‘Shangela Laquifa Wadley’ is a popular American Drag Queen, Reality TV star, actress, comedian and musician. She has 1.4m Instagram followers and has a fast growing online presence. She was born in 1981 in Paris, Texas (birth name Darius Jeremy Pierce). Her mother was in the United States Army and travelled for her work, so her grandparents helped to raise her. She first performed in drag at the age of 16 while still at school. Pierce went on to attend Southern Methodist University. In 2009 ‘Shangela’ became Pierce’s drag character and quickly grew in success, becoming a well known name in the drag circuit.

Shangela increased in fame on the famous Reality TV show ‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race’, appearing in season two and three. She has worked many times in TV, for example, she has worked on ‘2 Broke Girls’ (2012), ‘Glee’ (2012) and ‘The X Files’ (2016). She was in the film ‘Hurricane Bianca’ then the sequel, and the critically acclaimed film ‘A Star is Born’.

Her first single as a musician was called ‘Call Me Laquifa’ and was released in 2011. Shangela launched ‘Say What Entertainment’, a talent and management agency in 2014. In 2018 she was the commentator for the US at the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2019 judges from New York magazine named her second on the list of ‘most powerful drag queens in America’, a huge achievement, which further established her name on the scene on an international level. She is a talented stand-up comedian who has performed as part of the ‘Drag Queens of Comedy’.