Kori King Wants To Be Straight-Famous

Kori King is expanding her kingdom. The drag comedian — who was the undisputed viral star of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 earlier this year — is already a well-known name among LGBTQ+ communities, so she’s ready to lay claim to another demographic. “I want to break out to the straight people,” the 25-year-old says. “I want a random straight guy to be like, ‘That Kori King guy is funny.’ And I want them to say ‘guy.’”

Her manifestation powers are real. In the weeks after our interview, King went viral among straight people — twice. Her Michael Jackson look at the 2025 Emmys had everyone talking. She also made an appearance on streamer iShowSpeed’s Twitch channel on Sept. 5, where she convinced the internet personality to watch her cabaret show in front of tens of millions of live viewers. It was a think-on-your-feet situation that would rattle many performers, but King has always thrived in a crowd.

She grew up in Boston, where she learned from a young age how to wield her humor in social settings. “I was the loud kid in class that would sit in the back and just yell,” King says. “I was always finding that one person to make the butt of the joke. Every joke’s going to come back to you. I’m going to give you the limelight.” King clarifies that it isn’t bullying; it’s giving someone “their shine.” It’s how she treats her current favorite punching bag, fellow Drag Race star Suzie Toot. “She loves it,” King says. “She loves any attention she can get.”

Me in drag and out of drag is the same exact person. Dare I say, I’m more reserved in drag.

King knew she was funny long before discovering drag. In fact, she thinks she’s funnier when she’s not dolled up. “Me in drag and out of drag is the same exact person. Dare I say, I’m more reserved in drag,” King says. Fittingly, she’s never taken a comedy class. “Not one single one. This is just how I am.” She’s also uninterested in traditional stand-up comedy — at least, not right now. “Maybe once I get older,” King says. “When the legs don’t work how they used to and the kicks and splits stop hitting.”

It wasn’t King’s sense of humor that drew her to drag but her passion for animation. While studying visual arts at Boston Arts Academy, she brought one of her cartoon characters to life. “I got this cheap little Barbie swimsuit from Forever 21 and this white double-stacked wig, and I was like, ‘Wait, this is it,’” King says. “I put on this crazy blue eyeshadow and thought, ‘Oh, this is comedy.’”

Immediately, she was confident in her look. She began her drag career in 2023, and won Boston’s Best New Performer to Watch award that same year. “I wasn’t nervous at all at my first show,” King says. “I had disgusting, hideous makeup. This horrible, flat, brown-and-black wig and this little lingerie thing from Spencer’s. I performed ‘Let There Be Love’ by Christina Aguilera. I thought it was sickening; I thought I was taking it. Now I look back and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I was hideous.’”

Once she was cast on Drag Race in 2024, King used an unexpected platform to become a viral sensation: the personalized video site Cameo. “The day my Drag Race promo dropped, I opened my Cameo,” King says. Shortly after her elimination episode aired in February, King had become the No. 1 celebrity profile on the website. Though her videos are priced around $100 now, she initially charged only $20 and was one of the most affordable Season 17 contestants on the site. “I wasn’t very competitive on Drag Race, but in real life, I’m very competitive,” King says. “Once I found out there was a leaderboard, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m doing this this. I’m going to knock these b*tches off.’”

Her key to success on the platform? An ever-growing universe of unhinged characters, which includes impersonations of Michael Jackson, Shrek, and a Labubu. But her most popular Kori-verse creations are her twisted versions of her Drag Race co-stars. Her clown-like, squeaky-voiced imitation of Suzie Toot has blown up the most, not only on Cameo but across social media. King recently revealed she made at least $50,000 in one weekend doing Kori Toot Cameos. “Kori Toot has definitely paid my rent to hell and back,” King says.

She has also found success on YouTube, where she consistently uploads weekly vlogs to her 130,000 subscribers. Her approach is reminiscent of the personality-based, day-in-the-life content that populated the platform during its early 2010s heyday. “That era of YouTube was my sh*t,” King says. “Jenna Marbles was mother. She was the one for me. Someone just commented on a video and said I was Jenna Marbles-coded, and I lived for that.”

King’s vlogs range from the chaotic backstage at drag shows (“As soon as I pull out the camera, the queens are like, ‘Look at me!’ They want it.”) to shopping trips and movie nights with her partner, fellow Drag Race star Lydia B Kollins. The two felt an instant chemistry when they met on set during Season 17 (which led to a hugely memorable mid-lip sync kiss), but their senses of humor couldn’t be more opposite.

“She’ll be like, ‘Oh my God, look at this cat licking grass. So funny, so cute.’ And I’m like, ‘Girl, no. That’s not funny at all,’” King says. “Our humor is totally different, but I feel like that dynamic is what makes the vlogs so funny. I’m very stubborn in my ways. What I like is what I like, and it doesn’t change. So she can try to get me to think something’s funny, but I cannot imagine that happening.” There’s another drag superstar she wants to capture on video next. “RuPaul 100% needs to be on my vlog,” King says.

She had a chance to rub elbows with a ton of A-listers at the Emmys, where she walked the red carpet in full Michael Jackson drag. While prepping for the event, she realized she probably wouldn’t recognize a lot of the attendees. “I don’t know any of these actors’ names,” King says. “I just keep saying, ‘What if Emma Stone sees me?’ Lydia is like, ‘Is that the only name you know?’ Yes, it is. All these b*tches look the same to me.”

I suggest that becoming Emma Stone could be King’s next step in her goal of breaking into straight culture. “100%. I look just like her already,” King says. “My new character, Kori Stone. Coming soon.”