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 someo ...
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 =
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, 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 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 (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...
, 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 ''
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 ...
''. 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. 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, who appeared on
season 11
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...
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 ...
''. 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 anima ...
'', 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 advertis ...
''
Dance/Electronic Albums chart and number sixteen on the
Heatseekers 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
See also
*
LGBT culture in New York City
*
List of LGBT people from New York City
New York City is home to one of the largest LGBT populations in the world and the most prominent. Brian Silverman, the author of ''Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day,'' writes that the city has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most ...
References
External links
*
Archivedfrom the original on July 16, 2015.
*
Pearldiscography 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 la ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearl
Living people
American drag queens
LGBT DJs
People from St. Petersburg, Florida
RuPaul's Drag Race contestants
1990 births