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Valentina Biography
Valentina who’s real name is James Andrew Leyva is a an American drag performer, actor, television personality and singer best known as a contestant on the ninth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars.
Valentina (drag queen)Valentina began working as a professional drag queen around ten months before filming RuPaul’s Drag Race, although she already had a background in fashion and the performing arts. She chose to go by “Valentina” in drag after the hot sauce of the same name.
She is known for using her drag as a way to represent Latin American culture on stage and make drag more accepted in Latin American culture.
Valentina Age
She was born on 19 May 1991 on Bell, California, United States. She 27 years old as of 2018.
Valentina Gay
Valentina is openly gay and non-binary, and goes by “she/her” pronouns when in drag as Valentina.
Valentina Photo
Valentina Career
In 2015, Valentina won an early club version of the Boulet Brothers’ “Dragula” contest, a precursor of the television show.
She appeared in the sixth episode of the twenty-fourth season of America’s Next Top Model, in a photo shoot challenge with fellow Drag Race alumni Katya and Manila Luzon. Valentina then played Judy Reyes’s character Quiet Ann in a season-one recap of Claws.
In 2017, she was the host of her own WoWPresents internet show, “La Vida De Valentina” which ran for seven episodes. In December 2018, Valentina released her debut single, “A Prueba de Todo”.
Valentina RuPaul’s Drag Race
On February 2, 2017, Valentina was announced as one of fourteen contestants competing for the ninth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Valentina was eliminated in episode nine after infamously losing a lipsync battle to “Greedy” by Ariana Grande; she was reluctant to take off a mask covering her mouth as she did not know the lyrics to the song, a moment which went viral across social media.
Valentina placed seventh overall, and her elimination sparked some controversy online as she was popular with fans. She was later voted as “Miss Congeniality” by the viewers of the show, but was mockingly dubbed “Fan Favorite” by her castmates.
During the season 10 finale, he appeared via a pre-recorded video message to crown her successor for the Miss Congeniality title, Monét X Change.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars
On November 9, 2018, she was announced as a contestant on the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars, a spin-off of the regular Drag Race series which features returning contestants from past seasons. Sadly, she was eliminated from All Stars on Friday’s episode (January 27, 2019) — just two days before Rent live.
Valentina Rent
Valentina played a role as Angel Dumott Schunard in Fox’s televised production of the musical Rent, Rent: Live that aired on January 27, 2019.
Valentina Rent Live Clips
Valentina Songs
- Villain
- Don’t Funk It Up
- A Prueba De Todo
- The World Is Watching
- Dog
- Break My Heart
- Gabriel – Soulwax Remix
- Easy For U
- Insomniac
- Villain (Acoustic Version)
- Wolves
- 10 Feet Tall
- Equal access to college in Georgia?
- You Okay Honey?
- On the Street
- Today 4 You
- Life Support
- Santa Fe
- I’ll Cover You
Valentina Movies and Tv Shows
Year |
Title |
Role |
Notes |
|
2017 |
RuPaul’s Drag Race |
Herself |
Contestant |
|
2017 |
La Vida de Valentina |
Herself |
Web series |
|
2018 |
America’s Next Top Model |
Herself |
Cameo |
|
2018 |
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars |
Herself |
Contestant |
|
2018 |
Drag Tots |
Arugula |
Voice only |
|
2019 |
Rent: Live |
Angel Dumott Schunard |
Valentina Facebook
Valentina Twitter
Valentina Instagram
Valentina News
RuPaul’s Drag Race star Valentina had to know her lyrics — and herself — for Rent
In early 2017, RuPaul’s Drag Race star Valentina — who’d then been participating in the art of drag for a mere 10 months — was eliminated mid-way through the reality competition series’ ninth season after delivering a lackluster lip-sync (in other words: she didn’t know the lyrics) to an Ariana Grande song. Flash-forward to January 2019, and the 27-year-old beauty is preparing to star in Fox’s ambitious live production of the Broadway smash Rent — which contains approximately 525,600 more words to memorize than any ditty in Grande’s discography.
Though she spent time between both gigs honing her performative skills via appearances on America’s Next Top Model and the reality spin-off RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars 4, it was a period of introspection and self-discovery that allowed Valentina — real name James Leyva — to fully embrace tackling the biggest role of her career as the street-drumming, HIV-positive drag performer Angel Dumott Schunard not yourin Sunday’s televised adaptation of the beloved musical.
“Being in drag for so many hours of my day and for so long in my career now, I’ve been wondering: How much do I identify with the femininity of being a woman and how much is put on?” Valentina tells EW of the moment she realized she was neither fully male nor totally female, but gender-non binary — an element of her humanity she says helped her approach Angel with pure empathy. “My coming out as non-binary has been, in context, connected to Angel because I want people to know and understand that Angel is such a beautiful human being…. I hope that through this, people can see what it means to fully be free and to identify freely as yourself — especially when you have the level of community around you to support your truth.”
In Rent, Angel’s truth plays out against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis in early-’90s New York City, where a band of supportive city-dwellers (played byVanessa Hudgens, Tinashe, Jordan Fisher, Brennin Hunt, and Kiersey Clemons) navigate their ambitions, personal lives, and romantic entanglements in the wake of the epidemic. And in the drag world, Valentina found commonality in the bohemian community of support bolstering Angel’s tragic experience.
“Drag helped me be fully aware of my authentic self. When I’m not in full drag, I have shaved eyebrows, a full manicure, and I sit with my legs crossed; those things explain my femininity, but it’s also a part of how comfortable and how feminine I feel inside,” she says. “There’s a shift between how masculine and how feminine I feel that I don’t really feel the need to define if I am male or female, because I feel like both at the same…. Non-binary means you don’t have to be either or.”
To play Angel, Valentina has to be bold and vulnerable, compassionate and assertive; That takes talent that knows no gender.
Rent airs live Sunday at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox. RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars 4continues Friday at 8:00 p.m. ET on VH1.
Source: ew.com