“Drag is for everyone!” That’s the message RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9 contestant Nina West is shouting from the rooftops following a successful run on the franchise’s first charity season. After raising $17k for The Trevor Project, West is continuing her charitable relationship with the foundation known as a lifeline for queer youth with a new T-shirt design at HOMAGE. But that’s not all West has on the horizon. The accomplished drag queen and theater performer has plenty of tricks up her rhinestoned sleeves to keep fans excited for what’s to come.
Following the All Stars 9 finale, I sat down with Nina West to chat about all things drag race, as well as the many exciting projects she has coming up. In addition to revealing cut runways and her proudest moments on the latest season of Drag Race, West also spoke about her new EP which features some Disney-inspired music and a deeply impressive Drag Race parody of “Modern Major General.” We also spoke about her presence at D23 this weekend and why she’d be a great addition to Only Murders in the Building. West was also able to tease a bit about her role in the highly anticipated zombie flick Queens of the Dead from Tina Romero, daughter of the legendary George A. Romero. You can read our full conversation below.
First of all, congratulations on a really solid run in All Stars 9. I love seasons where no one goes home because then it does sort of feel a little bit like Rupaul’s Best Friend Race. So tell me a little bit about coming back to the show, what made you wanna return, and what it was like to be back with a new group of girls who you’re also already sort of friends with.
NINA WEST: It just felt right. I had been asked to do All Stars two times before and I said no both times because it just wasn’t the right timing for me and it wasn’t the right circumstances for me to go back either. So, they called me the third time and they’re like, “Hey, so we’re gonna do a non-elimination season and it’s for charity. Would you be interested in coming back?” And I was like, “Uh, okay.” I mean, I didn’t say yes that quickly. I had to stop and kind of take stock of what I really wanted for the next chapter of my career. I was on tour with Hairspray for two years. I was literally making the decision to wrap Hairspray, and then five days later, go into sequestration and film All Stars. That’s a lot. To do eight shows a week while preparing in 17 days for an All Stars run with designers all over the country, it’s a lot.
My day off was Monday, and so I was traveling around. These were all the things I had to think about. I was like, “Do I have it in me to travel out on Sunday nights to get to a city on Monday, whether it was New York or LA, to do fittings, to then go back to tour wherever we were—Salt Lake City or Orange County?” It just depended on where we were at. And so I was like, “Well, here we go!” So, that was how it all unfolded. It was nice because I knew everybody. Roxxxy and I are really close friends, and I was on a season with Plastique and Vanjie, and Angie and I are really tight, and Mik and I became very, very tight, and Plastique and I became very close, and I got to really know Jorgeous, who I fell in love with, and Shannel and I became like best friends. It is RuPaul’s Best Friend Race. I didn’t know if it was gonna be that, but it was that. I’m grateful it was that because that’s what I needed in that time period, post Hairspray, to experience and, I think, to thrive in.
I love that. With this new season, was there a particular challenge that you love the most or that you would even like to take another crack at? I personally really enjoyed you in the Rusical this year. You just absolutely kill it in the Rusical every time.
WEST: Thank you. I think I won the Rusical even though I didn’t win the Rusical. I mean, I kind of felt like I won it, so, whatever. But I was really proud of my performance in the Rusical. I was really proud of my performance in the acting challenge and the slap-out challenge with Ru, and I really wanted the Snatch game. I really wanted to win it, and I won it. They didn’t show a lot of my roast, but I think I really aced my roast. My roast was really good and they didn’t show a lot of it—I think for that reason, because it was so good.
But, no, I don’t want another crack at it. What I did is the best I could do in that moment we shot it a year ago. And again, in context, everyone was doing the best that they could do in the time period that I had. I’m proud of it, and I’m proud that we showed up and what we as a team collectively did together—my team: my friends and designers who all pulled together to make it all work. And again, I wanted Snatch Game and I won it. So, that was like a personal check on my box of dreams. I won Snatch Game on Drag Race.
That’s fantastic. It’s such an elite group of people to be in to win Snatch Game, and you did such a wonderful job. I thought that you and Shannel with the dueling Liberaces were just so much fun.
WEST: Thank you!
