This 'Drag Race' star didn't win, but she's the breakout star for a delightfully unhinged reason
| 03/13/25
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'Drag Race' star Kori King dressed up as Michael Jackson, the Grinch, and Roger the Alien.
Footage stills via Instagram @koriking
Every season of Drag Race provides fans with new cast members to love and obsess over, but this year, one queen didn’t fully take off and become a true fan favorite until after she sashayed away.
Kori King may not have come close to snatching the crown — she was eliminated in episode 9 — but her on-screen antics, big personality, and romance with Lydia B Kollins had fans rooting for her anyway.
While the at-home audience was already becoming enamored of the queen and her “tacky drag,” it’s her online presence that really won her a devoted fan base.
She has been catapulted to popularity because of the zany characters she dresses up as on TikTok and Instagram — her drag version of Roger the Alien is perfection — and has turned that fame into a successful gig on Cameo, where she quickly became the number one seller by crafting hilarious messages for followers trying to ring in a birthday or anniversary.
Kori may have lost the “lip sync for your life” to her now-boyfriend Lydia, but she’s winning the popularity game! How? Let us count the ways.
Kori donned the King of Pop’s signature sequined jacket, single white glove, and black hat while doing her makeup to mimic the plastic surgeries Michael Jackson had throughout his life. The look is so spot on that people in her comments are wishing Kori could have used it for Snatch Game.
Kori went full Ice Capades by dressing up as Lois from Family Guy and dancing on ice with fellow Drag Race alum Denali.
Roger the Alien from the animated show American Dad is already known for dressing in drag, but Kori took it a step further by dressing up as a drag version of one of the hilarious alien’s female impersonations.
For Drag Race super fans, watching one of their fave queens doing a loving, mad-cap impersonation of Drag Race star Suzie Toot is almost too good to be true!
“Suzie is one of my closest friends in the season. So I was like, ‘Oh, this would be so funny if I get into Suzie Toot drag.’ I got into it, and I FaceTimed her right when I was done, and she gagged,” Kori said of her friend in an interview with PRIDE. “It was so funny. Then doing the cameos, at first I was trying to earnestly do Suzie Toot’s voice. I was trying to talk like her, and then as the Cameos went on, it slowly just turned into Mickey Mouse. I don’t know why.”
Now that we’ve seen sexy Grinch, Christmas will never be the same again.
Even if Kori King didn’t blow fans’ socks off during her run on the show, they can’t help but love her and her chaotic antics and unstoppable charisma!
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.