Trixie Mattel


Trixie Mattel is the drag persona of Brian Michael Firkus, an American drag queen, singer-songwriter, comedian, author, and television personality from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mattel is best known for being the winner of the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, and for placing sixth on the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race. In June 2019, New York magazine published the results from their panel of judges and writers which ranked her fourth of all Drag Race superstars.
Mattel co-hosts the web series UNHhhh and its Viceland follow-up The Trixie & Katya Show alongside Katya Zamolodchikova. Her first studio album, Two Birds, was released in 2017, followed by her second album, One Stone, in 2018. Her third album, Barbara, was released February 7, 2020.
Mattel is also the CEO of Trixie Cosmetics, her cosmetics brand.

Early life

Firkus was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is half Ojibwe and comes from a Native American family living in Crivitz, Wisconsin. He had an abusive stepfather who would call him a "trixie" when he acted feminine, which would later inspire his drag name. He almost went by the name Cupcake before deciding on Trixie Mattel. After graduating high school, Firkus attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where he received a BFA in Music Theatre and was introduced to drag while performing in a production of The Rocky Horror Show at the Oriental Theatre.
He first performed in drag in 2008, at LaCage NiteClub in Milwaukee. Firkus became a staple of the Milwaukee drag scene while also performing in Chicago alongside other acts introduced on RuPaul's Drag Race, such as Kim Chi. In 2014, Firkus attended The Institute of Beauty and Wellness before withdrawing later that same year to participate in RuPaul's Drag Race.

Career

''RuPaul's Drag Race''

As a competitor in Season 7 of RuPaul's Drag Race, Mattel was eliminated in episode four and later reentered the competition in episode eight by winning the "Conjoined Twins" challenge with Pearl Liaison. Mattel was once again eliminated in episode 10, placing sixth overall and becoming the first queen to last more than one episode after returning to the competition.
Mattel later returned for the third season of , which started airing on January 25, 2018. On March 15, 2018, her fellow competitors voted for her to advance to the final two, where she ultimately won against runner-up Kennedy Davenport in the final lipsync battle.
She competed in the 2018 television special RuPaul's Drag Race Holi-slay Spectacular and won alongside the other competitors.

Other ventures

After competing on Drag Race, on December 31, 2015, Mattel guest starred in a special edition of WOWPresents' Fashion Photo Review with fellow season seven contestant Katya Zamolodchikova, which later launched UNHhhh, that premiered on March 25, 2016. The duo later went on to star in The Trixie & Katya Show, which premiered on Viceland on November 15, 2017. Also in November 2017, Trixie and Katya starred in a drag stage adaptation of the 1997 cult film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, entitled Trixie and Katya's High School Reunion.
Mattel has toured around the world with her stand-up comedy show called "Ages 3 and Up". In October 2017, Mattel streamed on the live video gaming platform Twitch alongside 8BitDylan to raise money for the GaymerX foundation and many other charities before and since.
Trixie has toured on the "Haters Roast: The Shady Tour" with other queens from RuPaul's Drag Race, such as Jinkx Monsoon and Thorgy Thor for their 2017 and 2018 alumni tours.
In February 2018, she announced her new comedy tour "Now with Moving Parts", which began in April 2018.
A documentary film titled premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2019, and screened until May 2019. It documents Mattel as she embarks on her "Moving Parts" tour following her All Stars win, as well as her personal struggles. The documentary was made available on Video On Demand platforms on December 3, 2019. An accompanying acoustic soundtrack was released later in December.
On May 1, 2019, Mattel announced that she will be releasing her make-up brand "Trixie Cosmetics" later that month, with the products launching at RuPaul's DragCon LA on May 24, 2019.
In June 2019, Mattel was one of 37 queens to be featured on the cover of New York magazine.
Mattel's first comedy special, Trixie Mattel: Skinny Legend, aired on OutTV in Canada on September 26, 2019.

Music

Mattel released the country folk album Two Birds in May 2017. Her second album, One Stone, was released on March 15, 2018, the same night as the RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars finale.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Mattel listed her primary influences as June Carter Cash and Dolly Parton and states that she grew up on the music of George Jones, Conway Twitty and Johnny Cash. She is also a fan of Jason Isbell, Kris Kristofferson, Aimee Mann, Michelle Branch and Kacey Musgraves.
In a September 2018 interview with Billboard, she announced that she is working on her third studio album that will feature an "electro-folk" sound and is going to be called Barbara. "Yellow Cloud" was released as the first single from the album on May 17, 2019, though it was later revealed to be a non-album single. On January 10, 2020, the album's release date was confirmed for February 7, 2020, alongside the album tracklist.

Personal life

Firkus is openly gay. He has been in a relationship with filmmaker David Silver, who is the producer of his documentary, Moving Parts, for three years. He is a vegetarian.
Trixie Mattel's persona is based on her love of Barbie Dolls, owning a wide collection of Barbies in her Los Angeles home.

Filmography

Television

Web series

Discography