Shangela

Pierce was born in Lamar County, Texas, and grew up in Paris, Texas, the only child of Debra Sue Pierce^[2] (born 1959),^[12] a worker in the United States Army who traveled frequently for her work. He is biracial, and is of half-Saudi descent.^[13] His parents split when he was at a young age,^[14] after which his father returned to Saudi Arabia. As a result Pierce was raised by his single mother and her large Southern Baptist family,^[15] including a grandfather who worked as a cowboy on a cattle ranch.^[16][17] His grandfather died in 2000.^[18] He was a cheerleader in high school, and began dressing in drag for creative projects for English classes.^[16]

Early career

Shangela emerged as Pierce's drag persona in January 2009.^[17] Pierce had choreographed a three-person drag act to "Single Ladies" for a sober charity event in Los Angeles, and when one of the performers cancelled, the other two asked her to fill in.^[16] The club's promoter was so impressed with Shangela's performance that he offered to book her for the following week. In 2010, Shangela was crowned in the first California Entertainer of the Year pageant;^[19] the first alternate was Chad Michaels.

RuPaul's Drag Race

After five months of performing in Los Angeles, Shangela was selected to join the cast for season two of RuPaul's Drag Race, but was eliminated in the first episode. She later reauditioned and was invited back for season three, where she made it to the top five (although she placed sixth overall due to the return of Carmen Carrera one episode later). She also made cameo appearances in the show's fourth-season premiere and the "Snatch Game" episode of All Stars season two.

Shangela returned to compete on the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars, making her the first queen to compete on three separate seasons of the show. She made it to the season's finale and was considered a frontrunner for the crown, but was controversially eliminated after only receiving one vote from Thorgy Thor among the jury of previously eliminated queens. She subsequently tied third/fourth place with season-one winner Bebe Zahara Benet.^[20]

Shangela competed in the television special RuPaul's Drag Race Holi-slay Spectacular.^[21] In June 2019, a panel of judges from New York magazine placed Shangela second on their list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 former RuPaul's Drag Race contestants.^[22]

Other television and film appearances

Shangela appeared in Toddlers & Tiaras, in which she coached her 9-year-old goddaughter to compete in a beauty pageant.^[17] Other appearances include episodes of Glee, Bones, Community, Terriers, Dance Moms, 2 Broke Girls, Detroit 187 and The Mentalist, as well as a commercial for Orbitz with fellow Drag Race contestants Manila Luzon and Carmen Carrera.^[23] Shangela and other RuPaul's Drag race contestants including Trixie Mattel, Tammie Brown, and Manila Luzon, appeared in a Food and Drug Administration campaign against smoking.^[24]

Pierce had a non-drag role in a short film, Body of a Barbie (2011), which aired on BET and was a Top 7 National Finalist on the network's Lens on Talent series.^[25][26] In 2013, Shangela was featured in an ad for Facebook Home.^[27]

She was one of thirty drag queens featured in Miley Cyrus's 2015 VMA performance.^[28]

Shangela had a role in the 2016 comedy film Hurricane Bianca, directed by Matt Kugelman and starring fellow Drag Race contestants Bianca Del Rio and Willam Belli. She returned to reprise this role in the 2018 sequel, Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate.^[29]

In 2018, she was the commentator for the U.S. for the Eurovision Song Contest held in Lisbon, Portugal with Ross Mathews for Logo TV.^[30] The same year, she had a supporting role as a drag queen emcee in the film A Star Is Born, alongside Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, and Willam Belli.^[31]

On September 8, 2022, Shangela was announced as a contestant on season 31 of Dancing with the Stars. She was partnered with Gleb Savchenko.^[32] Shangela and Savchenko reached the finals of the show, and finished in fourth place.^[33]

We're Here

Since 2020, Shangela has co-hosted We're Here on HBO alongside fellow Drag Race contestants Bob the Drag Queen and Eureka O'Hara.^[7] In the series, the trio of drag queens travel across the United States to recruit small-town residents to participate in one-night-only drag shows.^[34][7] After premiering on April 23, 2020, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 11, 2021.^[35][36] In December 2021, the series was renewed for a third season.^[37] The series has received acclaim from critics.^[8][9] The series was renewed for a fourth season, but with a cast of new queens (Priyanka, Jaida Essence Hall, and Sasha Velour) replacing Eureka, Bob, and Shangela.

