's, please: Good God, Get a Grip Girl!", "Jesus is a biscuit, let Him sop you up!", "Eat it!", and "The shade, the shade of it all!"
• Chewing the Scenery: She pretty much consumes the entire set playing a lesbian prison guard during the acting challenge "Hot in Tuckahoe". Her performance was so hammy and hilarious that it had Ru in stitches!
  Latrice: Get those nuts away from my face!
• Dark and Troubled Past: In addition to having an abusive father whom she never had the chance to reconcile with, she was once sent to prison and her mother died of cancer while she was incarcerated so she couldn't even attend her funeral. In the show she talks about how this was the lowest point in her life.
• Determinator: Has had more than her fair share of hardships, yet always kept a positive attitude, and is a firm believer of never letting the hardships keep you down and to always believe in forgiveness and The Power of Love.
  Latrice: It's okay to fall down. Get back up, look sickening when you do and make them eat it!
• Enraged by Idiocy: Had very little patience when it came to bullshit, as evidenced when she totally lost her cool after an unprofessional showing by several of the queens in the Snatch Game, referring to their behavior as "Romper Room fuckery."
• Fun with Acronyms: According to her, a bitch is Being In Total Control of Herself, and read Jiggly as being a BMW, Body Made Wrong.
• Gem-Encrusted: She sports fabulous aquamarine blue gem encrusted lips and gem encrusted hair (chanelling Ursula the Sea Witch realness) during her pride float runway.
• Gospel Revival Number: When asked by the other queens to take them to church... Jesus is a biscuit, let him sop you up!
• The Hyena: She has probably the loudest, most outrageous laugh in the entire Drag Race herstory. Observe!
• Larynx Dissonance: Doesn't even attempt to hide his deep, manly voice when in drag, which often just makes it funnier. Phi Phi at one point refers to Latrice as the Barry White of drag.
• The Mentor: Took the role of surrogate Drag Mother for Lashauwn Beyond (for the two episodes Lashauwn was there) since both of them were from the same drag scene back in Florida and already knew each other.
• Nice Girl: She was always kind, warm, loving and supportive to all the other queens, even putting up with Phi Phi's histrionics without ever losing her temper, and for that reason she was voted as season four's Miss Congeniality.
• Rousing Speech: She gives a particularly moving one to Jiggly during an episode of Untucked. Jiggly, who is clearly still not over the sudden death of her mother a few years before, is having a full on emotional meltdown due to missing her mother and the stress of the competition and Latrice tells her how she went through something similar when she was in prison and found out that her mother had passed and how she couldn't even attend her funeral. Latrice tries to get through to Jiggly that you have to keep moving forward and in her words, when you fall down, "get back up, look sickening and make them eat it!" It's so powerful that it leaves the whole room applauding and in tears.
• Statuesque Stunner: She stood as the tallest competitor in the show's history (until Season 7), at 6'4 and a half inches, she's actually a half inch taller than even RuPaul herself!
• Team Mom: Occasionally overlapping with Mama Bear, which is a major reason she won the season's Miss Congeniality award.
• Toothy Issue: Yet another queen in this season with dental issues, having crooked teeth in her case.

Phi Phi O'Hara (runner-up)

Age: 25

From: Chicago, Illinois

"This is a competition for talented people, not people who can buy fucking shoes!"

