Giovanni L. Palandrani (born February 12, 1996), better known by his stage name Aquaria, is an American

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

, television personality, and recording artist best known for winning the tenth season of ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

'' in 2018.

Early life and education

Palandrani was born in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Located within the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the 2010 census. West Chester is the mailing address for most of its neighb ...

to Gina and David Palandrani, has a sister named Francesca, and is of Italian descent. He trained as a dancer for four years and experimented with drag in high school. He attended the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college in New York City. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) and focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

for two semesters, studying women's wear design, before dropping out.

Career

Aquaria is the drag daughter of ''Drag Race'' season four winner

Sharon Needles Sharon Needles (born November 28, 1981) is the stage name of Aaron R. Coady, an American drag performer and recording artist. A self-described "stupid genius, reviled sweetheart, and PBR princess", Needles rose to international attention on the ...

. However, after accusations of abuse were made against Needles in 2020, Aquaria has said that she "does not support him" and "feels awful for anyone he has hurt". She began performing in drag in 2014. Like

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960; stylized as RuPaul) is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, musician, and model. Best known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' ...

, Aquaria received early support from Susanne Bartsch. Aquaria was featured in a ''

Vogue Italia ''Vogue Italia'' is the Italian edition of ''Vogue'' magazine. Owned by Condé Nast International, it has been called the top fashion magazine in the world. It's been in publication since 1964. Name ''Vogue Italia'' was first published as ''N ...

'' spread in January 2016 with Bartsch and other ''Drag Race'' alumnae. In early 2018, it was announced that Aquaria was chosen as one of fourteen contestants for the tenth season of ''

'', upon her first audition for the program. She won three main challenges, never ranked in the bottom two, and was the first queen in the show's history to win both the

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...

and the "

Snatch Game Snatch Game is a challenge on the ''Drag Race'' reality competition television franchise. Beginning with the second season of the original American series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', the challenge has taken place on every season since. It has also o ...

" in the same season. Aquaria was announced as the winner of the season on June 28, 2018, beating out

Eureka O'Hara Eureka, also known as Eureka O'Hara and Eureka!, is the stage name of Eureka D. Huggard (born August 26, 1990), an American drag queen and reality television personality. Eureka rose to prominence competing on the ninth and tenth seasons of ''Ru ...

and

Kameron Michaels Dane Young (born July 23, 1986), known professionally as Kameron Michaels, is an American drag performer who came to international attention after competing on the tenth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race''. Originally from Columbia, Tennessee, sh ...

in the final three. Aquaria was nominated with

Miz Cracker Miz Cracker (born April 19, 1984) is the stage name of Maxwell Elias Heller, an American drag queen and television personality. He is best known for placing fifth on the tenth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and for being a runner-up on the fi ...

for the "Competition Contestant of 2018" for the 2018

People's Choice Awards The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls until ...

. In October 2018, Aquaria appeared solo in an issue of ''Vogue Italia'', photographed by

Michael Bailey-Gates Michael Bailey-Gates (born July 28, 1993)Michael Bailey Gates
Models.com. Retrieved June 6, 2017

. She was a model for

Moschino Moschino () is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1983 by Franco Moschino in Milan known for over-the-top, campy designs. The company specializes in ready-to-wear, handbags, and fashion accessories. History Founding and 1990s Franco Mosc ...

and H&M's November 2018 Capsule Collection with

Bria Vinaite Bria Vinaite (; born Barbora Bulvinaitė on June 10, 1993) is a Lithuanian-born American actress, known for her role as Halley in Sean Baker's 2017 film ''The Florida Project'', which was her first acting role. She received critical acclaim for ...

and Jeremy Scott. She received a contract from

IMG Models IMG Models is an international modeling agency headquartered in New York City and with additional offices in London, Los Angeles, Milan, Paris, and Sydney. It is a subsidiary of the talent management company International Management Group. The com ...

, and was announced as the Entertainment editor for

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a bi-monthly British style magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. Dazed is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for producing ...

. In 2019, Aquaria was announced as one of the faces of MAC's Viva Glam campaign. She attended the 2019 Met Gala, and was the first drag queen to walk the red carpet. In June 2019, a panel of judges from '' New York'' magazine placed her 11th on their list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 former ''Drag Race'' contestants. In 2019, Aquaria released her very own makeup palette in collaboration with

NYX Cosmetics NYX Professional Makeup () is an American cosmetics company that is a subsidiary of L'Oréal. The company was founded in Los Angeles by Toni Ko in 1999. It was named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night. NYX Professional Makeup is "certifie ...

. In September 2019, at RuPaul's DragCon NYC, Aquaria was named as one of a rotating cast of a dozen ''Drag Race'' queens in ''

RuPaul's Drag Race Live! ''RuPaul's Drag Race Live!'' is an American residency show in Las Vegas, Nevada featuring past competitors from the television show ''RuPaul's Drag Race''. The variety show features a mix of original music, lip syncs, comedy, and dance numbers dir ...

'', a Las Vegas show residency from January to August 2020 at the

Flamingo Las Vegas Flamingo Las Vegas (formerly The Fabulous Flamingo and Flamingo Hilton Las Vegas) is a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment. The property includes a casino along with 3,4 ...

. Aquaria performed as a part of

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

's Savage X

Fenty Beauty Fenty Beauty (stylized as FEИTY BEAUTY) is a cosmetics brand by Rihanna, that was launched on September 8, 2017. Popular for its broad inclusivity across various skin tones, its Pro Filt'R foundation became high-demand upon first release. The o ...

Fashion Show during the Fall 2019

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning 7–9 days when international fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press, and the general publ ...

Music

As part of the final challenge of season 10, Aquaria and the other top four contestants wrote and recorded their own verses for

's song "

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

." The song reached number 12 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Dance/Electronic Songs The Dance/Electronic Songs chart has been published weekly by ''Billboard'' since January 2013. It is the first chart to be published that ranks the most popular dance and electronic songs according to audience impressions, digital downloads, s ...

chart. Aquaria was featured in the song "Looks" by Linux in 2016. He released his debut single, "Burn Rubber", in June 2018. The song was written by

Jesse Saint John Jesse St. John Geller (born October 5, 1989) is an American songwriter and singer (also stylized as jesse saint john). St. John has written for a number of artists, most notably Britney Spears, Kim Petras, Dorian Electra, Charli XCX, Brooke Cand ...

Personal life

Aquaria lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York City. On July 3, 2018, singer

Bebe Rexha Bleta Rexha (; born August 30, 1989), known professionally as Bebe Rexha ( ), is an American pop singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single " The Monster" (which later ...

criticized Aquaria and the other ''Drag Race'' top four queens over

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

for supposed bad behavior toward her at the

VH1 Trailblazer Honors The VH1 Trailblazer Honors, also known as the Logo Trailblazer Honors, is the only televised LGBT awards ceremony in the United States. It is an annual awards event founded in 2014 to recognize persons and entities who have made significant contribu ...

, such as not talking to her and being "cold". Aquaria responded with a series of tweets defending herself and her fellow queens. In May 2018, Aquaria criticized rapper Travis Scott for removing Amanda Lepore, a

transgender woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

, from the cover art of his 2018 album ''Astroworld''.

Discography

As lead artist

As featured artist

Filmography

Television

Music videos

Internet series

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{RuPaul's Drag Race 1996 births Living people American drag queens American people of Italian descent Gay entertainers LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT people from Pennsylvania People from Brooklyn People from West Chester, Pennsylvania RuPaul's Drag Race winners Shorty Award winners Fashion Institute of Technology alumni