Sasha Velour | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Sasha Velour atRuPaul's DragCon NYC in 2017 | |
| Born | Alexander Hedges Steinberg[1] (1987-06-25)June 25, 1987 (age 38) Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Education | Vassar College (AB) Center for Cartoon Studies (MFA) |
| Occupations | Drag queen, artist |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Known for | RuPaul's Drag Race (season 9) winner |
| Partner | Johnny Velour |
| Father | Mark D. Steinberg |
| Website | sashavelour |
Alexander "Sasha"Hedges Steinberg (born June 25, 1987), known professionally asSasha Velour, is an American drag queen, artist, actor, and stage and television producer, based inBrooklyn, New York.[2][3] Velour is known for winning theninth season ofRuPaul's Drag Race, her drag revueNightGowns, and her one-queen theatrical work,Smoke & Mirrors.[4][5]
Born inBerkeley, California, Velour was raised inNew Haven, Connecticut, until the age of nine when her family moved toUrbana, Illinois. Velour is the only child ofMark Steinberg, a scholar ofRussian history and professor in the Department of History atUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Jane Hedges, who served as editor atYale University Press and managing editor of theSlavic Review.[6][7] Velour is ofRussian Jewish descent on her father's side, and identifies with her father's faith.[8] Her grandmother emigrated from theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic viaManchuria.[9]
Velour graduated fromUniversity Laboratory High School inChampaign-Urbana in 2004.[10] After high school, she spent a year abroad with family and worked as a part-time security guard at theRussian State Hermitage Museum inSt. Petersburg, Russia, and interned at theStaatsoper (State Opera) inBerlin, Germany.[11][12]
Velour obtained an A.B. from the Independent Program (with a focus on Modern Literatures) fromVassar College in 2009. In 2010, she was aFulbright Scholar in Moscow and completed a project that aimed to understand the role of different art forms in contemporary Russian society.[13] She received an M.F.A. in cartooning in 2013 from theCenter for Cartoon Studies inWhite River Junction, Vermont.[14] Prior to pursuing drag as a full-time career, Velour worked as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, an English language tutor, and as head of production for the children's book publisher,Toon Books.[15][16][12]
Velour moved to New York with her partner John Jacob Lee (known professionally as Johnny Velour) in 2013. She created comics and zines that she self-published and sold at conventions.[17] Velour's work was also published inThe Nib,InkBRICK,[18]Comics Workbook Magazine,[19]QU33R,[20] Cicada Magazine[21] and others, under the names Sasha Velour and Sasha Steinberg. Velour also created a comic entitledStonewall, which attempted to tell the story of theStonewall riots using real and fictional characters. The work was called "a smart, beautiful and artful take on a significant and difficult historical event" by Highlow Comics.[22] Velour's visual art has been the subject of two solo gallery shows. A show entitled “What's Your Drag” was on display at Be Gallery NYC in spring 2014 (in connection with BeFluent, the English school where she taught), and another solo show entitled "Nightrooms", was held at the Black Box Gallery (located in Bizarre Bushwick) inBrooklyn in March 2016.[23][24] Velour's cut paper work was part of the group show "Coney Island Babies, Visual Artists from the Brooklyn Drag Scene" at the Bureau of General Services Queer Division that opened inManhattan in November 2012.[25] In March 2017, Velour designed a long sleeve T-shirt for "Contemporary Drag", a limited-edition fashion line for theNew Art Dealers Alliance's (NADA) in collaboration with Print All Over Me and she performed at the NADA show that month.[26][27]
Velour featured as the cover artist for the June 12, 2023 issue ofThe New Yorker.[28]
Velour started performing in drag while studying at TheCenter for Cartoon Studies inVermont. She also met her partner John Jacob Lee (known as Johnny Velour) in Vermont when he was acting in a production ofAnnie. In the spring of 2013, Velour and her partner stagedWhatever She Wants, A Drag Musicale at theMain Street Museum featuring local residents. She called producing the show a "milestone" of her drag career and moved to Brooklyn later that year.[29]
Velour began performing in New York City in early 2014.[30] She foundedVelour, The Drag Magazine (originally namedVym), a magazine about drag, alongside partner Johnny in the summer of 2014.[31] The magazine included interviews as well as varied art forms such as photography, poetry, and illustration that address the power, beauty, and purpose of drag. Three issues were published over two years and the magazine was compiled into a 300-page hardcover book in 2018.[32]
Velour began producing a monthly drag show,NightGowns, in August 2015, at Bizarre Bushwick. The show has been regularly hosted at Bizarre Bushwick and National Sawdust, both in Brooklyn New York. The shows have been celebrated as "beautiful and funny and politically charged" byThe New York Times.[33] It was later adapted into a TV series forQuibi.
