Braylon Ja'Rae Jackson, known professionally as Lana Ja'Rae (born May 7, 2002), is an American drag queen who competed on the seventeenth season of ''

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

'' (2025), where she finished in sixth place.

Early life

Braylon Ja'Rae Jackson was born and raised in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Texas. They first performed in drag while living in

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. While in high school, Jackson portrayed

Miss Trunchbull Miss Agatha Trunchbull (nicknamed The Trunchbull) is the fictional headmistress of Crunchem Hall Primary School (or Elementary School), and the main antagonist in Roald Dahl's 1988 novel ''Matilda'' and its adaptations: the 1996 film ''Matilda'' (p ...

in a production of ''

Matilda the Musical ''Roald Dahl's Matilda'', also known simply as ''Matilda'' and ''Matilda the Musical'', is a musical with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and a book by Dennis Kelly. It is based on the 1988 novel '' Matilda'' by Roald Dahl. The musical's narr ...

''.

Career

In 2022, Ja'Rae appeared out of drag in a photography editorial for ''

L'Officiel ''L'Officiel'' (; stylised in all caps), full name ''L'Officiel de la couture et de la mode de Paris'' ("The Official ublicationof Paris Couture and Fashion"), is a French bimonthly fashion magazine. It has been published in Paris since 1921 a ...

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

''. Lana Ja'Rae later appeared in a Pride campaign for British cosmetics company

The Body Shop The Body Shop International Limited, trading as the Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care, and perfume company founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, who opened her first store in Brighton, England. The company is now based in London Bridge ...

to involve customers to support the Equality Act for the United States. This promotional campaign featured two other drag performers, Angel Au and Makayla Couture. On ''Drag Race'', Lana Ja'Rae placed in the bottom two of the

episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a serial (radio and television), series intended for radio, television or Streaming media, streaming consumption. Etymology The noun ''episode'' is ...

with the

Snatch Game Snatch Game is a comedy challenge recurring across the ''Drag Race'' television franchise and a fixture of the reality competition series. Since the second season of the original American ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' series in 2010, the challenge ha ...

challenge. She defeated Crystal Envy in a lip-sync contest to remain in the competition. Her Instagram following grew by 147 percent while the show aired.

Personal life

They are currently based in New York City. Their "drag mother" is

season 15 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

alumni Luxx Noir London. They are additionally an open supporter of the

Ali Forney Center The Ali Forney Center (AFC), based in New York City, is the largest LGBT community center helping LGBTQ homeless youth in the United States. The AFC both manages and develops transitional housing for its clients. AFC helps approximately 2,000 ...

. They cite their drag inspiration to be

Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is a British supermodel. Beginning her career at the age of eight, Campbell was one of six models of her generation declared supermodels by the fashion industry and the international press. She was th ...

. Lana Ja'Rae identifies as Trans-Genderfluid and goes by she/her and they/them pronouns in drag; however, when not in drag, Lana prefers to use they/them pronouns.

Discography

Singles

*"JA'REAM" (2025)

Filmography

Television

* ''

'' (

season 17 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and polar ...

, 2025)

References

{{Portal bar, Biography, Texas, United States 2002 births Living people Drag performers from Dallas Drag performers from New York City Drag performers from Oklahoma RuPaul's Drag Race contestants