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• Abhorrent Admirer: She seems a little repulsed by Milan (rather too quickly) admitting that she'd kai kai with her out of all the queens. Who knows how she'd react if she found out that the two queens she hates the most (Sharon and Willam) also admit that they'd kai kai with her during the later lie detector mini challenge.
• Abusive Parents: Phi Phi's father was horribly abusive and they remain estranged; she mentions this as the cause of her abrasive personality.
• Aesop Amnesia: Seems to have something of an emotional breakthrough in the makeover challenge when she's paired with and bonds with a heterosexual DILF who is very sympathetic about Phi Phi's situation with her violent, unaccepting father. She's reduced to tears on the main stage and shows a much softer, more vulnerable side, even seeming much more friendly with Sharon in Untucked later on. It seems like it may be a bit of a turning point and maybe the start of a redemption edit for her... but then she's immediately back to her bitchy, super competitive self in the very next episode, even managing to get under the usually unflappable Chad's skin with her negativity and short temper.
• Beauty Is Bad: Despite Phi Phi's abrasive personality, most of the other queens grudgingly admit that she's very attractive out of drag.
• Blatant Lies: Claims that she never wears blonde wigs to Willam and Dida in an episode of Untucked. In typical Willam fashion, he immediately rattles off every time Phi Phi has worn a blonde wig in the competition without missing a single beat, enraging Phi Phi for approximately the 174th time that episode.
• Can't Take Criticism: Has shades of this in the political debate challenge where she says she's sick of the judges harping on about the failure of her off-color racist joke and that they just need to get over it.
• Competition Freak: Notoriously so, she's easily the most fiercely competitive queen of the season (and possibly ever on the show) and is completely desperate to win the crown, no matter what she has to do or who she has to crawl over to get it.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Jennifer Love Hewitt found both Phi Phi and her "Dads I'd Like To Frock" drag sister Gi Gi quite attractive in their striptease and runway looks.
• Freudian Excuse: Her overall nasty attitude is the result of having a physically and verbally abusive father.
• Hairstyle Malfunction: During her lip sync against Sharon in the frenemies episode, her wig ends up hanging on by literally one bobby pin so she rips it off completely. Her wig also falls off in the wet t-shirt contest mini challenge, after her breast plate had already fallen off!
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Has a tendency to go from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye temper wise; during their infamous Party City vs. Tired-Ass Showgirl fight, she visibly throws Sharon completely with just how quickly she goes from calm to completely enraged and screaming.
• Hypocrite: Part of her audition tape is shown during the season recap episode wherein she harps on the importance of sisterhood and family values among drag queens, but acts in total opposition to that ideal throughout a majority of the season itself.
• In-Series Nickname: After calling Sharon Needles "Party City" (after the American chain of cheap costume stores), Sharon retorted with a new nickname of her own for Phi Phi, namely "Tired-Ass Showgirl".
• Jerkass Has a Point: When she points out that Willam was praised (and would win) the "Hope Floats" challenge for the exact same thing that got Milan harshly read and later eliminated: making her Pride float about herself rather than the LGBTQ community.
• Kick the Dog: The point where she crosses the line into being the villain of the season seems to be when she purposely tricks Jiggly into sabotaging herself in the magazine challenge, and then gloats about it to Willam afterwards.
• Manipulative Bastard: Purposely sabotaged Jiggly in the magazine challenge by preying on her weight insecurities, and attempted to bribe Latrice into throwing the Frenemies challenge in order to send Willam home.
