Pearl, occasionally known as Pearl Liaison, is the stage name of American

drag performer The term "drag" refers to the performance of exaggerated masculinity, femininity, or other forms of gender expression, usually for entertainment purposes. A drag queen is someone (usually male) who performs femininity and a drag king is someone ( ...

and

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

Matthew James Lent, who came to international attention on the seventh season of ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

'', finishing joint runner-up.

Early life

Lent grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida with his mother and two sisters. He spent time drawing "rich old ladies with big diamond rings and furs", which eventually morphed into his drag persona.

Drag career

After moving to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, Lent began performing in drag in 2012, alongside Kim Chi and Trixie Mattel, using the stage name Pearl. He has described Pearl's persona as a "

Stepford wife ''The Stepford Wives'' is a 1972 satirical "feminist horror" novel by Ira Levin. The story concerns Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer, wife and young mother who suspects that something in Stepford's environment is changing the wives fr ...

robot bitch". Lent initially only planned to use drag as a hobby, but quickly began booking gigs at increasing frequency. He later moved to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York. In December 2014, Pearl was announced to be a participant on the seventh season of the

Logo TV Logo TV (often shortened to Logo, and stylized as Logo.) is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched in 2005, Logo was originally dedicated to lifestyle and entertainment progr ...

reality television series ''

''. Despite a slow start to the competition, Pearl rebounded to win two main challenges, and eventually became a finalist alongside fellow competitors Ginger Minj and

Violet Chachki Violet Chachki is the stage name of Paul Jason Dardo (born June 13, 1992), an American drag queen, burlesque/ aerial performer, content creator, model, and recording artist best known for winning the seventh season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race''. C ...

. In the season finale, Violet Chachki was crowned the winner, leaving Pearl as a runner-up. After the series, Pearl claimed that her lack of enthusiasm towards the show while appearing on it was due to an early negative comment towards her by RuPaul which was not filmed - as a result, she says she has not been invited back for an ''All Stars'' series. Pearl has been described as the drag mother of

Scarlet Envy Jacob James Grady (born February 26, 1992), better known by the stage name Scarlet Envy, is an American drag queen, reality television personality, singer, and performer who came to international attention on the eleventh season of ''RuPaul's Dr ...

, who appeared on season 11 of ''

''. Pearl denied this in an interview in July 2019, describing Scarlet as a good friend of hers.

Other ventures

Music

On June 2, 2015, Lent released the album ''

Pleasure Pleasure refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious animals ...

'', along with a music video for its first single, "Love Slave". Unlike other albums released by ''Drag Race'' alumni, ''Pleasure'' does not feature any vocals from Lent; he instead produced the entire album. The album charted at number eleven on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

Dance/Electronic Albums Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Dance/Electronic Albums (formerly Top Electronic Albums) is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine which ranks the top-selling electronic music albums in the United States based on sales compiled by ...

chart and number sixteen on the

Heatseekers Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is ra ...

chart.

Perfume

On June 2, 2015, Lent announced the release of a fragrance, Flazéda, with perfume company

Xyrena Xyrena is an Austin, Texas perfumery founded in Los Angeles specializing in cruelty-free and vegan products certified by PETA and Leaping Bunny. Xyrena describes itself as "a defiant cosmetics startup that includes the world's first celebrity ...

. In doing so, he became the first ''Drag Race'' alumnus member to release a scent. The fragrance started shipping on June 30, 2015.

Discography

;Albums ;Singles ;Other appearances

Filmography

Television

Web series

Music videos

Music video appearances

References

External links

*
Archived
from the original on July 16, 2015. *
Pearl
discography on

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearl Living people American drag queens LGBT DJs People from St. Petersburg, Florida RuPaul's Drag Race contestants 1990 births