Early work

Lake’s drag career began in Rochester, New York following her first year of college in 1990.^[1] She was inspired by a drag queen’s performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a local production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.^[3] When her friends put her up in drag, they said she resembled Ricki Lake in Hairspray (1988); the stage name Darienne Lake is an homage to her as well as to the Six Flags Darien Lake amusement park.^[3] Lake later appeared on a 1997 episode of The Ricki Lake Show about plus-sized drag queens.^[4][5] Lake's drag mother, Naomi Kane, was also the drag mother of Mrs. Kasha Davis.^[6]

Since the 1990s, Lake has been active in the New York drag community and has performed across the United States and internationally.^[3][7] Lake held the title of Miss Gay Rochester in 1998-1999.^[8][9]

In 2003, she appeared in a VH1 documentary about drag titled Boys Will Be Girls, alongside her drag daughter Pandora Boxx, who went on to become a contestant on the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race as well as the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.^[3][7]

Drag Race

Lake rose to international prominence after winning the fan vote to appear on the sixth season of Drag Race. During the series, Lake won a main challenge (episode three) and ultimately finished the competition in fourth place behind Adore Delano, Courtney Act, and eventual winner Bianca Del Rio.^[3]

In 2018, Lake appeared in Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate.^[10]

Lake has been praised for her lip syncing skills, having survived three lip syncs for your life on Drag Race.^[11][12] IndieWire wrote that Lake "lip syncs like the rent is due".^[11] Vulture ranked Lake as one of the top 100 most powerful drag queens in America in 2019.^[13]

Darienne Lake competed on the eighth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (2023).^[14] She ultimately finished the competition in ninth place.

Albums

Singles

Other appearances

Film

Television

Web series