• Mistaken for Racist: While playing the role of an insensitive politician, she referred to Latrice Royale and Dida Ritz (who are both black) as "The Help". The editing made it look like they were offended by the line, but in reality, both queens laughed at it; their dour expressions came from other parts of the segment. It was primarily the judges who argued over whether or not the joke was in poor taste.
• Naïve Newcomer: Ru even commented that she started very green but grew quickly through the competition. Within the final three she was even referred to as "The Ingénue".
• Nice Mean And In Between: Of the final three queens, Chad is the nice (ever the mature, calm one who tries to mediate and smooth over arguments), Phi Phi is the mean (constantly getting enraged and instigating the arguments in the first place), and Sharon is the in between (not usually instigating the arguments but happily and loudly defending herself against Phi Phi's barbs).
• Pet the Dog: Although usually seen as the villain of the season, she does have her kindhearted moment early in the season when she wins the phone call home mini-challenge and gives her prize to Chad Michaels, who wanted to call her husband for their anniversary. Most fans forget this moment, however, since it came before the worst of her Kick the Dog moments.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Surprisingly picks rival Sharon as the first member of her team in the informercial challenge, saying "I'm not dumb", implying that Phi Phi is fully aware of how strong a competitor Sharon is and how having her on her team could be beneficial.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Attempts to give one to Willam in an episode of Untucked, claiming that Willam has no talent, doesn't deserve to be in the competition and is only good at buying shoes, but Willam is hilariously unbothered and shuts Phi Phi down with a completely deadpan, "Your tone seems very pointed right now."
• The Resenter: She seems to be incredibly envious of any queen that is doing well in the competition and getting good critiques which is why so much of her ire gets directed towards Sharon and Willam. She rarely projects the same attitude towards Chad and Latrice who are the other two standout queens of the season, but that can perhaps be explained by the fact that they are the very seasoned, older matriachs of the group, whereas both Sharon and Willam are only a few years older than Phi Phi so she's more likely to compare her performance to theirs.
• The Rival: To Sharon Needles as their personalities and drag styles are polar opposites and they rarely see eye to eye on anything. Phi Phi also appears to be very threatened by Sharon's success in the competition and jealously lashes out at her as a result.
• So Okay, It's Average: In-universe. She coasted through the first half of the season by constantly being in the safe zone and never particularly standing out (except for in the Snatch Game where she stood out for the wrong reasons and ended up in the bottom three), not even winning her first challenge until the seventh episode.
• Stealing the Credit: She attempts to steal the credit for Sharon's win in the infomercial challenge, saying that Sharon only won because Phi Phi (who was the team leader) picked out a perfect "gothy" character for her to shine. Sharon, of course, calls bullshit and counters that she won because of her talent and nothing else.
• Tempting Fate: In the very first episode of the season, Phi Phi brazenly expresses in a Confession Cam that she thinks Sharon and her runway look is "a mess", that she isn't ready for the competition and will definitely be the first sent home. Guess who ends up winning not only that particular challenge but the entire season?
• This Is a Competition: And she's hungry to win, no matter what!
• Toothy Issue: Has a snaggletooth, which she was teased about occasionally.
• Unknown Rival: To Willam. Despite constantly getting in Willam's face, Willam never retaliated because she frankly couldn't care less what Phi Phi thought of her.
• Younger Than They Look: Gets repeatedly critiqued that she paints herself to look older than she actually is. Out of drag, Phi Phi (who is only 25) is very young looking, whereas in drag, whilst still attractive, she looks a good 10 years older.

