Houston’s drag scene is here, get used to it.
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Houston’s drag scene is one of the most dynamic and diverse in the country. We have it all, from pageant to comedy to dancing queens. Seven days a week, you can see your favorite queen at karaoke, bingo, brunch or your favorite club.
And they’re not going anywhere. Texas lawmakers have spent the last few years targeting drag queens with legislation that falsely frames them as something dangerous or inappropriate. But drag, in Houston and around the world, continues to thrive as an art form rooted in joy, resistance and radical self-expression.
Here’s a look at some of the artists making Houston a place where drag doesn’t just survive — it thrives.
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Call her mother. Chevelle Brooks is a drag icon in Texas and far beyond, with a legacy that has influenced and inspired a long line of entertainers. She’s known for high-energy performances and regularly performs and hosts around the country. Her drag family tree includes Mistress Isabelle Brooks and the late Jiggly Caliente, both of whom competed on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
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Roxanne Collins as Tina Turner
Roxanne Collins
Roxanne Collins has been entertaining audiences for more than three decades. She’s a transgender showgirl and celebrity impersonator, known throughout Houston for her spot-on Tina Turner. “I want everyone who comes to my shows to leave feeling just a little bit happier than when they arrived,” Collins says. You can see her weekly at Barcode, where she is show director. She also does a great Chaka Khan.
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Tommie Ross
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The word legend could have been invented for Tommie Ross. The transgender performer has been crowned Miss Black America, Miss Gay USofA and Miss Continental, among other titles. She was instrumental in desegregating drag competitions. But she says her proudest moment to date was being the first black trans woman named Pride Houston’s female-identifying grand marshal in 2020.
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The “Drag Race” favorite moved to Houston almost three years ago and loves to have friends over for pool parties. She’s also hoping to get more bookings in the city she now calls home. “I know how to sell a club, and I know how to speak on a microphone. I’ve been in my grown woman era now,” she says. Anyone who has seen Silky onstage knows she has the goods.
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The grande dame of drag is a trailblazing transgender performer whose career spans more than six decades. She’s from Honolulu and has won dozens of pageant titles nationwide, including Miss Afro-America 1968 and Miss Gay USA 1981. Though Houston is now home, she is recognized as a drag and trans pioneer across the country. Her story was chronicled in the book “Forever Her Mother’s Son: The Dina Jacobs Story.”
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Glamour, sass and over-the-top beauty are Alexye’us Paris’ calling cards. She’s been doing drag since 1997 and can be seen weekly at Barcode and the Houston Eagle. Paris has won many titles during her two-plus decades of performing, including Miss Gay Houston, Texas USofA 2026. She’s also smart and funny on social media.
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Jazell Royale on ‘Queen of the Universe’ Season 2.
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Jazell Royale, who is originally from Florida, now calls Houston home. The transgender icon was the first Black woman to win the Miss International Queen pageant, a Thailand-based competition for trans women. In 2020, her lip sync performance of CeCe Peniston’s “He Luvs Me Too” went viral. She’s a longtime advocate for HIV care and safe sex. And she should have won “Queen of the Universe” Season 2.
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This Houston native started her drag career while attending Texas A&M University. (Class of 2013!) At 6-foot-7, she strikes a commanding figure onstage. Her drag name was inspired by the iconic Lady Gaga and Beyoncé “Telephone” music video, and she does illusions of everyone from Patti LaBelle to Madea. She has frequently made the top 10 at Miss Gay Texas America and is known for her sickening choreography.
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Lady B
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This diva Latina has made a name for herself throughout Texas and beyond with high-energy performances. She’s also a recording artist and released the album “Voodoo Queen” in 2022, which features a mix of genres. It includes a duet with Paul Luna, another Houston singer.
Muffy Blake Vanderbilt III
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MBV3 started doing drag as part of the Dessie’s Drag Race competition. She’s quickly become one of the city’s busiest and most ambitious queens. The “bubblegum princess Disney unicorn” can be seen performing at clubs all over town. She was also part of “Camp Wannakiki,” a drag reality competition on OutTV.
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If you don’t know Kofi, you don’t know Houston drag. She’s the grand dame, the queen bee. Call her mother. She has been entertaining crowds for more than 40 years and was host of the popular “So You Think You Can Drag” competition. “Your personality offstage is what makes you a success onstage,” Kofi says. “If they love you as a person, they will adore you as a entertainer.” She was sidelined by a stroke in 2025 but has recently returned to the stage.