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9’ Had Three Cut Runways
With all the incredible looks you brought this season, is there a particular one that you brought but didn’t necessarily get to have its moment in the spotlight, or is there a particular look that you would like to call more attention to because you’re just so proud of the design? So much work goes into these outfits, and not everybody understands how much work goes into them.
WEST: It’s a lot of storytelling and a lot of money. We had three runways cut from the season, so that’s so much. I had three different looks of mine that were not shown, and two of the three were my favorite looks. Then I ended up wearing my Christmas look, which was for a runway that was cut, so I wore it for a lip sync. I really love that look, and I saw a lot of the chatter online that was like, “What the hell was that? What’s that look for?” Well, it was for a runway, but I’m gonna be wearing it on the Christmas tour, so people are gonna get to see it on the road.
My favorite look that I took to All Stars that was not seen will be making its debut appearance at D23 next week. I’m really excited about it. It’ll be on display for the world to see and hopefully people will be like, “Oh, okay, that’s a fierce look. What’s that?” It was for All Stars.
That’s amazing. I did not realize that you were going to be at D23. Can you tease a little bit about what to expect from what you’re going to do?
WEST: I’m gonna be hosting Mousequerade, so I will be the Mistress of Ceremonies for Mousequerade with some incredible celebrity judges. Mousequerade, for people who don’t know, is the D23 costume fashion contest and component of the show. Much like the Her Universe fashion show at Comic-Con, Mousequerade is this big, massive undertaking where the fans come out, and there are categories, and they compete in categories. The categories are fantastic and wonderful. So I’ll be hosting that and then I’ll be doing a surprise activation on the floor on Saturday that I cannot talk about because I’ve been signed to secrecy. Then I’m doing another fantastic activation on Sunday on the floor, which is also another top-secret event.
Nina West is in full effect at D23 again for the second time, and I’m honored to continue my work with Disney and the Walt Disney Company. I think it’s just a really natural progression. I think both my brand joining with that global brand, too, that tell stories in a very specific way and unite people and bring people together in a very specific way. I think it’s a really natural, wonderful progression of the relationship.
Absolutely. I’ve been really enjoying your relationship with Disney. I have not forgotten your Jungle Cruise carpet look. It is amazing.
WEST: Yes! Thank you!
Speaking of that, I really enjoyed your new EP. It has a very Disney vibe. I listened to it earlier today. I love, honestly, all of the songs, but especially that last Disney track, “You Are the Dream.” I cannot wait to play this for my niece. Tell me a little bit about creating this new EP and the new songs on it.
WEST: So the new EP is called The Very Queen. It is based in this very specific creative time of my life, this chapter of All Stars 9, and really kind of coming from Season 11. What it means to me and what the EP is about are kind of two different things, but my backstory for it informs the tracks we did. My dream was to work for Disney, and I put that out there when I was doing press for Season 11. They heard me through a lot of help from people on my team and a lot of help from the work that I had done prior to ever going to Drag Race. This EP is the bookend of that.
My finale dress is inspired by the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio. It’s kind of the idea of the first iteration of the Wishing Star, which we get a little backstory on, right? If you’re a real Disney fan, you get a backstory in that and Wish, which was a 100-year project. It was for a 100-year project, but it became the movie Wish. My promo look, the blue look with the stars on the sleeves and the hoops, was an artistic interpretation of the Wishing Star. Both looks were done by the same designer with the intention of bookending my All Stars experience and the idea that you can make a wish, you can speak it into the world, and it can come true, which was all a salute to my Season 11 time on Drag Race. It’s all really deep, and it’s all like, “Well, whatever,” but that’s where the artist in me and the writer in me comes out, and how I personally attach my story to it in its own presentation.
“You Are the Dream,” the song, is a reflection of those two moments. Lyrically, it’s, “When you wish on a star, when you ask, ‘Why, oh, why,’ when you break through the ceiling in the sky,” so again, it’s the Wishing Star, and it’s this Blue Fairy moment. It’s the idea that in my own storyline, in my queer storyline, I too can achieve my dream. That’s what it’s about. “You Are the Dream” and “The Princess Song” were both written during the pandemic. Lyrical changes were made because I was just holding onto them. I just had them. I was like, “What am I doing with these songs?” And then Markaholic, Mark Byers, who I work with, is my longtime collaborator and we have such a great relationship. He wrote “The West Christmas Ever” with me, that EP with our friend Ashley. And then he also helped write tracks on Drag Is Magic and on “John Goodman,” my first EP. We just have a really great relationship. He worked on this EP with me, and when we got to “You Are the Dream” again, we talked about how we could make the changes so it would reflect this story that I was telling and the fashion presentation of myself on the show. That’s kind of where it’s at.
