User:Laurenschneider210/Darienne Lake

Darienne Lake is the stage name of Greg Mayer. Lake is a drag queen and television personality notable for appearing on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

Early life
Lake was born in Long Island, New York and moved to Rochester at age eleven. At age eighteen, her mother kicked her out of her home due to her sexual orientation, but has since apologized.

Career
Lake’s drag career began in Rochester following her first year of college in 1990. She was inspired by a drag queen’s performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a local production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Her drag mother, Naomi Kane, was also the drag mother of Mrs. Kasha Davis. The name Darienne Lake is an homage to the Darien Lake amusement park as well as actress Ricki Lake; she later appeared on a 1993 episode of The Ricki Lake Show. Lake held the title of Miss Gay Rochester in 1998-1999. In 2003, she appeared in a VH1 documentary about drag titled Boys Will Be Girls.

Lake rose to international prominence after winning the fan vote to appear on season 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race and finishing the competition in fourth place. She is the drag mother of Pandora Boxx, a contestant on the show’s second season as well as RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 1).

In 2018, Lake appeared in Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate. Vulture ranked Lake as one of the top 100 most powerful drag queens in America in 2019. Lake is active in the New York drag community, often performing with fellow Rochester Drag Race  alumni Pandora Boxx and Mrs. Kasha Davis.

Personal life
In 2020, Lake underwent surgery for melanoma.