Chad Michaels (runner-up)

Age: 40

From: San Diego, California

"I'm a professional!"

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• The Ace: Had this reputation going into the season as arguably the most famous (as a professional, world class Cher impersonator), seasoned and polished queen ever to compete on the show up to that point. She more than lived up to her reputation during the season through winning two challenges (including the coveted Snatch Game), looking absolutely flawless every single week on the runway and being a great all around performer, never having to lip sync for her life until the penultimate week of the season.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: In-universe. Chad's opinion on a lot of "Cher-isms."
  Chad: I like to inject some reality into my Cher impersonation. You'll never see me go... [clicks tongue and flips her hair back] because Cher doesn't do that.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Practically the Team Mom for the other queens, but when you got on her bad side the claws most certainly came out. Witness her standing up to Sharon's testosterone filled DILF when he gets all up in her space in the makeover challenge, and then her stern but fair dressing down of Phi Phi and her behaviour during the season in the reunion episode. You do not want to be on Chad's bad side!
• Boring, but Practical: Arguably the most polished queen of the season (and ever featured in the show), but since she always served up flawless elegance time after time, the judges (Michelle Visage, in particular) grew bored with Chad's constant perfection on the runway.
• Catchphrase: "I'm a professional!"
• Celebrity Impersonator: Her Cher impersonation is legendary. Not only does she provide the page image for this trope, but even in the first episode of the season, the other queens were already familiar with Chad's work and were a bit starstruck to be working with her, though Milan does say in a confessional that she wants to see what else Chad has to offer.
• Creator Couple: In-universe. Her partner Adam is a professional drag costume designer. He, for instance, made Chad's giraffe one-piece that received lots of praise from the judges.
• Cool Old Lady: She's only 40 so hardly old, but still gives shades of this as the oldest queen of the season and the Team Mom for the younger girls.
• Enraged by Idiocy: Is openly pissed off at Jiggly during the pride float challenge when everyone else is ready and lined up for the runway and Jiggly is still finishing her boat and running around getting dressed. If there's one thing that Chad can't abide, it's being unprofessional.
• Gender-Blender Name: Chad Michael is her real name out of drag.
• In-Series Nickname: Sharon calls her "Mama" in a couple of episodes and Ru calls her "Lady Chadderly" a few times.
• Mama Bear: In Chad's own words, you don't come for her people, specifically talking about her makeover partner and Sharon when Mike the DILK ("Dad I'd Like To Kill" according to Sharon) is acting up during the makeover challenge. Chad will cut a bitch if you come for her people.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Of the final three queens, Chad is the nice (ever the mature, calm one who tries to mediate and smooth over arguments), Phi Phi is the mean (constantly getting enraged and instigating the arguments in the first place), and Sharon is the in between (not usually instigating the arguments but happily and loudly defending herself against Phi Phi's barbs).
• Overshadowed by Awesome: She was a serious force to be reckoned with and easily could have won the season (she later went on to win the first season of All Stars) so was certainly no slouch by any stretch of the imagination, but even she fell just short of Sharon's domination of the season through her ingenious wit, unpredictability, freakily fabulous runways and four challenge wins.
• Proper Lady: In drag she embodies this trope; beautiful, elegant, refined, professional and demure, especially in her inaugeration ball runway.
• Second Place Is for Losers: As we would later see in All-Stars, Chad did not take kindly to losing the Season 4 crown to Sharon.
• Serious Business: Takes her Cher-impersonation very seriously, and absolutely hates when other people use over-the-top stereotypical "Cher-isms" to impersonate her idol. This leads to a funny moment when after a particularly emotional rant on the subject RuPaul herself walks through the workroom and uses one of these Cher-isms towards Chad, much to Jiggly's amusement.
• Stage Names: Averted, however she used to go by the drag name of Brigitte Love before going back to using her real name.
• Team Mom: She had vibes of this towards the younger queens; both Dida and Sharon mention in Untucked that Chad is always the one helping everyone out, doing up their gowns, fixing their wigs, lending them pantyhose when they run out, e.t.c.
• Technician Versus Performer: The dynamic between Chad and Sharon in the final three; Chad is the perfect, professional drag technician to Sharon's slightly less polished but more outrageous and entertaining performer.
• Too Clever by Half: Her most common criticism was that she would often come off as too polished or too perfect, to the point where she was not as engaging as her competitors.
• Worthy Opponent: She admits to Raja in the final challenge that she's well aware that Sharon is serious competition for the crown and seems to have genuine respect for the younger queen, despite their clear difference in style and approach to drag.

Sharon Needles (winner)

Age: 29

From: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"Three words I'd use to describe Sharon are beautiful, spooky, and stupid."