“The Princess Song” was written during the pandemic. It was written as my ode to the dream of maybe becoming a Disney princess, or this idea that Nina could be entered into the Disney canon in some way. You get to that last patter of that song where it’s like, “All the things that she would do to be a princess,” but she’s referring to all these other princesses or queens, right? You’ve got references to Elsa and Merida and Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, all in that trail of the last bit of the song. It’s very the Disney of it all.
Nina West Lists Every ‘Drag Race’ Girl From Seasons 1-16 in New Song “The Very Queen”
But it’s also Broadway. The EP also has “The Very Queen,” which is a Gilbert and Sullivan spoof. It’s a parody of “Modern Major General,” and it lists all the queens who’ve ever walked into the workroom on the first 16 seasons of Drag Race. It has the full version of my song that I performed for the talent show, Drag is for Everyone!, “It’s Giving.” It has another song that we wrote called “Crosswalk Anthem,” which was written also during the pandemic. I wanted it to be this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful kids’ song about going to school and how cool it was to go to school. In the writing of it all, I kind of envisioned it as like an Old Navy, back-to-school ad. It sounds like that to me. Once I had that idea in my head, I was like, “That’s what this is.” It’s kind of the storytelling of Nina and where she’s been in these last five years. That’s this little piece, right? It’s bookended. It’s like Drag Race, and “It’s Giving,” which is the talent show, and this middle track is kind of what I was doing in the middle of the pandemic, which is story times and the children’s album, and I released a kids’ book. Then it’s this next part of the dream, continuing on this path of going after and manifesting my dreams.
I love that so much. I’m genuinely so impressed by “The Very Queen,” the spoof of “Modern Major General.” That is such a mouthful in general, and then the ability to get everyone in there and make it flow like that is genuinely so impressive. I’m blown away by that one.
WEST: Thank you! The brilliance of it really is in the writing, and the majority of that writing for “The Very Queen,” the credit must go to Mark Byers, Markaholic, who we will be like, “Here, this rhymes with this, but how does this work?” He’s brilliant, and I’m really grateful that I get to have these ideas and have him go, “Oh, but what about this?” It’s this natural collaboration and spitball that just makes it so beautiful.
I love that, and I love the paper doll aesthetic of the video. I thought was really fun.
WEST: Thank you.
‘Only Murders in the Building’ Needs Nina West in a Drag Queen Storyline
Speaking of manifesting dreams, I also recently spoke to fellow Drag Race queen, Jinkx Monsoon, about her turn on Doctor Who, and it made me want more drag queens in literally all of the TV shows that I watch. So, because you have similar theater backgrounds and you work with Disney, I’m curious if there are any television series that you would like to join in drag. If so, what kind of character would you like to play in that world?
WEST: Oh, gosh. Only Murders in the Building is one of my very favorite shows, and Steve Martin and Martin Short are two of my very favorite actors who’ve inspired so much of who I am and who Nina West is. I think it’d be really great if they had a drag character on Only Murders in the Building, and if that drag character was portrayed by me. [Laughs] She could be trying to get the scoop on the podcast. I mean, I don’t know who she is in that world, but Only Murders is one of my very favorites. I think it’s so smart and so funny.
I don’t know. I would just like any job! [Laughs] I’m being honest with you — she likes to work. I don’t want anyone to feel like they can’t have me on their project because I didn’t say it, so I’m an equal-opportunity employee. So please, please, please, if you need a drag queen for a project, I’m right here.
I think you would be amazing on Only Murders. Immediately as soon as you said that, that would make so much sense for a drag queen to get tied up in this crazy, campy show.
