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
''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 ...
''. Originally from
Columbia, Tennessee
Columbia is a city in and the county seat of Maury County, Tennessee. The population was 41,690 as of the 2020 United States census. Columbia is included in the Nashville metropolitan area.
The self-proclaimed "mule capital of the world," Colum ...
, she began her career in
Nashville, where she performed locally from 2004 or 2005 until her appearance on television. Since her season aired in 2018, Michaels has been a staple of several domestic and international tours that feature ''Drag Race'' contestants, including
Werq the World, Christmas Queens and
Drive 'N Drag. She has also appeared on a number of
web series
A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single in ...
produced by
World of Wonder. In June 2019, she released "Freedom", her debut single and music video. Since January 2020, she has been a staple cast member of ''
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 residency show 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 ...
, and also stars in the accompanying
VH1 miniseries ''
RuPaul's Drag Race: Vegas Revue''.
Michaels identifies as a muscle queen, that is, a drag queen whose aesthetic embraces a built, muscular body. Because of her physique, she is known by the nickname "The Bodybuilder Barbie".
She is also noted for her tattoos, which cover her forearms, her chest and part of a leg.
Early life
Young was born on July 23, 1986,
his parents' only child.
They lived in
Massillon, Ohio, until he was five years old.
After this, they briefly resided in
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
before moving to
Columbia, Tennessee
Columbia is a city in and the county seat of Maury County, Tennessee. The population was 41,690 as of the 2020 United States census. Columbia is included in the Nashville metropolitan area.
The self-proclaimed "mule capital of the world," Colum ...
, where Young spent the majority of his youth.
He realized he was
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
in his early teens, and he came out to his mother at age 14.
She reacted supportively.
In high school, he was bullied for his sexuality and body language, and he developed
introvert
The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl J ...
ed tendencies in response to this.
He studied photographs and videos of himself to identify effeminate gestures that he then learned to modify or avoid.
When he was 18, Young began traveling to
Nashville on the weekends, and he took up work as a
go-go dancer
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken ...
and cocktail server on the local scene.
It was there that he first came into contact with drag queens and subsequently began performing in drag.
Because he felt more at home in Nashville's
queer community than in the conservative environment of Columbia, he relocated to Nashville when he was 21.
Career
Beginnings and style
At the start of Young's drag career, a more seasoned performer made his costumes, but he taught himself how to use makeup.
He initially took the drag name Arianna St. Claire.
After a few months, he switched the name to Kameron Michaels, as he wanted an androgynous first name paired with a last name used by no other drag queen in Nashville.
Young took inspiration for his aesthetic from cinema and video games, and he describes his drag style as hyper-feminine.
He credits the
Southern variety of drag he learned in Nashville with making him well-rounded, stating that it equipped him with diverse skills such as dancing and costume-making.
After developing a gym habit in his mid-20s, he became known as a muscle queen due to his built physique.
Before appearing on ''
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 ...
'', Young worked full time as a hair stylist, doing drag only on weekends.
He performed regularly at Play Dance Bar in Nashville.
''RuPaul's Drag Race''
![Kameron michaels 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Kameron_michaels_2.jpg)
Michaels auditioned for the
seventh season of ''Drag Race'' in 2014, but she did not receive a callback.
She then auditioned for the
tenth season in an effort to overcome a difficult breakup.
On her audition tape, she highlighted that, as a muscle queen, she was a type of character the show had never seen before.
She was selected to participate, and her season aired in 2018. She finished as a runner-up, together with
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 ...
, behind winner
Aquaria.
Some media outlets and fellow contestants dubbed Michaels the season's
lip sync
Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals.
Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...
assassin,
as she
lip-synced for her life four times in a row without being sent home; no other contestant has survived more than three lip syncs.
She also won the finale's first Lip Sync for the Crown but lost the second one to Aquaria, bringing her lip sync total to six.
On the show, she was noted for her introversion, which set her apart from her competitors.
Following criticism she received in the season's reunion episode for appearing more
extroverted on social media than in person, Michaels learned about
ambiversion. She has stated that this description fits her well.
In August 2021, Michaels appeared on the ninth episode of the
sixth 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 ...
''. Serving as the episode's Lip Sync Assassin, she lip synced against the week's top competitor,
Ra'Jah O'Hara
Benni Miller (born Bennie Roy Miller; December 31, 1984), better known by the stage name Ra'Jah O'Hara, is an American drag queen best known for competing on the eleventh season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' in 2019 and the sixth season of '' RuPaul ...
