Nina Bo'nina Brown


Nina Bo'nina Brown is the stage name of Pierre Leverne Dease, an American drag performer and YouTube / reality television personality who came to international attention on the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

Early life

Dease was born on July 12, 1982 in Columbia, South Carolina. Her drag name originally was "Beatta Bitchass" until he changed it to Nina Bo'nina Brown. She auditioned for RuPaul's Drag Race ever since season five. She was the makeup artist for some of Phi Phi O'Hara's looks for her "365 Days of Drag" project.

Career

Brown was announced as one of fourteen contestants competing on the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race on February 2, 2017. She was the winner of the premiere episode challenge with Lady Gaga as the guest judge. In episode five, she voiced her thoughts on not being cast as model Blac Chyna for the. She named her 2018 tour "I Shoulda Been Blac Chyna", after this moment. Drag Race alumni Alaska also referenced this moment in a line of her song "Valentina". She placed in the bottom two three times, eliminating Aja and Valentina, before being eliminated herself on the makeover episode, after losing a lip sync of "Cool for the Summer" by Demi Lovato against Shea Couleé.
In June 2018, she was sponsored by MAC Cosmetics to review and promote the 2018 Aaliyah collection. She dressed as a humanoid zebra in the July 2018 issue of Paper, modeling for Gypsy Sport's Fall 2018 campaign. She modeled again for Gypsy Sport's Spring 2019 campaign.
Brown received notoriety from her self-published YouTube videos reviewing currently airing episodes of Drag Race. Brown began reviewing from Episode 1, fourth all star season on December 27, 2018. Continuing the web series Rawview for a second season, Brown reviewed weekly episodes of season eleven beginning March 2, 2019. She appeared with Vanessa Vanjie Mateo for four episodes of the WOWPresents internet series "Fashion Photo RuView" between November 2018, and January 2019, filling in for Raja and Raven.

Personal life

Dease is openly gay. He has struggled with depression and anxiety since moving to Atlanta, Georgia before the show.
In RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked, Dease has stated that the time he auditioned for Season 9 was the last time he was going to audition, since his auditions for previous seasons of the show have been rejected. According to Dease, the rejections played a major part in affecting his depression and anxiety.

Filmography

Television

Web series

Awards and nominations