Velour auditioned forRuPaul's Drag Race's eighth season but was not selected to participate.[34] In 2017, she competed in and ultimately won the ninth season of the show.[35][36] Velour'slip sync toWhitney Houston's "So Emotional" in the season finale was named “performance of the year” byThe A.V. Club and was also named one of "TV's Best Musical Moments" byEntertainment Weekly.[37][38] Thelip-sync was later referenced onSaturday Night Live, duringKate McKinnon's impression ofElizabeth Warren.[39][40]
During the airing of the show, Velour starred in the music video for the non-record single "C.L.A.T." alongside fellow New York City drag artistsPeppermint,Aja andAlexis Michelle, all of whom also appeared on the ninth season ofDrag Race.[41]
Velour founded The House of Velour in 2017, a production company that she uses to produce stage, film work and merchandise. KC Ifeyani atFast Company said the company was "disrupting the business of drag".[3] Velour expanded her drag showcaseNightGowns, moving it from Bizarre Bushwick to National Sawdust in April 2017.[42] The show also toured toLos Angeles,London, and played atTerminal 5 in New York City, withJanet Jackson in attendance.[43][44][45][46]
In 2018, Velour partnered withOpening Ceremony to host and direct theirNew York Fashion Week show. Velour selected 40LGBTQ+ models to walk, creating the first all queer show in New York Fashion Week history.[47][48][49] The show featured other notable drag performers (Lypsinka,Shea Couleé,Jiggly Caliente,Miss Fame,Farrah Moan, Hungry, and more) as well as a surprise performance fromChristina Aguilera.[50][51]
In 2017,Google commissioned Velour to create aGoogle Doodle of German singer-actressMarlene Dietrich which appeared on Google's homepage on December 27, 2017, the 116th anniversary of Dietrich's birth. Velour impersonated Dietrich in theSnatch Game challenge on season 9 ofRuPaul's Drag Race.[52] For the 50th anniversary of theStonewall uprising in 2019, Velour published a detailed history comic about the events of that night titledThree Dollar Riot. She had first begun working on the comic years before for her thesis project at the Center for Cartoon Studies; a previous version of the comic was published in 2012 under the nameStonewall.[53]
Variety featured Velour in the "Power of New York List 2019", and she appeared inOut's annualOUT100 list twice (2017 and 2019).[54][55] In June 2019, a panel of judges fromNew York magazine placed Velour 12th on their list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 formerDrag Race contestants.[56]
During a period of isolation brought on by theCOVID-19 pandemic in the summer of 2021, Velour produced a series ofpapier-mâché masks called "Faces of Drag", which honors ten pioneers in "the world history of drag".[57] Those highlighted by the series includeIzumo no Okuni,Rebecca and Her Daughters,William Dorsey Swann,Mei Lanfang,Barbette,Josephine Baker,Coccinelle,José Sarria, andDivine.