WEST: Oh my god, she just can’t help it! Or maybe she’s helping Martin Short figure out character work, and Martin Short has to get in drag, and the idea of it makes him uncomfortable but not as uncomfortable as it makes Steve Martin, and then Selena Gomez is all like, “No, but I love this.” I mean, like, hello? It just makes sense.
Exactly. I’m speaking it into existence. We’re gonna get you on the next season.
WEST: Yes, Queen.
For All Star 9, the charity you worked with, you did The Trevor Project, which is so important and so necessary, and I love that you picked that one. You have this new shirt coming out that you’re continuing to work with The Trevor Project on. Talk about this new design and the work that you’re doing with them.
WEST: I partnered with my friends, Homage. Homage is a brand that is a Columbus, Ohio-based brand, but they’re a global brand. A lot of their tees and apparel are celebrating and paying homage to sports greats. They’re incredible partners to the Kelce Brothers. I don’t know if you know who they are [laughs], but the Kelce Brothers have this incredible collaboration with them. Homage is a brand that speaks to who Nina West is—it’s Columbus-based, it’s deeply involved in our community here in Columbus, Ohio, but it’s also a globally respected brand, and I thought it made sense again. This is my second time partnering with them. I partnered with them in 2019 after my run on Season 11 and we did a charity shirt with them. I’ve done a lot of work with them, and so it was exciting. I pitched to my friend Ryan Bessler, who’s one of the co-founders of Homage, this idea of doing another shirt, and I told him it was for Trevor and he was so supportive and so on board and so celebratory of the work that I do and the work that Trevor does. He said, “This is a no-brainer, we’ll make it happen.” The turnaround was really, really fast, and they came together, and they just did it. 20% of the proceeds of every T-shirt sold goes to The Trevor Project. That donation will come from the Nina West Foundation, which is super exciting.
The Trevor Project does that life-saving work every single day. They have a 24/7 hotline whether you access that through phone, your computer, messaging, text messaging, or you can even access it through 988, which is the National Suicide hotline. They field and forward calls for LGBTQIA+ people to drive The Trevor Project, who are of a certain age. It’s a really important thing to me. Really, one of the greatest honors of my life is to have played for them, an organization that I know is saving lives and raising the next generation of queer people and allowing them to live and dream and have a life fulfilled, but also to work with an incredible brand like Homage and celebrate the work that Trevor is doing. And people can get an awesome, really comfortable, very adorable T-shirt out of the process, and do good in the process. I think that that is what speaks to a lot of people. Some people are like, “Oh, I don’t know…” but when they buy the T-shirt, they’re in the process of giving.
The design on the shirt is such a perfect distillation of your message in general.
WEST: Thank you. It says, “Go big,” behind, “Go last,” which is also what the first shirt said. This is just a completely different generation of it. It’s the next chapter.
The next generation.
WEST: Yeah, the next generation.
Nina West Teases Tina Romero’s ‘Queens of the Dead’
I know you have D23 coming up next week. What can fans look forward to beyond D23 for Nina West?
WEST: I’m gonna be doing my solo cabaret debut in New York City at 54 Below with a show called The Very Queen. It’s a brand-new show. I’ll be workshopping it in Provincetown in the months of August and September, and then we’ll be making our New York City cabaret debut at the end of September. I’ll also be releasing a new holiday single with the Christmas tour. And I will be in an independent film from IFC called Queens of the Dead, which will debut in 2025, directed by Tina Romero, the daughter of George Romero, featuring the talents of Margaret Cho, Cheyenne Jackson, Katy O’Brian, myself, and many others. And that’s just the stuff I can talk about! [Laughs] Right now, things are looking pretty good in my world, and I’m really grateful for all the support and love that people continue to shower and show me and allow me to continue to grow. So, thank you.
Amazing. I’m so excited to hear you’re gonna be in Queens of the Dead. Every single bit of news that I hear about that is making me more and more excited for it.
WEST: It is really incredible. It’s such an incredible project. I wrapped on Saturday and they wrapped on Monday. So, the last day of shooting was Monday, and my last day was on Saturday. I was living in New Jersey for a month shooting the movie, so it was pretty fantastic.
You can watch all of All Stars 9 on Paramount+ now, and Only Murders in the Building is available on Hulu. Stay tuned at Collider for more on D23 and Queens of the Dead.