, and was declared the winner.
Music and tours
As part of season 10's final challenge, Michaels and the other top four contestants wrote and recorded their own verses for
RuPaul's song "
American".
The song reached number 12 on the ''
Billboard''
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.
In summer 2018, Michaels participated in the 10s Across the Board Tour, traveling around the U.S. with other queens from the season.
Later that year, she recorded the track "
Let It Snow
"Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", also known as simply "Let It Snow", is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945 in Hollywood, California, during a heat wave as Cahn and Styne imagined cooler conditions ...
" on ''
Christmas Queens 4'', a compilation album featuring Christmas songs sung by former ''Drag Race'' contestants.
Following the album's release, she embarked on the Christmas Queens tour of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
in November and December 2018.
She then returned to Europe for a solo tour in January 2019.
The following month, she released a lip sync music video in which she performs
Mark Ronson
Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is a British-American DJ, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. He is best known for his collaborations with artists such as Duran Duran, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, R ...
's "
Nothing Breaks Like a Heart
"Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" is a song by British musician Mark Ronson featuring American singer Miley Cyrus, released on 29 November 2018 by RCA Records as the lead single from Ronson's fifth studio album, '' Late Night Feelings'' (2019).
Pe ...
".
In June of that year, she released her debut single, "Freedom", and its corresponding music video.
Since the second half of 2018, Michaels has traveled around the Americas,
Asia,
Australia
and Europe
for several legs of
Werq the World, and she appears in a
docuseries
Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries.
Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film.
*Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...
about that tour.
From January 2020, Michaels has been a staple of ''
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 residency show 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 ...
.
The show went on hiatus for much of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, but Michaels was still on the cast when it resumed in August 2021.
She also co-stars in ''
RuPaul's Drag Race: Vegas Revue'', a
VH1 miniseries about the live show.
In May 2020, Michaels participated in a
live-streamed
Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...
version of Werq the World to raise money for drag entertainers out of work due to the pandemic.
Since July 2020, Michaels has been on tour with
Drive 'N Drag, a
drive-in
A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollerskat ...
drag show held outdoors to accommodate
social distancing
In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dis ...
restrictions imposed due to
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
.
Personal life
![Dragcon2-SAT-57 (47937191581)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Dragcon2-SAT-57_%2847937191581%29.jpg)
Young is openly gay.
He began visiting the gym with a boyfriend who pressured him to stop doing drag.
After they broke up, he continued to focus on building muscle and returned to the drag scene, where his body drew criticism from others in the industry.
In the months that followed the airing of ''Drag Race'' season 10, his workout routine temporarily fell by the wayside as he adjusted to life on tour.
Young briefly dated fellow season 10 contestant
Vanessa Vanjie Mateo while filming ''RuPaul's Drag Race: Vegas Revue''.
Young's arms and hands, as well as his chest, neck and left leg, bear tattoos that are visible when he is both in and out of drag.
When asked about them in an interview, he said, "I started getting tattooed when I was around 26 or 27. All my tattoos are by the same artist, and they were all done in about a year and a half.
hey depictfavorite movies from my childhood and sentimental things in my life."
His left arm contains imagery from ''
Jurassic Park'' and ''
Aliens'', and he has a
scarab beetle
The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change in recent years. Several sub ...
across his chest.
Of the latter, he said, "I got that when I started working out and going to the gym, because the scarab represents kind of a rebirth. That was me finding out who I was meant to be and really doing things for myself... taking time for myself."
In July 2020, Young deleted much of the content from his Kameron Michaels profiles on
Instagram,
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 ...
and
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, coincidentally on the day that
RuPaul did the same; this generated discussion and speculation among ''Drag Race'' fans and followers.
Young later stated that he had removed the posts during a period of mental distress, which he attributed to prolonged time spent home alone due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
and to reflection about the ongoing
George Floyd protests
The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...
.
He subsequently restored some of the content.
In July 2021, Young shared on social media that he had suffered a severe bout of
depression in November 2020, stating:
, Young resided in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.
The following month, he purchased a home in Las Vegas and moved there with his
French Bulldog, Lilo.
Discography
Singles
As lead artist
As featured artist
Filmography
Television
Internet series
Music videos
References
Citations
Audiovisual sources
*
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michaels, Kameron
Living people
1986 births
American drag queens
Gay entertainers
LGBT people from Ohio
LGBT people from Tennessee
People from Columbia, Tennessee
People from Massillon, Ohio
People from Nashville, Tennessee
Kameron Michaels