Music

On August 23, 2011, she released her first single "Call Me Laquifa". Her second single, "Werqin' Girl", was released on August 7, 2012. The music video for "Werqin' Girl" features appearances by Abby Lee Miller, Jenifer Lewis, and Yara Sofia.^[38][39] On March 15, 2018, the day of the All Stars 3 finale, Shangela released a new single titled "Pay Me" which features producer Ryan Skyy.^[40]

In 2013, Shangela appeared in the music video "Gone With the Wind Fabulous" by Kenya Moore.^[41] In 2018, Shangela featured on both the vocals and in the music video for Doll Hairs, a single released by Todrick Hall as part of his Forbidden visual album.^[42]

In 2019, singer Ariana Grande featured Shangela's voice on the song "NASA" from her fifth studio album Thank U, Next.^[43]

Other ventures

Shangela is known for the catchphrase, "Halleloo", which the Los Angeles Times considered one of the "2010 Top Terms We Learned on Reality Television".^[44] Shangela's comedic persona is Laquifa, who entered the limelight during the eighth episode of season three, in which he won the "Ru Ha Ha" competition. Since being on Drag Race, Shangela has performed comedy as Laquifa in Downelink.com's "One Night Stand Up!" on LOGO. Shangela has performed in the Drag Queens of Comedy showcase alongside legends Lady Bunny, Jackie Beat and Coco Peru,^[45] as well as the Werq the World tour alongside several fellow Drag Race alumni, of which she is also the creative director.^[46]

Since appearing on Drag Race, Shangela launched "Say What Entertainment", a talent and management agency, in 2014.^[47]

Shangela was featured as one of OUT Magazine's "Most Compelling People of 2011".^[48]

Pierce has also been active in AIDS awareness and activism. After being featured in a Gilead Sciences ad titled "Red Ribbon Runway" with fellow Drag Race co-stars Carmen Carrera, Delta Work, Manila Luzon and Alexis Mateo,^[49] the dress he was featured wearing was auctioned off by Logo in commemoration of World AIDS Day. Proceeds from the auction were donated to the National Association of People with AIDS.^[50] On August 14, 2013, Shangela, along with fellow drag queens Detox, Morgan McMichaels, Courtney Act, Willam Belli, and Raven, were featured in the lyric video for Lady Gaga's single "Applause".^[51]

In June 2020, Pierce partnered with Actors Fund of America to create "Feed the Queens", a charity dedicated to feeding struggling drag queens who lost work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[52]

She is one of the most followed queens from Drag Race, and has accumulated over 1.5 million Instagram followers as of October, 2021.^[53]

Pierce is gay,^[16] and is of mixed African-American and Saudi Arabian descent.^[54] He has lived in the basement of Jenifer Lewis' poolhouse for over a decade in Los Angeles, California.^[55]

RuPaul's Drag Race season-five contestant Alyssa Edwards is Shangela's drag mother.^[56]

Rape allegations

On May 3, 2023, Pierce was accused of rape in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. A former production assistant on Pierce's show We're Here accused Pierce of supplying him with alcohol and assaulting him.^[10] Pierce denies the allegations in the lawsuit. Co-defendant Buckingham Television released a statement saying that they had conducted an investigation and concluded there was not sufficient evidence to support the allegations.^[57]

On March 18, 2024, a Rolling Stone article was published that details five more alleged cases of sexual assault, spanning from 2012 to 2018.^[58]

Film

Television

Music videos

Web series

Singles

Guest appearances

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shangela Laquifa Wadley.

• Official website
• D.J. 'Shangela' Pierce at IMDb