Laganja Estranja’s journey on season 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race was brief but memorable, and we have all of the exciting things the death-dropping drag queen has been up to since sashaying away. While on the reality drag competition series, Laganja was an insecure and young drag artist that was misunderstood by her competitors, including new podcast queen Bianca Del Rio. Since leaving the show over seven years ago, Laganja has taken her career to new heights and embraced her true identity as a transgender woman.
Laganjas’s performance on Drag Race season 6 was beloved by fans, not because she nailed the competition, but because of her over-the-top personality. Unfortunately, Laganja was never a frontrunner as she is the lowest placing challenge winner on season 6. She was the seventh alternate, but her legacy as a contender on Drag Race is indelible. While she may have bothered some of her competitors with her outlandish personality, Laganja delivered a slew of memorable quotes that live on in today’s RuPaul’s Drag Race fandom. From “Okurrr” and “I feel very attacked!” to her first death drop only seconds after her arrival in the Werk Room, Laganja’s short-lived performance on Drag Race is one of the most colorful.
Unlike the cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 that is eager to return to RuPaul’s competition, Laganja is not interested in repeating her time on the drag queen competition series anytime soon. In an interview with Gay Star News in 2019, Laganja explained that her time on Drag Race was “quite traumatic.” On the show, Laganja was captured during a moment of crisis during which she had to excuse herself from the rest of her competitors. Laganja has since admitted that she is not against the idea of returning to All Stars.
Laganja appeared on several reality competition series like So You Think You Can Dance season 15 and Germany’s Next Topmodel where she befriended supermodel, Heidi Klum. Laganja also appeared as the final guest judge on the German drag competition, Queen of Drags in 2019. The star has also appeared as a guest on the reality series Skin Wars and Viceland’s Bong Appétit. As is demonstrated by her drag name, Laganja has a love for marijuana and is an advocate for legalizing the drug recreationally. Laganja has been featured in High Times Magazine and on the cover of Dope Magazine. She fused her passion for the LGBTQ+ community and cannabis legalization when she created her own marijuana produce for Pride 2019.
Although she entered the competition as a drag daughter of the House of Edwards, Laganja has since split with her lip-sync assassin drag mother Alyssa Edwards. The supposed drama that led to Laganja leaving the famed drag house is unclear, but she does still consider Alyssa her drag mother. Additionally, she came out as a trans woman on June 15, 2021. As more RuPaul’s Drag Race competitors share their trans identities, performers like Laganja are creating much-needed representation for the vulnerable community.
Laganja’s initiation into reality television was trying for her, but she has come out of the other side a victor. From her consistently quoted catchphrases that went mainstream to her work on reality television after Drag Race, Laganja has made the most out of her brief TV debut. While it is unlikely the death drop queen will return to RuPaul’s Drag Race anytime soon, Laganja is living her best life outside of the drag competition.
