Mercedes Iman Diamond is the stage name of Curran,[1] a Kenyan-American
drag performer who competed on
season 11 of the American television series RuPaul's Drag Race. Curran was born and raised in
Mombasa, Kenya, and moved to
Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he created the drag persona Mercedes Iman Diamond and competed in pageants. Mercedes Iman Diamond was the first
Muslim contestant on Drag Race; Internet memes of her appearance on the show went viral, and her lines in a parody film challenge inspired a dance remix by
Adam Joseph.
Early life
Curran was born on December 12, 1987,[2][3] in Mombasa, Kenya.[4] He moved to the United States at the age of eleven and created his
drag persona Mercedes Iman Diamond at the Minneapolis club Gay 90s a decade later.[5]
Career
Mercedes Iman Diamond has a background in pageantry; she won the Miss Gay 90s pageant in 2016.[6] She was also named Miss City of the Lakes, and was the second alternate in the pageant Miss Minnesota Continental.[7]
Mercedes Iman Diamond was the first
Muslim contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race; she competed in
season 11 (2019).[8] On the first episide "
Whatcha Unpackin?", she performed poorly in the photo shoot mini-challenge and wore an outfit for the runway that was inspired by former Drag Race contestant
Bianca Del Rio.[9] The acting challenge on the second episode "
Good God Girl, Get Out" required Mercedes Iman Diamond to dance and recite dialogue in a parody of Get Out (2017) that was inspired by the film Paris Is Burning (1990).[10] Internet memes of Mercedes Iman Diamond struggling to pronounce "opulence" went
viral,[11][12] and her vocals received a dance remix from American singer-songwriter
Adam Joseph.[13] During a
lip-sync battle to "
Work Bitch" (2013) by
Britney Spears, Mercedes Iman Diamond subsequently eliminated her partner in the challenge
Kahanna Montrese from the competition.[14][15]
Despite her initial reluctance to discuss her identity,[16] on the third episode ("
Diva Worship"), Mercedes Iman Diamond described her experience of being
racially profiled and placed on the
No Fly List for years because she was from Kenya.[17][18][19] She also said she had suffered from a
stroke during a pageant as a result of demanding travel requirements.[15][20] On the fourth episode "
Trump: The Rusical", Mercedes Iman Diamond portrayed
Ivanka Trump in the Grease-inspired
Rusical (musical theatre challenge) about
Donald Trump and the women in his life.[21][22] Mercedes Iman Diamond's performance placed her in the bottom two and she was eliminated from the competition after losing a lip-sync against
Ra'Jah O'Hara to
James Brown's "
Living in America" (1985).[23][24]