Valentina (born May 19, 1991), is the stage name of an American drag queen, actress, singer, and television personality.
Valentina is best known for participating on the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, where she finished in seventh place. Despite being a fan favorite with a spotless record in the competition, she made show history as the only contestant to ever make RuPaul restart a lip sync when she wouldn't remove a mask covering her mouth, which ultimately led to her shocking elimination. Regardless, she was still named "Miss Congeniality" of that season, which many of her fellow competitors took issue with. She eventually returned to the competition in All Stars 4, redeeming herself by winning a lip sync (to a song by the same artist, no less), ultimately finishing seventh for a second time. She would later be named co-host of Drag Race México, alongside Lolita Banana from Drag Race France.
After Drag Race, Valentina made her professional acting debut in FOX's production of RENT: Live, where she portrayed Angel Dumott Schunard, citing her own non-binary gender identity as something that made her uniquely suited to the role.
Selected filmography:
- Rupauls Drag Race (2017) as herself
- RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (2018 — 2019)
- Drag Race México (host; 2023)
- America's Next Top Model (2018) as herself
- RENT: Live (2019) as Angel Dumott Schunard
- AJ and the Queen (2020) as herself
- The House of Flowers (2020) as Camila Cervantes
- In the Heights (2021) as Valentina
Valentina provides examples of:
- My Greatest Second Chance: Valentina's main arc in All Stars concerned her lip sync fumble in season nine & rehabilitating her image following claims that she's let fame get to her head from her fellow competitors. Luckily for her, she managed to fulfill both goals.
- Spicy Latina: Her drag persona is a notable aversion to this, originally going for The Ingenue feel before crossing over into Cloudcuckoolander territory by the time All Stars came around.
