Glamdromeda Strange: My Drag Alter Ego

Glamdromeda Strange is the alter ego of New Orleans based drag performance artist and faux queen Mallory Whitfield.

​I’ve always been a performer. I was that kid that needed to perform for adults from a very young age. I grew up doing community theatre and ballroom dance. I had dreams of being an actor… not in Hollywood, but on stage.

I was an intern for three straight summers at The Shakespeare Festival at Tulane. I pursued theatre throughout college, but graduated a few production credits short of a major OR minor in it, because theatre in that environment sucked the life out of it for me. You see, I’m not very good at playing by other people’s rules.

I’ve also been obsessed with drag queens since a very early age. My all-time favorite movie (along with Jurassic Park, of course!) is The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized there was a way to combine my two loves.

In 2014, I graduated from the New Orleans Drag Workshop. My incredible fairy drag mother, Vinsantos, helped me merge my lifelong passions of theatre, costuming and drag into a new performance persona, Glamdromeda Strange:

Mallory Whitfield putting on drag makeup as her alter ego Glamdromeda Strange
Mallory Whitfield performing onstage as her alter ego Glamdromeda Strange
Mallory Whitfield onstage as her alter ego Glamdromeda Strange at the draguation for the New Orleans Drag Workshop

Vinsantos puts a big emphasis on performance for the New Orleans Drag Workshop. Each participant chooses a song early on, which we performed as a lip sync onstage at our final “draguation.” (My first performance as Glamdromeda was Carol Burnett’s “Little Girls” from Annie.) We also learned the ins and outs of drag makeup, costuming and creating a drag persona.

Soon after the workshop, I was interviewed for VICE, along with my classmates, about my experience. I was the first cis-woman to be a paid drag performer at the shortly lived Bourbon Street drag club Lucky Pierre’s. I also traveled with Vinsantos and a few of my fellow draguates to Austin, TX in the spring of 2015 to perform at the very first Austin International Drag Festival. I later wrote about my experience taking part in Cycle 2 of the New Orleans Drag Workshop for the August/September 2018 issue of Bust Magazine:

While you might consider me a faux queen, I have done performances​ as a drag king (Freddie Mercury, what?!?) and a Cher impersonator as well as performances combining elements of burlesque.

Above all else, I consider myself a performance artist. ​I want to make you laugh and smile and feel things when you see me on stage, whether I’m in drag or not.

I even incorporated some drag elements into the intro video for my Towards Together keynote, seen above! (The show was originally titled "Embrace Yr Weird.") These days, you can still find me performing on stages as a keynote speakerconference emcee, and occasionally as my drag alter ego, Glamdromeda Strange.

Bring Glamdromeda to a stage near you!

If you need a drag performer or a high-energy emcee for your next event, whether virtual or in-person, get in touch!

My drag & costume closet is full of options ranging from Cher to David Bowie to 80s party girl. I'd love to serve as a dance party hype girl, karaoke host, panel moderator, or drag performer at your next event!

Mallory Whitfield