Monica Beverly Hillz

Monica Dejesus-Anaya, known by the stage persona Monica Beverly Hillz, is an American drag queen, reality television personality and transgender activist, originally known for appearing on season 5 of RuPaul's Drag Race.

She was the second contestant in the show's history to come out as a transgender woman on the show, after Sonique in season 2 (who came out during the show's reunion special).

Hillz coming out was historic as it was a first for network television.

In 2013, Dejesus-Anaya was a contestant on the fifth season of the American television reality competition RuPaul's Drag Race.

Previously, she had auditioned for season 1 and season 3.

During the show, it was widely commented that she seemed "excessively distracted".

The reason became clear when during the show she came out as transgender during the elimination portion of episode 2 in which she fell into the bottom two.

Speaking to the judges, she stated, "I feel I'm not here. I've just been holding a secret in and trying so hard. I'm not just a drag queen – I'm a transgendered woman."

The producers have stated that the reveal was not a contrived part of the show; they found out about her identifying as transgender during the filming of the episode.

Guest judges Kristen Johnston and Juliette Lewis both responded with supportive statements.

As producer Tom Campbell stated, "We discovered at the same time as everyone else. It was not revealed at any time during the casting process and everyone learned about it at the same time."

Fellow competitor and eventual season winner Jinkx Monsoon called Dejesus-Anaya her "hero" during the announcement.

By this, she became the first “out” transgender person to publicly identify as such while competing on the show, and although fellow transgender alumni Kylie Sonique Love, Carmen Carrera, Stacy Layne Matthews, Kenya Michaels, Jiggly Caliente, and Lashauwn Beyond had competed before her, they all came out publicly as transgender after their runs on the show.

While distracted, Dejesus-Anaya did well in week 1.

RuPaul commented that Dejesus-Anaya looked like Lady Miss Kier, with L'Etoile Magazine calling her face "fabulous".

In week 2, she fell into the bottom two against Serena ChaCha, with the two of them lipsyncing to Rihanna's "Only Girl in the World".

Dejesus-Anaya won the lipsync battle, with Serena ChaCha being sent home.

In 2014, she was selected as one of the Windy City Times "30 Under 30" for the "best LGBTQIA activism, business, culture, non-profit work and more" as well as Bustle naming her one of the "most popular" RPDR alum.

In 2015, she performed at the MTV Video Music Awards with Miley Cyrus for her live performance of "Dooo It!", along with other well known drag queens and RPDR alum.

Dejesus-Anaya is of Puerto Rican descent.

After the age of four, she was raised by her maternal aunt Gladys in Chicago's Latino Northwest Side.

She began performing in professional dance groups at the age of 13.

While in school, she was the victim of physical bullying, with other students kicking, punching, and slapping her.

Due to the bullying, she attempted suicide as a sophomore and dropped out of school.

Gladys died when Dejesus-Anaya was 15, leaving five children behind.

At that point, Dejesus-Anaya moved back in with her mother.

In Chicago, Dejesus-Anaya started performing at Latino gay clubs before deciding to move to Kentucky, where she became a performer at Owensboro's only gay bar.

She struggled with poverty, compounding issues she faced while as an adolescent and young adult.

At age 17, Dejesus-Anaya attended her first drag show, stating she "loved it".

After deciding to perform in drag herself, Dejesus-Anaya chose the name 'Monica', a tribute to Bollywood actress Monica and then Beverly Hills, the city in Los Angeles County, where she wanted to live.

She originally only went by "Monica Beverly" while performing in Chicago, but added "Hills" to her name when she moved to Kentucky, and replaced the "s" with a "z" for a "Latin spice".

Dejesus-Anaya considers her look in drag to be a mix of Aaliyah and Faith Evans.

She is inspired by Carmen Carrera, Amanda Lepore, Calpernia Addams, and Maria Roman.

While living in Kentucky, Dejesus-Anaya worked at Macy's for a year and nine months, where she experienced discrimination from certain individuals.

In Illinois, she worked as an escort while using narcotics, during which time she stated she was robbed and sexually assaulted.

Due to the experiences while working as an escort, she has sleeping issues and nightmares.

She had her name legally changed during sometime around 2021.

In August 2023, she revealed she was dating Josh Seiter, who had previously competed on the eleventh season of The Bachelorette.

The couple separated on August 22, after around three weeks of dating.

Less than a week later, Seiter was additionally falsely reported dead, of which Monica believes was Seiter's own doing.