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• The Ace: Sharon is one of the biggest aces in the herstory of Drag Race, being the first ever queen to win four main challenges in one season, a feat that wouldn't be equalled until five seasons later, by Shea Couleé. She is also the show's only ever queen to date to achieve all four challenge wins solo, rather than share any of them with another queen. In 2021, Out magazine placed her at #1 in their statistical ranking of the US Drag Race (regular season) winners based on her track record in the show.
• All of the Other Reindeer: According to her, before the show this was her status in the Pittsburgh drag scene where she was continually looked down on as the freaky weirdo by the "gown and crown" pageant types. Her drag house (the House of Haunt) is comprised entirely of edgy, outsider queens that have been kicked out of every other venue in the city, much like Sharon herself.
• Animal Motifs: Snakes during the pride float challenge (with her Garden of Eden theme) and octopusses during her final runway with her tentacle fingers.
• Berserk Button: Usually comes across as calm and fairly level headed (other than during her arguments with Phi Phi of course), but she loses it at Jiggly in the second episode of Untucked over Jiggly saying that two drag queens having a relationship with each other is "disgusting". This is understandable as Sharon was actually in a long-term relationship with another drag queen (season 5's Alaska) at the time.
• Blood from the Mouth: Famously used to great effect during her very first runway as a post-apocalyptic zombie (with a fake blood capsule hidden in her mouth), which is now seen as one of the most iconic and memorable runway moments in the show's history.
• Book Ends: She first enters the work room wearing a black witches outfit complete with obligitary pointy hat and months later was officially crowned during the live viewing of the finale also wearing a witches outfit, but this time an upgraded and much more fabulous version in black and white complete with candy pink hair. Season three winner Raja even put the crown on her head over the pointy witches hat.
• Brainless Beauty: Is proud of the fact that Sharon Needles as a character is spookily beautiful but also a complete airhead.
• Camp Gay: She channels this both in and out of drag; out of drag she's campy but with a definite punk edge and in drag she's high camp meets gothy, edgy, shocky glamor.
• Can't Take Criticism: Does not do well with criticism during the sitcom challenge, arguing with producer Max Mutchnick, to the horror of the other queens. She does apologize after her judges critique through and promises to work on taking direction better.
• Catchphrase: She has quite a few; "Happy Halloween everyone!", "Boo", "Hail Satan!" and "If in doubt, freak 'em out", the latter of which is her Survival Mantra.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: This is clearly the opinion of the other queens towards Sharon, at first anyway. They all look genuinely taken aback when she first campily saunters into the work room in her gothy, glamorous witch getup.
  Chad Michaels: My first impression of Sharon Needles? Wow, what a wack job.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: Deliberately flashes her panties to Ru and the judges during her lip sync against Phi Phi.
• Country Matters: During her cover photoshoot in the "dragazine" challenge she voices over that she's giving the camera all legs and "pure cunt face".
• Country Mouse: Despite claiming Pittsburgh as her adopted hometown, she's originally from Newton, Iowa, and it was in Des Moines (Iowa's capital and largest city) that she got her first taste of urban gay nightlife.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She was so badly bullied as a child (for in her words not only being openly gay but also "weird") that she ended up dropping out of High School and running away from home as a teenager, sleeping rough and getting into drugs and alcohol at a very young age. It wasn't until she moved to Pittsburgh and established her drag house with some friends that her life became more stable.
• Deadpan Snarker: Switches effortlessly between dry quick wit delivered in a deadpan manner out of drag and a much more hammy, campy delivery while in drag.
• The Determinator: Definitely shows shades of this, even admitting in the final episode that she's never worked so hard at anything in her life as she has the competition.
  Sharon: If anyone ever boos you off stage, that is simply applause from ghosts.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Chanelled a few times, notably during her witchy entrance look, "possessed Joan Collins" runway look, "sexy devil" look during the frenemies challenge and "goth femme fatale pirate" look in the makeover episode.
• Emotion Suppression: She stated that she was determined to never cry during her time on the show because she didn't want to be one of those queens that gets made fun of for getting over emotional, but broke a couple of times during Untucked (firstly when she gets a video message from her boyfriend Alaska and secondly when she knew that she and Phi Phi were in the bottom two) and both times she's clearly trying to suppress it, blinking back the tears so they don't run over and ruin her eye makeup.
• Eye Colour Change: As a edgy goth queen she, of course, has many sets of contacts to give her blood-red eyes and zombie-white eyes among others.
• The Fashionista: Most of her runways give shock, freakiness and/or camp mixed with definite high fashion influences. Santino even said that her final poodle inspired look in the Bitch Ball challenge was so good it looked like she'd stepped right out an issue of Italian Vogue (arguably some of the highest praise he ever gave a queen during his tenure on the show), Lady Gaga tweeted about how much she loved Sharon's futuristic inaugural gown and she was also named by Out magazine as "The Stylemaker" of the year following her win.
• Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind: Almost all of the outfits she wore for the show were fantastically freaky, even macabre, and with the exception of her "dog park chic" look, there was a touch of the night in everything she designed. In personality during the season, however, she's definitely a Perky Goth.
• Funny Background Event: During the ending of every episode when Ru would ask "Can I get an Amen?" Sharon would always wave towards the floor, as if hailing Satan. This was apparently because Sharon hated religion in general, and has even said having to say "Amen" was her least favorite part of the show.
• Genre Blindness: Called herself out on the fact she stubbornly wanted to wear her zombie-white contacts with what was a very glamorous dress during one runway, the contacts instead making her look creepy and off putting to some of the judges. This came after Michelle Visage had already asked her to show that she could do pure glam and not just "spooky" glam.
• Guile Hero: Lampshaded by some of the other queens who note that she's so quick witted that she could probably wing her way through most challenges on pure guile and charisma alone. Dida says that she has the "gift of gab" and it's made clear by the fact that she always, without fail, manages to get Ru cackling during runway critiques and during his work room visits with a well placed pun or witty comeback.
• Heroic BSoD: Has a minor one in Untucked after the frenemies challenge when she knows full well that she and Phi Phi got the harshest critiques and will likely be in the bottom two. She becomes a bit of a teary mess and struggles to get her words out until Chad and Latrice cheer her up and snap her out of it.
• Hollywood Satanism: She often uses "Hail Satan" as something of a catchphrase (and signs autographs with it), but is actually an atheist.
  Sharon: I'm not a satanist, I just play one on TV!
• Hot as Hell: She dresses as a sexy devil in a red sparkly mini dress, red heels and matching red devil horns during her "Frenemies" challenge singing duet with Phi Phi, who is dressed as an an angel in white and silver complete with halo.
• The Hyena: She impersonates judge Michelle Visage during the Snatch Game and incorporate's Visage's infamously loud, boisterous laugh heavily into the performance. The show's editors later have fun during the judge's critiques by splicing together footage of the two of them loudly cackling at each other, with RuPaul even getting in on the action with her own infamous cackle!
• I Can't Dance: She noticably struggles with the choreography in the final three's music video challenge, much more so than the other two finalists.
• I'll Take That as a Compliment: Her reaction to The Princess saying she loved her meth look was to claim she's probably the only person who could take being told she has a "meth look" as a compliment.
• In-Series Nickname: Affectionately dubbed "Party City" by Phi Phi O'Hara after a chain of party supply stores that sells cheap Halloween costumes, she countered by claiming she liked Party City, and gave Phi Phi a nickname of her own, "Tired-Ass Showgirl". Chad takes to calling her just "Needles" late in the season, and her other half Alaska refers to her as "Noodles" in the fifth season.
• Lady Swears-a-Lot: She has a tendency to drop the F bomb a lot and gets called out for it during the sitcom challenge when she has trouble getting out her lines, because cursing during a taping of a sitcom in front of a live audience is obviously a no-no.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: Sharon was an All the Other Reindeer in Pittsburgh's drag scene before the show, and she would talk about how no one back home really understood or appreciated her spooky goth style and how she was never asked to perform in Pittsburgh Pride. After winning the season however, she was showered with praise from the city government (June 12th is officially "Sharon Needles Day") and finally got to perform in the city's pride celebrations.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Of the final three queens, Chad is the nice (ever the mature, calm one who tries to mediate and smooth over arguments), Phi Phi is the mean (constantly getting enraged and instigating the arguments in the first place), and Sharon is the in between (not usually instigating the arguments but happily and loudly defending herself against Phi Phi's barbs).
• Nightmare Fetishist: Just look at the sheer delight on her face at the sight of the drag queen zombies in the first episode! She even likens the experience to a family reunion. In general she loves horror films and all things freaky and macabre.
  Sharon: I love to look bizarre and when I look bizarre, I feel beautiful.
• Oblivious to Love: Seems pretty much unaware that Princess is crushing on her in the first couple of episodes, or if she is aware, doesn't seem to really care or address it.
• Official Couple: With Season 5's Alaska, they were in a relationship for four years until they broke up in late 2013. At the time the two of them were known by Drag Race fans as the "Royal Couple of Drag" after Alaska placed as runner-up in season 5.
• Perky Goth: Her personal style, as well as almost all of her runway looks, are in the least very quirky and at most downright horror-themed to great success, but her personality is much sunnier than her look.
