Darienne Lake, also known as Miss Darienne Lake, is the stage name of Greg Meyer, an American drag performer from Rochester, New York. Meyer is best known for being a contestant on Season 6 of RuPaul's Drag Race, and being the drag mother of Season 2 contestant Pandora Boxx.
Contents
Entrance
Season 6
"They better widen the doorways and reinforce the runway, honey, because a BIG girl's in the house!"
RuPaul's Drag Race
| Season Competed | Season 6 |
|---|---|
| Ranking: | 4th Place |
| Mini-Challenges Won: | 1 (Ep. 6) |
| Times as Team Captain: | 0 |
| Times Placed High: | 1 (Ep. 8) |
| Main Challenges Won: | 1 (Ep. 3) |
| Times Placed Low: | 3 (Eps. 4, 6, 10) |
| Times in Bottom: | 3 (Eps. 2, 7, 11) |
| Episode Eliminated | Episode 12 |
Darienne had a rough run on Season 6 of RuPaul's Drag Race, being one of the first contestants in her group to lip-sync in the bottom two, and receiving negative critiques from the judges on many occasions.
Darienne was also profiled as being a "Villain" on the show, often being portrayed as jealous of fellow contestant BenDeLaCreme, and having a poor attitude and making "snarky" remarks towards other contestants. This has led to a backlash against her among many fans of the show accusing her of being a "bitch" and believing that she should have been eliminated sooner.
Darienne's runway looks received harsh criticism from fans of the show, with some calling them a "Pantone color swatch book of sequined trashbags." Many fans believed that her runway outfits were not up to the same standards as other queens.
Controversy
On Episode 11, "Glitter Ball", after a second lip-sync against fellow contestant BenDeLaCreme, Darienne Lake was chosen to stay in the competition, and BenDeLaCreme was eliminated causing a firestorm of outraged and confused viewers on social media outlets, to comment and criticize RuPaul of making the wrong elimination choice, believing that Darienne Lake should have been eliminated instead. The day after the airing of that episode, Darienne posted a link on her facebook account reading: "Show how much you hate me by buying Ben's T-shirt."
Drag Name Origin
When she was first painted up, the queens said her name should be Tracy Turnblad because she looked like Ricki Lake from Hairspray. She didn’t want someone else’s name so they suggested Darien Lake—Ricki Lake’s love child with the amusement park between Rochester and Buffalo.
She thought, "Well, I am two tons of fun," and spelled it as Darienne Lake so she wouldn’t get a cease and desist order. She also thought of using names of eye shadow colors like Dusty Rose or Heather Sky.
Memorable Quotes
- "Sometimes I think the only thing that's keeping this couch from tilting over from my fat ass is your big fucking ego." (to Bianca Del Rio)
- "I'm sweating like two rats humping in a wool sock right now." (as Paula Deen)
- "She's a real keeper, as in keep her in a cage." (as Paula Deen)
- "I'm into it. I love carbs. I LOVE BREAD!" (on the Season 10 premiere episode)
Others
- "No matter how bad it is, even if your diagnosis is much worse than mine, you are going to pull through it." (referring to her cancer diagnosis in 2020)
- "You're going to get the help and you're going to survive. You're going to be one of those people who can then share your message with the world on how you've survived and thrived." (referring to her cancer diagnosis in 2020)
- "2020 is a c*nt, but I'm a bigger c*nt. Not today cancer, not today." (referring to her cancer diagnosis in 2020)
Trivia
- Darienne and BenDeLaCreme are one of seven pairs of queens to lip-sync against each other twice, the other pairs being BenDeLaCreme and Shangela, Katya and Alaska, Eureka and Aquaria, Eureka and Kameron Michaels, Monique Heart and Trinity The Tuck and Yvie Oddly and Brooke Lynn Hytes.
- Darienne is one of only two queens competing in a regular season to lip-sync in a double shantay episode having already landed in the bottom two before, the other being Eureka O'Hara in Season 10.
- Darienne is the longest competing queen to survive the first lip-sync, surviving 12 episodes (She survived the first lip-sync on the second premiere).
- Darienne is the third contestant in herstory to land in the bottom two on a regular season on her first episode competing and later win a main challenge on the same season, after Sahara Davenport and Shangela. Lemon from the first season of Canada's Drag Race is the fourth contestant to accomplish this.
- All four of these contestants have coincidentally won the main challenge in the very next episode.
- Darienne's drag mother is Naomi Kane, who is also the drag mother of Mrs. Kasha Davis.
- Darienne is the drag mother of Season 2 contestant Pandora Boxx.
- Darienne is one of 5 contestants to lip-sync a total of four times during their original run on the show, preceded by Coco Montrese of Season 5, and followed by Kameron Michaels of Season 10, Ra'Jah O'Hara of Season 11, and then by Heidi N Closet of Season 12.
- Darienne is tied with Carmen Carrera for the most below-safe challenge performances in a single season, placing either low or in the bottom two in six out of the ten episodes she was present.
- Darienne revealed in August of 2020 that she had skin cancer. The cancer was caught early, and she had surgery on her leg. She then revealed that she had beat the cancer.
Drag Family
Family of Naomi Kane
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Gallery
Season 6 Looks
Social Media
- Darienne's Facebook
- Darienne's Instagram
- Darienne's Twitter
- Darienne's YouTube Channel
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2nd & 3rd: Adore Delano & Courtney Act | |
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4th: Darienne Lake • 5th: BenDeLaCreme (Miss Congeniality) • 6th Joslyn Fox • 7th: Trinity K. Bonet • 8th: Laganja Estranja • 9th: Milk • 10th: Gia Gunn • 11th: April Carrión • 12th: Vivacious • 13th & 14th: Kelly Mantle & Magnolia Crawford | |
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Jason Carter • Shawn Morales • Miles Davis Moody • Simon Sherry-Wood | |
