Laganja Estranja (born Jay Jackson on December 28th 1988) is an American Drag Queen, dancer and choreographer most well-known for her appearance on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race.
Laganja's debut drag performance was in 2011 at Mickey's West Hollywood where she quickly became an official Showgirl after winning her Amateur competition. She was initially put into drag by Alyssa Edwards, who Laganja worked for at Alyssa's dance studio, # Beyond Belief as a choreographer.
In 2013, Laganja auditioned for the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and was accepted onto the show, which then aired the following year. She became popular for her dramatic personality, iconic catchphrases and her regular emotional outbursts. Laganja was eventually eliminated on the eighth episode of the season, placing her in eighth place overall. Laganja has often been cited for the root of many catchphrases from the show and is often quoted to this day.
In addition to her run on RuPaul's Drag Race, Laganja has had success in her dance career. Her choreography credits include work on Germany's Next Top Model as well as working with Miley Cyrus. Laganja runs a masterclass, Laganja's Dance School, which specialises in choreography in high heels and confidence and has been held in numerous cities. She released a documentary in 2019 with the same name which follows Laganja running her masterclass in London.
Laganja led a dance theatre project in 2017, with artists all over the world coming together to express their gender identities over a four-day workshop.
Laganja is also a recording artist, having released five singles as well as featuring on singles with Alaska Thunderfuck and RuPaul.
As her name would suggest, Laganja is an advocate for cannabis use. This wasn't portrayed much on RuPaul's Drag Race due to them wanting to continue a drug-free image however, Laganja has since taken part in multiple interviews and podcasts relating to the issue of the war on drugs. She also released merchandise with a cannabis theme back in 2014.
- RuPaul's Drag Race (2014)
- Untucked (2014)
- RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 6 (2021)
- Skin Wars (2015)
- Bong Apetit (2017, 2019) (as guest)
- Germany's Next Top Model (2018) (as guest)
- So You Think You Can Dance (2018-2019) (as contestant)
- Queen of Drags (2019) (as guest)
Music Video Appearances:
- No Bueno by Angel Haze (2013)
- Expensive by Todrick Hall (2016)
- Gimme All Your Money by Alaska Thunderfuck (2016)
- Mask, Gloves, Soap, Scrubs by Todrick Hall (2020)
- Legs (2015)
- Hotbox (2015)
- Tease 4U (2016)
- Look at Me (2018)
- Smoke Break (2018)
As Featured Artist:
- Got Beat by Kraax (2014)
- Oh No She Better Don't by RuPaul (2014)
- Gold Grill BBQ by Krysta Youngs (2014)
- Gimme All Your Money by Alaska Thunderfuck (2015)
As Guest Artist:
- Jealous of My Boogie by RuPaul (2014)
- Gimme All Your Money by Alaska Thunderfuck (2015)
Laganja Estranja provides examples of the below tropes:
- Attention Whore: She's young and full of energy!
- Cloudcuckoolander
- Drama Queen: Is seen often on RuPaul's Drag Race as this. One prominent example was when she was arguing with Adore Delano in the Untucked lounge. Laganja claims that Adore hurt her feelings but doesn't remember when or what Adore had apparently said.
- Large Ham: She's Alyssa Edwards' drag daughter; this is to be expected!
- Mood-Swinger: Notably in her run on RuPaul's Drag Race, she freewheeled between her Genki Girl "kiki" persona to being hypersensitive and emotionally volatile. This clearly wore thin on the other contestants by the time her last episode rolled around. After the fact, she's made it clear that her advocacy for marijuana use is in no small part to her medicinal use of it to help moderate her emotions, and being denied access to marijuana during the filming of Season 6 was an enormous contributing factor to how temperamental she was.
- Punny Name: Laganja is clearly a play on her love for marijuana.
- Signature Move: The death drop. It'll come out of nowhere sometimes. However, it's particularly iconic during her entrance.
- The Stoner: Her drag name suggests this. However, she is extremely open about her cannabis use and she advocates for its legalisation. Even some of her merchandise is cannabis themed.