• Pet the Dog: She was pretty much the only queen (other than maybe Chad) who didn't ridicule or underestimate Madame LaQueer based on her size and perceived lack of runway polish. She openly said that she thought it was bullshit that Madame got picked last for a team in the second week running when she'd just won the previous challenge.
• Pungeon Master: She breaks out every "pussy" pun she can possibly think of for the front cover of her cat lovers themed magazine in the "Dragazine" challenge, much to the amusement of that week's guest judge, Regina King.
  Sharon: Well I'm talking about cats... you're just a pervert!
• Punny Name: Sharon Needles is a pun on the phrase "sharing needles".
• Refuge in Audacity: As a shock queen this is pretty much Sharon's whole schtick, she loves to say and do outrageous and shocking things to get a rise out of people.
• The Rival: To Phi Phi O'Hara as their personalities and drag styles are polar opposites and they rarely see eye to eye on anything. Phi Phi also appears to be very threatened by Sharon's success in the competition and jealously lashes out at her as a result.
• Rule of Three: Is a firm believer that you need three distinct attributes to be a successful drag queen, Sharon's three are being Beautiful, Spooky, and Stupid.
• Running Gag: Sharon wants a cruuuuuuuise, damn it! Despite winning four challenges and four prizes she never got the cruise she wanted... until she won the season of course, then she got $100,000 and a cruise, as gleefully pointed out by Sharon's other half, Alaska, in the following season. This running joke weirdly became a bit of a Berserk Button for Phi Phi who during a heated argument in Untucked attempted to imply that Sharon was competing in the show for the wrong reasons (e.g. to win a cruise rather than the title) which Sharon pointed out was clearly ridiculous and the whole cruise thing was merely a joke.
• Seers: Claimed to have the power to see the future, since she apparently predicted the outcome of the "Hot In Tuckahoe" challenge perfectly...
  • Not So Omniscient After All: ... however when pressed to predict the final three of the season, she chose Latrice Royale, Chad Michaels, and Phi Phi O'Hara, which, fortunately for her, was off the mark.
• Silly Walk: Sometimes liked to employ a silly walk on the runway, such as her campy Carol Channing meets Carol Burnett teetering about while signing autographs in the sitcom challenge runway or the wave your arms around and shimmy approach taken in the dragazines challenge runway.
• Squee: The only real way to describe that sound she makes after winning the first challenge of the competition: getting to create a post-apocalyptic bloodied zombie look and show it off to her childhood idol, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
• Squick: In-universe. Thoroughly grosses the other queens out in Untucked when Ru gifts them pickles and ice cream (fitting the pregnancy related makeover challenge) in the gold bar and Sharon just dives right on in, scooping up some ice cream with a pickle and eating it completely nonchalantly while everyone ewwwwws around her.
• Stealth Insult: Gives a great one when she tells the queens that she has "dignity looks" and "paycheck looks"; dignity being when she's doing her drag and she doesn't care if she only makes a dollar, and paycheck being when the electricity is about to shut off so she dresses like Lady Gaga. Quick cut to Phi Phi giving serious stink eye behind her who literally just played Lady Gaga in the previous episode's Snatch Game, to disastrous results.
• Tattoo as Character Type: Has a tattoo of Tammy Faye Bakker of all people on her upper forearm, something which is queried by Ru in the first episode. Sharon tells a story about how she loved Tammy Faye as a kid and didn't realize she was shilling religion, she thought she was shilling makeup. This immediately showcases her very offbeat, irreverant and witty sense of humor.
• Technician Versus Performer: The dynamic between Chad and Sharon in the final three; Chad is the perfect, professional drag technician to Sharon's slightly less polished but more outrageous and entertaining performer.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Phi Phi in the "Frenemy" challenge, and later with Mike in the "DILF" challenge, at least at first.
• This Is a Competition: Said word for word during Untucked when she tells Princess that this is a competition, not summer camp.
• Toothy Issue: Her teeth appear slightly yellow from smoking, but it mostly seemed to be the contrast against her deathly pale makeup and black lips because it wasn't as noticable when she was out of drag. Later averted as she got veneers after the filming of the show. The veneers also got rid of the noticable gap in her front teeth, much to the disappointment of some fans who thought the gap was charming and suited her.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Played completely straight and this is pretty much Sharon's whole narrative during the season; that of the oddball, misunderstood outsider queen underdog that can't even win a bar pageant back home but unexpectedly sweeps in, dominates the competition and takes the biggest crown of them all in a win for weirdos, losers and underdogs everywhere.
• Uncanny Valley Make Up: Used to compliment her outfits, including eye make-up in deepest black, combined with ghostly white cadaver foundation.
• Voice Changeling: Has the ability to modify her voice, meaning that she can take it up and down several octaves. She has a fairly effeminate voice out of drag, but takes it up a few octaves more in drag and can take it up even higher as shown during the sitcom challenge where she sounds positively sqeaky in character as the dumb blonde. Raja (who keeps the exact same deep voice in and out of drag) even admits that she's jealous of Sharon's ability to do this in the final three episode.