Velour has spoken at theTeen Vogue Summit (June 2018), The Long Conversation at theSmithsonian inWashington, D.C. (Dec. 2018) and for colleges includingPurdue,The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign,Columbia,Oakland University, and more.[58][59][60][61][62][63] She has appeared on the covers ofWussy Mag,Plastik Magazine,Bricks,GayTimes, and she art-directed her petItalian Greyhound, Vanya's, cover shoot ofDog Magazine which featured an interview with Velour.[64][65][66][67][68] Her home was featured inPeople magazine.[69]
In 2018, Velour self-produced a short film entitledPirate Jenny, which included Velour performing her own translation of the famousThe Threepenny Opera song of the same name.[70] The work was shown as part of the group art show "Bona Drag: An Incomplete History of Drag and Cross-Gender Performance in Film and Video Art (Part 1)" at theRhode Island School of Design that opened in November 2018.[71]
In 2019, Velour appeared as herself on episodes of the television showsThe Bold Type andBroad City.[72][73]
Velour adapted her stage showNightGowns into an 8-episode docu-series for the short-form platformQuibi, and it premiered on April 6, 2020.[74] She was executive producer and starred in the show, and produced it with the Documentary Group andmusic video directorSophie Muller.[75]NightGowns followed Velour and a cast of drag performers across eight episodes as she transformsNightGowns into a full-blown stage act.[76]The New York Times said it was "among the most life-affirming shows you could find on any platform".[77] A second season was ordered in August 2020, but Quibi ceased operations in late 2020.[78][79] In 2021,NightGowns won the RealScreen Award for "Digital Content, Short Form Content, Non-Fiction”.[80]
In March 2021, Velour starred inAngélica Negrón'sThe Island We Made, a short art-opera film commissioned byOpera Philadelphia.[81] The film was directed by Matthew Placek.[82] In July 2023, it was announced that Velour, alongsidePriyanka andJaida Essence Hall, would be the new hosts of the fourth season of the reality television seriesWe're Here. The three replaced the previous hosts,Eureka,Shangela, andBob the Drag Queen.[83]
On January 9, 2019, Velour premiered her first evening-length solo theater show,Smoke & Mirrors, inCanberra,Australia during a seven-city tour of Australia andNew Zealand produced by ITD Events.[84][85] The US premiere ofSmoke & Mirrors was held on March 21, 2019, atNew York Live Arts where it played eight sold-out shows.[86][87] In May 2019, Velour performed the show at The Theatre AtThe Ace inLos Angeles, and on August 9 and 10, 2019, she performed two sold-out shows at the O2Shepherd's Bush Empire inLondon.[88][89] The show was also performed atPurdue University and theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that fall.[60][90]
A 23-city (24 show) tour of the US and Canada opened inSan Antonio,Texas on October 21, 2019, and closed inSan Francisco,California on November 30, 2019.[91] A 16-city tour of the United Kingdom and the European Union opened on March 2, 2020, inBirmingham, England.[92][93] After seven performances, the tour was cut short due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. The last performance was played inDublin, Ireland on March 11, 2020.[94] The European tour resumed in February 2022, playing in often sold-out theaters in 36 cities in 17 countries, reaching from Ireland to Poland.
Velour was featured on the June 2023 cover of theELLE View, or digital, edition ofELLEBrasil.[95]
As of 2013[update], Velour resides inBrooklyn with partner Johnny Velour and her petItalian Greyhound, Vanya.[96] Velour isgenderfluid and uses the pronounsshe/they when not in drag.[97] Her drag persona, Sasha Velour, uses the pronounsshe/her.[98][99][100] Velour has a shaved head. She often performs in drag bald, as a tribute to her mother, Jane Hedges, who died of cancer in 2015 and had lost her hair during treatment for the disease.[31]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | RuPaul's Drag Race | Herself (Contestant) | Season 9 (Winner) |
| 2019 | Broad City | Herself | Guest Appearance |
| 2019 | The Bold Type | Herself | Guest Appearance |
| 2023 | Drag Race Germany | Herself | Guest Judge |
| 2024 | We're Here | Herself | Main cast |
| 2025 | King of Drag | Herself | Judge |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked | Herself | Season 9 |
| 2020 | The Pit Stop[101] | Season 12, Episode 1 | |
| NightGowns | Executive Producer / Herself | Quibi original | |
| TheX-Change Rate[102] | Herself | Guest | |
| 2023 | Entertainment Tonight Canada[103] | ||
| Very Delta |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | The Island We Made | Narrator | Short art-opera film commissioned byOpera Philadelphia |
| Year | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Stonewall | History comic |
| 2018 | VELOUR: The Drag Magazine[104] | Art book |
| 2019 | Three Dollar Riot | History comic |
| 2020 | Creature from the Vinyl Lagoon[105] | Zine |
| 2023 | The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag[106][107] | Book |
| Year | Award giving body | Category | Work | Results | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Brooklyn Nightlife Awards | Drag Queen of the Year | Herself | Won | [108] |
| Best Visual Artist | Won | ||||
| Best Event Producer | House of Velour | Won | |||
| 2018 | Brooklyn Nightlife Awards | Best Event Producer | House of Velour | Nominated | [109] |
| 2020 | Queerty Awards | Drag Royalty | Herself | Nominated | [110] |
| 2021 | RealScreen Awards | Digital Content - Short-Form Content - Non-Fiction | NightGowns | Won | [111] |
| 2022 | Trinity University's Philosophical Society | The Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage | Herself | Won | [112] |
| 2023 | Peabody Awards | Entertainment | We're Here | Won | [113] |
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Winner ofRuPaul's Drag Race US season 9 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
