RuPaul’s life is soon to become a dramedy series — thanks to J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, World of Wonder (the company that produces Drag Race), and RuPaul himself.
The show, much like one decade of RuPaul’s life, will be set in the 1980s, and center around queer New York City life under Reagan (an obviously fraught time, given that “under Reagan” also means under his cruel silence and inaction amidst the AIDS epidemic). According to Deadline, the series is a fictional portrait of RuPaul Andre Charles’s “rise from club kid to drag queen, gay icon, and global star.”
Now known nationally as a reality TV personality — and the force who brought drag culture to larger, wider audiences without compromising or tucking its extravagant queerness — RuPaul’s immersion within the New York club kids’/drag culture occurred after he moved from Atlanta in the mid-80s; it wasn’t until the early/mid 90s that he received wider recognition — for his album Supermodels of the World — and became the first drag queen supermodel after scoring a contract with MAC cosmetics. He broke fully into mainstream visibility with The RuPaul Show on VH1.
The series does not yet have a name. RuPaul and Abrams are among its many executive producers, who’ll soon be offering it up for bidding at assorted channels. This announcement comes just in advance of the ninth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which returns this Friday, March 24.