Alaska Thunderfuck

src: media2.fdncms.com

Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 (sometimes known mononymously as Alaska or just 'the queen of snakes') is the stage name of Justin Andrew Honard, an American drag performer and recording artist best known as a contestant on the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and the winner of the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.

Video Alaska Thunderfuck

Early life

Honard was raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Fort LeBoeuf High School in 2003. She studied theater at the University of Pittsburgh.

Maps Alaska Thunderfuck

Career

2007-2012: Career beginnings

Alaska originally moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Dissatisfied with the auditioning process, she turned to drag and got a job at the West Hollywood club, Fubar. She frequently performed in the Trannyshack shows in Los Angeles. In 2009, she performed in Palm Springs Gay Pride with Tammie Brown and Jer Ber Jones.

Alaska met future boyfriend Sharon Needles (real name Aaron Coady) through Myspace in December 2009 and eventually moved back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to live with him in 2010. Along with Needles and Cherri Baum, she formed the band Haus of Haunt, which later evolved into a drag troupe based out of the bar the Blue Moon. As part of the Haus of Haunt, she helped present the Pittsburgh debut of fellow drag queen and recording artist Christeene Vale in 2013. Alaska later impersonated Vale for the music video "RuPaulogize" by Willam Belli.

2013-2015: RuPaul's Drag Race

Alaska Thunderfuck competed on the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, under the mononym Alaska. She had previously auditioned for every season of the show. Alaska won the fragrance commercial-themed main challenge in the episode "Scent of a Drag Queen" and the main challenge for "Sugar Ball." As part of the show, Alaska sang on the "We Are the World"-inspired song "Can I Get an Amen?". The song's proceeds helped benefit the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. At the season finale in May 2013, Alaska was declared the runner-up along with fellow competitor Roxxxy Andrews. Jinkx Monsoon was the winner of the season.

In October 2013, Alaska performed as Dr. Frank N. Furter in Woodlawn Theatre's production of The Rocky Horror Show in San Antonio, Texas. RuPaul's Drag Race judge Michelle Visage and season four contestant Willam Belli also starred in the musical.

Since appearing on RuPaul's Drag Race, Alaska has toured and performed, appearing in RuPaul's Drag Race Battle of the Seasons shows, the Drag Stars at Sea cruises, custom one-woman shows such as a Stevie Nicks tribute called "Stevie Forever", a cabaret show called "Red for Filth", and a holiday show called "Blue Christmas". During the summer of 2014, she starred in a stage production of Sex and the City. With brother Cory Binney, Honard has a web series sponsored by World of Wonder, called Bro'Laska. In 2014, Alaska became a spokesmodel for American Apparel alongside Willam Belli and Courtney Act.

Alaska has since released a string of singles, namely "Ru Girl", "Your Makeup Is Terrible", and "Nails". In June 2015, Alaska's debut album, Anus, was released to positive reviews. Singles from the album included "Hieeee" and "This is My Hair".

2016 - present: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 2

In 2016, Alaska returned to Drag Race for the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars. She received some backlash due to some of her choices of eliminations and her behavior toward the end of the competition. In response, Alaska donated $5,000 to the charity Trans Kids Purple Rainbow and posted an apology video online. In the season finale, she was crowned the second winner of All Stars.

On October 14, 2016, Alaska released her second album, titled Poundcake. Three singles from the album have been released: "The T", "Stun", "Puppet". The album is named after the puppet challenge on RuPaul's Drag Race where Alaska and fellow contestant Lineysha Sparx created a rebellious puppet called Lil' Poundcake.

Alaska competed in the first season of VH1's Scared Famous, which premiered on October 23, 2017.

src: www.billboard.com

Public image and artistry

She has stated, "I am a huge fan of drag for many reasons; first and foremost being that it is an extremely important form of performance art. Drag uses humor as means of relaying a message, and because humor tends to get overlooked as a valid way to communicate through art, drag tends to get pigeonholed into being something "less than" when you think about it in terms what you'd see at a museum. I can't think of almost anything more artistically redeeming than a huge museum full of drag queens, but maybe that's just me."

Early in her career Alaska claimed to be a transexual woman but later said she just did that to get attention. "I think that it would be fun to be a woman but I'm not gonna lie and just say that I am a female."

She has cited Gianni Versace, Lady Gaga and Marc Jacobs as her favorite fashion influences. Thought Catalog described her style as "risk-taking" and "creative", with "weird choices"; Yahoo! called her Lil Poundcake outfit a "pink nightmare" and "clownish crazy", and "the drag and music world would certainly be very quiet without Ms Thunderfuck".

Billboard listed Thunderfuck the seventh-most-active drag queen on social media on its August 2015 Social 50 chart.

Honard's drag name is derived from Alaskan Thunderfuck, a strain of cannabis. Alaska counts Divine and Marilyn Monroe as her "role models".

src: i.ytimg.com

Personal life

Alaska was in a relationship with fellow drag queen Sharon Needles for four years before separating in December 2013, though they remain on good terms.

src: pbs.twimg.com

Controversies

While appearing on RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 2, Alaska received some backlash from viewers for her behaviour, including attempting to bribe a fellow contestant to keep her in the competition and choosing to eliminate contestants who some fans believed deserved to stay. In response, Alaska donated $5,000 to the charity Trans Kids Purple Rainbow and posted an apology video online.

src: i.ytimg.com

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Other appearances

src: i.ytimg.com

Tours

• Access All Areas Tour (2017)

src: i.pinimg.com

Filmography

Film

Television

Web series

Theatre

Music videos

src: greenrushdaily.com

References

src: i.pinimg.com

External links

• Official website
• Justin Andrew Honard on IMDb

Source of the article : Wikipedia