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Blackberri is a “thicc bearded lady who is the funniest girl in the room and loves to make people smile.” She first stepped onstage in 2016 during a local drag contest. Since then, Blackberri has become one of the city’s most popular queens and has worked hard to build a national profile. She reached new heights as a contestant on the Shudder reality series “Dragula,” making it all the way to the finale, and returned in 2025 for a “Titans” series featuring past favorites. She was featured in the 2023 Pride campaign for Yitty, Lizzo’s shapewear line. You can see Blackberri all over Houston and beyond.
Mistress Isabelle Brooks
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The first Houston queen to compete on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Mistress Isabelle Brooks made it all the way to the Season 15 finale and returned on “All Stars” 10 to create more chaos. The Houston native has been doing drag since she was 16 and calls her style “over-the-top traditional drag with a modern twist.” She performs regularly throughout the city and hosts fellow Ru girls at South Beach nightclub monthly.
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LaRue, who started doing drag in 2015, says she will “always serve you sexy, glamour, she will always give you the fantasy, dahling.” But you’ll still never be quite sure what she’s going to do. A slow and sexy ballad? A fast male rap? A 20-minute Selena mini-concert? Yes, yes and yas, queen. See her everywhere, from Ripcord to South Beach to Boheme to Rich’s.
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Miss Majors started doing drag in August 2021 and quickly established herself in the city. She says drag is her “love letter to my childhood” and loves performing for crowds. In 2024, she was crowned Miss So You Think You Can Drag 2024. She’s a winner, baby.
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Lana Blake is a Houston icon. She has been performing for more than three decades and is a former Miss Texas USofA Classic. You can see her weekly at Barcode (Thursdays) and Michael’s Outpost (Fridays and Saturdays). The Saturday gig, Eyecons, is Houston’s longest-running celebrity illusion show. Blake performs as Cher, Madonna, Barbara Streisand, Lady Gaga, Cyndi Lauper and others.
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DLB isn’t just a drag queen. She’s a drag mogul. She was crowned Miss Gay America 2024, one of the biggest titles in all of drag pageantry. She was also Miss Gay Texas America in 2014, was first runner-up in the 2019 Miss Gay America Pageant and hosts the long-running “Dessie’s Drag Race” competition. (Any Houston queen worth her sequins has entered.) Her repertoire includes illusions of Janis Joplin, Pink, Taylor Swift, Lucille Ball, Lady Gaga and Stevie Nicks.
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Ross is a core cast member of Eye Cons at Michael’s Outpost, a long-running celebrity impersonation revue, where she channels everyone from Whitney Houston to Anita Baker. She has an eye for vintage and sparkle, and she’s dedicated to mentoring and uplifting younger drag artists. And if you haven’t guessed, she loves Diahann Carroll.
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This queen’s nine lives include being a performer and a wigmaker. She’s crafted hair for some of Houston’s most popular queens. Catch Kitty performing throughout Montrose and beyond.
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The “Texas Twins” are siblings, of course, and two of Houston’s most enduring queens. They’re also among the most versatile. They can crack a joke. They can host. They can twirl onstage to a country number or a pop classic. And they can make you cry with the flip of an eyelash. Together or solo, they represent the best of Houston drag.
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A singer and makeup artist alongside her burgeoning drag career, Wilhelmina Guess performs mostly in Galveston. She’s been crowned Miss Spookums 2021 and Miss Sweetheart 2022 at Robert Lafitte’s. “It’s become everything to me. I live and breathe drag.” When she’s not slaying the stage, Guess volunteers at the Salvation Army in Galveston.
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Persephone started doing drag on a whim in 2017. She was working at Hamburger Mary’s and signed up for a turnabout show, where employees who’ve never done drag try to slay the stage. But her fascination with dressing up started earlier. “When I was a kid, I used to run around the house, draping myself with blankets and towels, along with pantyhose on my head that I would wrap into a bun. I would call myself Cinderella,” she recalls. She’s all over the city these days as a host, emcee and ambassador.
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Vavra is a queen of many faces. Literally. She loves cosplay, Broadway, Hollywood glam and “absolute nonsensical comedy.” She started doing drag sporadically in 2015 with the Houston Gaymers, a LGBTQ+ gaming group, and has been actively pursuing it since 2017. You can see her at Michael’s Outpost for “The Broad’s Way” and the comedic drag show “Laugh Track.”
