| Real Name: | RuPaul Andre Charles |
| Birthday: | November 17, 1960 |
| Net Worth: | $60 million |
| Height: | 193 cm |
| Occupation: | American Drag Queen, Actor, Model, Singer, Songwriter, Television Personality |
Many consider RuPaul the most commercially successful drag queen in the United States. He managed to create wider exposure for drag queens into mainstream society. He enjoyed success early on and used it to create his RuPaul’s Drag Race show. His talk show remains the first with a drag queen as a host. How much is RuPaul’s cash flow? How much does he earn through his show?
Along with his partner Michelle Visage, RuPaul has had many high-profile guests on his show. Those include Lil Kim, Diana Ross, and Cher among others. And the show doesn’t discuss only drag queens. Instead, it focuses on important topics like black empowerment, female empowerment, misogyny, liberal politics, and much more.
Some of these topics didn’t make it to the television screen before RuPaul. Do you want to know about the most successful drag queen of all time? Let’s take a look at his career path and wealth.
Quick Bio
Born in 1960 in San Diego, he is an American drag queen, actor, model, singer, television personality, and celebrity. Born and raised in San Diego, he moved to Atlanta later in his life to study performing arts. But he settled in New York City as a popular fixture on the nightclub scene.
With the release of his debut single, Supermodel (You Better Work), he achieved international fame as a drag queen.
In 1994, he started working as a spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics, raising money for the company’s AIDS Fund. At the time, RuPaul got the chance as the first drag queen to land a major cosmetics campaign.
In the 1980s, he struggled as a musician and filmmaker. Before achieving fame, he worked at Atlanta’s famed Plaza Theatre. In 1982, he debuted in the show The American Music Show. In the early 1980s, RuPaul participated in underground cinema, creating the low-budget movie Star Booty.
In the early 1990s, he started working the Georgia club scene. There, he worked by his full birth name, RuPaul Andre Charles. He performed solo or in collaboration with other bands. He participated in gender-bender-style performances.
Everything changed in 1993 when he recorded the album Supermodel of the World. The dance house record found instant success on MTV channels. The lead single, Supermodel (You Better Work) peaked at Number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.
RuPaul used his success in the music world to land a modeling contract with Mac Cosmetics. The company featured him on various billboards in a full drag outfit, with a caption, “I am the MAC Girl”. At the time, he also released his autobiography, Lettin’ It All Hang Out.
In 1996, he landed his own talk show on VH1, The RuPaul Show. There, he interviewed celebrities like Nirvana, Diana Ross, Mary J. Blige, Olivia Newton-John, Pete Burns, Backstreet Boys, and many more.
By the end of the 1990s, he released his second album, Foxy Lady. This time, he went with the LA Rhino Records label. Despite his growing celebrity status, the album failed to chart on the Billboard 200.
In 1997, he released another album, this time a Christmas album, Ho Ho Ho.
In 2008, RuPaul started producing his extremely popular show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. The television game show aired on Logo TV, with a premise of drag queens competing to get selected by RuPaul and judges as the next drag superstar.
The show lasted for a couple of seasons. At the same time, RuPaul continued releasing music with his sixth album Glamazon in April 2011.
In the fall of 2012, the OG drag queen premiered a spinoff of his show, with the name RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars. Featuring past contestants from the previous seasons, the show continued to raise the popularity of drag queens.
In 2013, he joined forces with Colorevolution to launch his debut make-up line. Featuring ultra-rich pigment cosmetics, he released the line with a unisex perfume, Glamazon.
At the beginning of 2017, he announced a new album. Titled Remember Me: Essential Vol.1, the album consists of remakes of classic hits and some new songs.
In January 2020, he announced that he will host Saturday Night Live for the first time. RuPaul got the chance for the February 8, 2020 episode with Justin Bieber as the musical guest.
RuPaul is homosexual, and he has remained with his husband Georges Lebar since 1994. The two met at the Limelight nightclub in New York City. But they got married in January 2017. His partner is a painter and has a 60,000-acre ranch in Wyoming.
He publicly endorsed the Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 US Presidential elections.
Net Worth
This is the question we all want to know. What is RuPaul’s cash flow? How much does he earn from his music? And how much does he earn as an actor? What about his show?
As of January 2021, RuPaul’s fortune is more than $60 million. Many consider him the most commercially successful drag queen in the world.
Just for comparison, the most successful drag queen from his show is Alaska. She has a fortune of $3.4 million.
RuPaul earned more than $50,000 per episode of Drag Race. Do the math, there are more than 13 seasons so far. Each season has at least 10 episodes. And when Drag Race moved back to VH1, his salary increased.
Besides Drag Race and his music production, RuPaul earns money from other ventures. He has a weekly podcast, as well as audiobooks. And through his production company, he hosted a drag queen convention in Los Angeles.
As one of the most successful drag queens in the world, RuPaul can afford to splurge. In October 2019, he spent $13.7 million to buy a 10,300 square foot mansion in Beverly Hills.
And that is not his only property.
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