Wikipedia

Ilona Verley

Ilona Verley is a Canadian-American[2] drag queen, most known for competing on the first season of Canada's Drag Race.[2]

Ilona Verley
Ilona Verley at RuPaul's DragCon LA, 2024
Born1994 or 1995 (age 29–30)[1]
Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
NationalityCanadian
CitizenshipCanada, United States
OccupationDrag queen
TelevisionCanada's Drag Race
Websiteilonaverley.com

Early life

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Verley was born to Sandi Verley[3] and raised in Lytton, British Columbia[4] and Surrey, British Columbia.[1] They attended the Blanche MacDonald Centre in Vancouver for make-up artistry.[5]

Career

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Verley appeared in pop singer Mathew V's 2018 video for his single "Broken", after Mathew V attended a drag show at which Verley had performed to Mathew V's 2017 single "Tell Me Smooth".[6]

 
Ilona Verley at RuPaul's DragCon LA, 2019

Verley competed on the first season of Canada's Drag Race, a reality competition television series based on the American series RuPaul's Drag Race and the Canadian edition of the Drag Race franchise. Prior to their appearance on the show, they had auditioned in Los Angeles for the eleventh and twelfth seasons of American version.[1][7][8] They became the "first Indigenous, two-spirit, and openly non-binary queen" to compete.[9] On Canada's Drag Race, Verley placed in the bottom two on three occasions and was eliminated in the seventh episode.[10][11] They also attracted positive notice for their look in the season finale, which blended a First Nations jingle dress in their signature pastel colours with red handprints, a symbol of the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.[1]

They have also worked at a NYX Professional Makeup store.[12]

In October 2020, Verley was announced as one of the performers at the opening gala of the 2020 imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival.[13]

In November 2020, Verley was named to Out magazine's annual Out100 list of influential LGBTQ personalities.[2]

Personal life

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Verley is Nlaka'pamux and two-spirit, and has said they identify as a "proud, Indigenous trans woman".[1] They have described their gender identity as fluid and in flux. In November 2020 they stated: "I don't want to put my foot down too much with any label. Because who knows, in a few months from now, when I'm in a better mind-set or a better situation, how I'm going to feel".[2] On the LGBTQ&A podcast in the same month, Verley said "I think for me right now, the best way to describe who I am right now in this moment is nonbinary and gender fluid."[14]

They live in Vancouver as of October 2020,[12] having returned to Canada after living in Los Angeles.[5] In 2020, they accused NYX Professional Makeup of cultural insensitivity.[12]

Filmography

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Television

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Web series

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Allaire, Christian (August 31, 2020). "Indigenous Queen Ilona Verley On Bringing Two-Spirit Representation to Canada's Drag Race". Vogue. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "Ilona Verley, Drag Race's Two-Spirit Queen". Out. November 19, 2020. Archived from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  3. ^ @ilonaverley (August 22, 2023). ""You were a mirage, you're not really there"" – via Instagram.
  4. ^ "Ilona Verley on making HERstory as the first two-spirit and Indigenous contestant on Drag Race". GAY TIMES. August 14, 2020. Archived from the original on June 25, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Canada's Drag Race: Things You Didn't Know About The Queens". ScreenRant. July 18, 2020. Archived from the original on April 13, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  6. ^ Patrick Crowley, "Canadian Crooner Mathew V Debuts Drag-tastic 'Broken' Music Video: Watch" Archived March 20, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Billboard, February 9, 2018.
  7. ^ "Canada's Drag Race: Indigenous drag queen Ilona Verley from Vancouver makes a splash in Vogue". The Georgia Straight. September 11, 2020. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  8. ^ "Canada's Drag Race: Vancouver queen Ilona Verley on Indigenous representation and that ass critique". The Georgia Straight. August 14, 2020. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  9. ^ Rudolph, Christopher. "Why Ilona Verley Almost Quit "Canada's Drag Race"". LOGO News. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  10. ^ "Canada's Drag Race star Ilona Verley on being the first Indigenous two-spirit queen to bring it to the runway". PinkNews. August 18, 2020. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  11. ^ "Ilona Verley Is 1st 'Canada's Drag Race' Queen To Get The Vogue Treatment". HuffPost Canada. September 3, 2020. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  12. ^ a b c "A 'Canada's Drag Race' Queen Is Calling Out An Offensive Nyx Makeup Tutorial". HuffPost Canada. October 15, 2020. Archived from the original on June 19, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  13. ^ "Tantoo Cardinal, Ilona Verley, Lorne Cardinal at imagineNATIVE 2020" Archived April 23, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. Muskrat Magazine, October 14, 2020.
  14. ^ Masters, Jeffrey (November 24, 2020). "Ilona Verley: 'Drag Race's' Two-Spirit Queen Says 'F*ck Gender'". Advocate. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
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