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Chloe Crawford Ross adds “urban swag” to everything she does, mixing it with glam, fashion and a cool sensuality. She made her drag debut in 2010 at Bayou City Bar and Grill. (Who remembers those days?) As a transgender woman, the meaning of Pride has evolved for Ross. “Pride now means continuing to fight to be heard. It means believing in the light that shines within us all. It means speaking out as a united force and representing all the alphabet when one is in need.”
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In name alone, this queen was born to be onstage. She was just 13 years old when she started doing drag in 1994, unaware that it was the start of her journey as a transgender woman. Mirage describes her drag aesthetic as “crazy, sexy, cool with an African and Caribbean flare.” You can see her all over town.
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Luna is a goblin — and she’d be the first to tell you that. Her drag mixes horror, comedy and social commentary in one deliciously devious package. Her drag name comes from a combination of “Sailor Moon,” her favorite show as a child, and a painting of the Virgin Mary titled “Madonna of the Lilies” that she came across while working as a funeral director. It’s that combination that’s made her a standout.
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LaRue is goofy and glamorous and always ready to slay. “I love to dance,” she says. “And I also love to just have a great time and engage with my audience.” She’s an upstanding member of the BeyHive and does a fierce Beyoncé. This year, she was crowned Miss Gay Houston Texas USofA at Large. Bow to the queen.
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Even casual fans of Houston drag know Violet S’Arbleu. The “thinking man’s drag queen” has performed all over the city, for all sorts of crowds and at all types of venues. She’s a former Miss Gay Texas America who is well-versed on everything from pop culture to politics. (We love an educated queen.)
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“Drag is using society’s aesthetic concept of gender to create art,” Chloe Knox says. She started in 2012 and has become one of Houston’s most creative queens. She’s a two-time winner of Dessie’s Drag Race, a long-running local competition. “It’s an insanely blessed life,” she says. “I know it won’t last forever, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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All hail the queen! Laisha LaRue was crowned Miss Gay Pride Houston 2023. She’s been doing drag since 2010 and loves gagging the girls at pageants.
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This beloved Houston queen and transgender entertainer is from San Antonio but has called Houston home for more than a decade. She’s earned multiple pageant titles and performs weekly at Tony’s Corner Pocket. That she’s been blind for much of her life hasn’t slowed her down at all.
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Yes, her name is a play on Miley Cyrus’ sitcom alter-ego. But Santanna is more than just a pop-culture punchline. She’s at the forefront of Houston’s new generation of drag artists, blending camp, comedy and political activism. Santanna was crowned the 2024 Queen of Draggieland, the long-running and popular Texas A&M student-run pageant that has been the target of conservative attacks and federal First Amendment litigation. She recently performed at Comicpalooza as part of a Pokémon drag show.
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Sauvignon Blanca is conceptual and fashion-forward. A club kid with something to say. Originally from West Texas, she commands attention with her looks and plays artfully with gender roles. But underneath, she’s simply someone who yearns to be creative and leave it all onstage.
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Marsha Mellow started doing drag in 1996. “I go back to the day when we were called female impersonators,” she says. “I have a lot of sass and spunk.” She’s a longtime activist, host and is known around town for a spot-on Adele illusion.
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Her name suggests a bit of heat, but Cyn City also has glamour to spare. She was Miss Gay Texas USofA Newcomer 2019 and is a celebrity impersonator. You can catch her Sundays at Boheme’s outdoor drag brunch.
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In the words of “Drag Race” fave Heidi N Closet, Kiki Dion Van Wales is “busy, booked, blessed and highly favored.” She’s co-owner of the annual Galveston Pride festivities and runs shows at First Christian Church of Katy and Scotty’s Pub on the Bay. Van Wales also works with #ActOutHTX, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights.
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“I take what I do seriously but not myself,” says Annalee Naylor. She started doing drag in 2019 and describes her aesthetic as “camp, raunchy and fun.” You can see her regularly at Ripcord, Michael’s Outpost and The Room Bar in Spring
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This glamorous queen is proud to represent her Mexican roots. She’s a pageant title holder and was previously a cast member at Hamburger Mary’s in downtown Houston. She also performs around Montrose and Galveston.
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Iris Seymour describes her drag aesthetic as “classy or professional attire mixed with overt sexiness.” Corporate realness, honey. She started doing drag at the end of 2016 and has been performing all over the city.