Chad Michaels

Chad Michaels is an American drag performer and professional Cher impersonator. He was the runner-up of the fourth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, alongside Phi Phi O'Hara and the winner of the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars.

Michaels was raised in San Diego. He originally went by the drag name "Brigitte Love." Michaels chose to perform under his own name after working at "An Evening at La Cage" in Las Vegas, which required the drag queens to use male stage names.

RuPaul's Drag Race

In 2010, Michaels competed in the first California Entertainer of the Year pageant, becoming first alternate to winner Shangela.

In 2011, Chad was announced as one of the 13 queens competing on the fourth season of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2012. Throughout the series, Chad won two challenges, including ""WTF!: Wrestling's Trashiest Fighters" as well as the annual "Snatch Game" (a parody of the Match Game) where he impersonated Cher. His performance as Cher received high praises from the judges and later became one of the best ever "Drag Race" Snatch Game performances in the show's history and made him one of the series' strongest competitors. She later made it to the final three and was close to winning the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar", but lost to Sharon Needles. After his run on Drag Race, Chad now performs all over the world as Cher.

RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars

In the same year, Chad was announced as a contestant on the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars. During the series, he teamed up with Season 1 contestant Shannel. She however landed in the bottom two, alongside Mimi Imfurst, but survived the lip-sync, eliminating Imfurst and Pandora Boxx (due to Pandora being paired up with Mimi). Chad later won three challenges, including the make over challenge. He later made it to the finals again (becoming the first person in the history of the show to do so). He was later announced as the winner, beating Season 2 runner-up Raven, as well as securing a spot in the "Drag Race: Hall of Fame".

Michaels produces and performs with the DreamgirlsRevue, the longest running female impersonation show in California. Performers in the Dreamgirls Revue include RuPaul's Drag Race contestants Delta Work, Raven, Detox, Morgan McMichaels, Raja, Shannel, and Venus D-Lite. Morgan McMichaels is Michaels' drag daughter, from whom he took his last name.

Michaels started touring with Farrah Moan in 2019 for the Burlesque tour, based on the Cher and Christina Aguilera movie.

Singles