Shangela

Pierce was born in Lamar County, Texas, and grew up in Paris, Texas, the only child of Debra Sue Pierce (born 1959), a worker in the United States Army who traveled frequently for her work.

He is biracial, and is of half-Saudi descent.

His parents split when he was at a young age, after which his father returned to Saudi Arabia.

As a result Pierce was raised by his single mother and her large Southern Baptist family, including a grandfather who worked as a cowboy on a cattle ranch.

Chantaize Darius Jeremy Pierce, better known by the stage name Shangela Laquifa Wadley or simply as Shangela (born November 22, 1981), is an American drag queen, reality television personality, and actor best known for competing on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Shangela was the first contestant eliminated in season two, and returned as a surprise contestant in the series' third season, placing sixth.

She returned once again for the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars where she finished in joint-third/fourth place alongside winner of the first season, BeBe Zahara Benet.

Shangela has also made several television appearances and regularly performs across the United States and Canada.

His grandfather died in 2000.

He was a cheerleader in high school, and began dressing in drag for creative projects for English classes.

Shangela emerged as Pierce's drag persona in January 2009.

Pierce had choreographed a three-person drag act to "Single Ladies" for a sober charity event in Los Angeles, and when one of the performers cancelled, the other two asked her to fill in.

The club's promoter was so impressed with Shangela's performance that he offered to book her for the following week.

In 2010, Shangela was crowned in the first California Entertainer of the Year pageant; the first alternate was Chad Michaels.

After five months of performing in Los Angeles, Shangela was selected to join the cast for season two of RuPaul's Drag Race, but was eliminated in the first episode.

She later reauditioned and was invited back for season three, where she made it to the top five (although she placed sixth overall due to the return of Carmen Carrera one episode later).

She also made cameo appearances in the show's fourth-season premiere and the "Snatch Game" episode of All Stars season two.

Shangela returned to compete on the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars, making her the first queen to compete on three separate seasons of the show.

She made it to the season's finale and was considered a frontrunner for the crown, but was controversially eliminated after only receiving one vote from Thorgy Thor among the jury of previously eliminated queens.

She subsequently tied third/fourth place with season-one winner BeBe Zahara Benet.

Shangela competed in the television special RuPaul's Drag Race Holi-slay Spectacular.

After Drag Race, Shangela appeared in numerous television series, including Community (2011), 2 Broke Girls (2012), Glee (2012), Bones (2014), The X-Files (2016), and Broad City (2019).

Pierce had a non-drag role in a short film, Body of a Barbie (2011), which aired on BET and was a Top 7 National Finalist on the network's Lens on Talent series.

In 2013, Shangela was featured in an ad for Facebook Home.

She was one of thirty drag queens featured in Miley Cyrus's 2015 VMA performance.

She also appeared in the comedy film Hurricane Bianca (2016), its sequel Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate (2018), and the musical drama film A Star is Born (2018).

Shangela had a role in the 2016 comedy film Hurricane Bianca, directed by Matt Kugelman and starring fellow Drag Race contestants Bianca Del Rio and Willam Belli.

She returned to reprise this role in the 2018 sequel, Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate.

In 2018, she was the commentator for the U.S. for the Eurovision Song Contest held in Lisbon, Portugal with Ross Mathews for Logo TV.

The same year, she had a supporting role as a drag queen emcee in the film A Star Is Born, alongside Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, and Willam Belli.

On September 8, 2022, Shangela was announced as a contestant on season 31 of Dancing with the Stars.

She was partnered with Gleb Savchenko.

Shangela and Savchenko reached the finals of the show, and finished in fourth place.

In 2019, representing A Star Is Born at the 91st Academy Awards, she became the first drag queen to walk the Oscars red carpet in drag.

In June 2019, a panel of judges from New York magazine placed Shangela second on their list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 former RuPaul's Drag Race contestants.

Shangela appeared in Toddlers & Tiaras, in which she coached her 9-year-old goddaughter to compete in a beauty pageant.

Other appearances include episodes of Glee, Bones, Community, Terriers, Dance Moms, 2 Broke Girls, Detroit 187 and The Mentalist, as well as a commercial for Orbitz with fellow Drag Race contestants Manila Luzon and Carmen Carrera.

Shangela and other RuPaul's Drag race contestants including Trixie Mattel, Tammie Brown, and Manila Luzon, appeared in a Food and Drug Administration campaign against smoking.

Since 2020, Shangela has co-hosted the HBO reality series We're Here, alongside fellow Drag Race contestants Bob the Drag Queen and Eureka O'Hara.

The series has received acclaim from critics.