India Ferrah is the stage name of Shane Richardson, 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 ...

and

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume ...

best known for competing on the third 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 ...

''. Richardson was raised in

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...

, and came out as gay and started performing in drag as India Ferrah during his teens. He later lived in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...

, and performs regularly in Las Vegas. India Ferrah competed on the fifth season of ''

RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars ''RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars'' is an American reality competition spin off edition of the original ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', which is produced by World of Wonder, for Logo TV and later VH1. The show premiered on October 22, 2012, on Logo TV, b ...

''.

Early life

Richardson was raised in

. He began wearing dresses and makeup at age 12, and sewing at age 14. Richardson came out as gay at a young age, and was performing as India Ferrah by age 18. His drag name came from his brother's boyfriend, who also served as his drag mother.

Career

India Ferrah at RuPaul's Dragcon 2017 by dvsross

India Ferrah has worked as a drag entertainer and

, and was named Miss Gay Roanoke in 2006. She won the Heart of Ohio All American Goddess Pageant in 2008. She performed regularly at the Piranha Nightclub in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, as of 2014, and has co-hosted pageants.

''RuPaul's Drag Race'' franchise

India Ferrah competed on the third season (2011) of ''

''. She was the season's youngest contestant, at 23 years old. India Ferrah was picked up without permission by fellow contestant

Mimi Imfurst Mimi Imfurst (born March 2, 1983), the stage name of Braden S. Chapman (or Braden S. Maurer-Burns), is an American drag performer. She appeared on the third season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and '' RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars'' and was a found ...

during their lip sync to

Thelma Houston Thelma Houston ( Jackson; born May 7, 1946) Retrieved . is an American singer. Beginning her recording career in the late 1960s, Houston scored a number-one hit record in 1977 with her recording of "Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the Grammy ...

's "

Don't Leave Me This Way "Don't Leave Me This Way" is a song written by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Cary Gilbert. It was originally released in 1975 by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes featuring Teddy Pendergrass, an act signed to Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia Internat ...

" during the fourth episode; the incident has been described as "infamous", and prompted

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'' ...

to enforce a new rule: "drag is not a contact sport". Dragcon2-SAT-42 (47937170937)

Tanner Stransky of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' called the exchange "one of the most entertaining few seconds" in the show's history to date. In 2013, ''Philadelphia'' magazine's Alexander Kacala said the incident was "probably the worst lip-sync ever" in his list of the "5 All-Time Best RuPaul's Drag Race Lip-Sync Battles". Timothy Allen of ''

Queerty ''Queerty'' is an online magazine and newspaper covering gay-oriented lifestyle and news, founded in 2005 by David Hauslaib. As of June 2015, the site had more than five million monthly unique visitors. History ''Queerty'' was founded by David ...

'' included the battle in his 2014 list of the series' "most shocking and controversial moments", and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' Brian Moylan included the lip sync in his 2017 overview of the "10 best moments of TV's most fabulous reality show". India Ferrah was eliminated by Stacy Layne Matthews in the fifth episode, placing tenth. She had a "public breakup" with drag and criticized the series immediately following her appearance, but recovered from the experience and worked to redeem her image. India Ferrah has appeared at

RuPaul's DragCon LA RuPaul's DragCon LA is an annual expo of drag culture held in Los Angeles billed as a "convention that celebrates 'the art of drag, queer culture and self-expression for all'", which debuted in 2015. Its sister event is RuPaul's DragCon NYC sta ...

and RuPaul's DragCon UK, and continues to tour and host pride festivities across the United States. She is slated to appear 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 ...

'' (2020), a variety show residency at

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 3,46 ...

, and competed on the fifth season of ''

'' (2020). She won the season's first challenge and lip-synced against season 11 winner

Yvie Oddly Jovan Jordan Bridges (born August 22, 1993), known by the stage name Yvie Oddly, is an American drag queen, performer, fashion designer, rapper, and recording artist from Denver, Colorado who came to international attention in 2019 when she won t ...

. Kevin O'Keeffe of Mic.com ranked India Ferrah number 104 in his 2016 "definitive ranking" of all 113 ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' contestants.

Thrillist Thrillist is an online media website covering food, drink, travel and entertainment. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in New York City, United States. In October 2016, Thrillist merged with internet brands '' The Dodo'', NowThis News ...

contributor Brian Moylan ranked her number 111 in his similar list for 2017, and said she had "one of the worst drag names of all time". In 2018, ''

Instinct Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing both innate (inborn) and learned elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a v ...

'' Ryan Shea ranked India Ferrah number 112 in his "definitive list" of all 126 contestants, writing, "Sweet queen, but only remembered for being lifted up by Mimi Imfurst." In 2019, season 11 contestant

Kahanna Montrese Kahanna Montrese is the stage name of Tyrone Hardiman (born March 25, 1993), an American drag performer most known for competing on season 11 of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and ''RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars''. Career Kahanna Montrese first performe ...

named India Ferrah as her "favorite underrated" alumna.

Personal life

Richardson lived with his husband in

, during the early 2010s. He lives in Las Vegas, as of 2014. He has a brother who is also gay.

Discography

As featured artist

Filmography

Television

References

External links

Shane Richardson
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

India Ferrah: RuPaul's Drag Race Season 3 Contestant
at

Logo TV Logo TV (often shortened to Logo, and stylized as Logo.) is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched in 2005, Logo was originally dedicated to lifestyle and entertainment progra ...

Sashay Away – RuPaul's Drag Race Exit Interview, Week 4: Stormy Weather
(2011), ''NewNowNext'', Logo TV
RuPaul's DragCon 2016: Meet India Ferrah
(2016), ''The WOW Report'', World of Wonder {{DEFAULTSORT:India Ferrah 1980s births Living people American costume designers American drag queens Entertainers from Nevada Entertainers from Ohio Entertainers from Virginia Gay entertainers LGBT people from Nevada LGBT people from Ohio LGBT people from Virginia People from Dayton, Ohio People from Las Vegas People from Roanoke, Virginia

India Ferrah India Ferrah is the stage name of Shane Richardson, an American drag queen and costume designer best known for competing on the third season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race''. Richardson was raised in Roanoke, Virginia, and came out as gay and started p ...