Nikita Dragun is an award-winning influencer, actress, model, reality TV personality, and makeup artist. She is best known for her YouTube and TikTok channels, which have more than 18 million followers and subscribers between them. Add her 8.9 million Instagram followers and you can see the level of popularity that she enjoys. As well as her makeup tutorials, she is known for heartfelt content about her transgender identity and her journeys through mental health and cosmetic surgery.
Dragun was born in Belgium in 1996 but grew up in America and went to high school in Virginia. She came out as trans in her teens and has never shied away from talking about it or the discrimination she has faced. In this she is far more than “just a makeup artist” (although her makeup tutorials are brilliant); she is doing her bit to raise visibility for her much-marginalised community.
Dragun won the Streamy Award for Beauty in 2019 and the Best in Beauty Award at the 2020 Shorty Awards. She has also crossed over into reality television, appearing in the webseries Escape the Night and even an episode of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She has also appeared in numerous music videos, most notably in the visual for Iggy Azalea’s 2019 single, ‘F*** It Up’. At the time of writing, she is taking a break from social media to attend to her mental health, but her fans have stuck loyally by her, and her return to social media, when it happens, will be much welcomed.