World of Wonder is best known for its contributions towards LGBTQ programming, for which they won an
Outfest Annual Achievement Award in 2011.[13] Their most well known production is RuPaul's Drag Race. They have managed the career of
drag queen and titular
hostRuPaul since the early 1990s, eventually producing the television franchise alongside the majority of its live shows, podcasts, television specials, and conventions.[14]
History
World of Wonder was co-founded as a record label and management company by Barbato and Bailey in the mid-1980s after meeting in
New York University's (NYU)
graduate film program,[15] with the name coming from a
Britishmagazine Bailey used to read as a child.[16] The two formed Fabulous Pop Tarts, a disco pop rock duo, and began performing regularly at
Danceteria and other clubs in
downtownNew York City.[15][17] They produced two albums, Age of the Thing,[18] which included their hit single New York City Beat, and Gagging on the Lovely Extravaganza, which included guest appearances by
Lady Miss Kier, RuPaul, Martyn Phillips, and Filthy the Dog.[19]
Barbato and Bailey moved on to begin organizing projects in television production and licensing, documentary filmmaking, and the career expansion of their friends and fellow artists, particularly RuPaul, whom they met in
Atlanta in the 1980s.[20] They produced RuPaul's first album,
RuPaul is: StarBooty!, in 1986, and became his manager shortly after launching World of Wonder in 1991. They have since produced all of his television shows, his
DragCon bi-coastal conventions and music productions, and have earned multiple
Emmy Awards.[20]
One of Barbato and Bailey's early television documentaries, Died on the 4th of July: Nelson Sullivan's World of Wonder, shares its name with the production company. The documentary, a one-hour portrait of
Nelson Sullivan, was created from an archive of over 1,200 hours of video footage taken over the decade preceding Sullivan's death of a heart attack on July 4, 1989.[21]Died on the 4th of July aired on the UK's
Channel 4, was included on the
DVD release of Party Monster: The Shockumentary,[22] and contributed to Sullivan's posthumous rise in notoriety.[21] The early focus on Sullivan solidified the company's interest in documentary filmmaking. In 2014, Barbato and Bailey were honored with the
International Documentary Association's (IDA) Pioneer Award, "celebrating exceptional achievement, leadership, and vision in the nonfiction and documentary community."[23]
World of Wonder operates out of a historic
art deco building on
Hollywood Boulevard. Designed by architects
S. Tilden Norton and
Fredrick H. Wallis and erected in 1930, the building served as the original home of the
Directors Guild of America.[24][25] The World of Wonder Storefront Gallery now occupies the ground floor retail space, with production and management offices occupying the upper three stories. The basement, once home to the punk rock club
The Masque, now houses the company's video archive and a soundstage.[26]
Another franchise by World of Wonder, Million Dollar Listing, debuted in Los Angeles in 2006, and has since expanded to include New York,
San Francisco, and
Miami series.[31] The spin-off, Sell It Like Serhant, featuring one of Million Dollar Listing New York's top brokers,
Ryan Serhant, launched in 2018.[7] In 2021, Barbato and Bailey produced and directed Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes and Small Town News: KPVM Pahrump for HBO.[32][33] The company has received several Emmy Awards nominations for their documentary programming.
RuPaul's Drag Race
World of Wonder produced The RuPaul Show, hosted by
RuPaul from 1996 until 1998. The company partnered with RuPaul to pitch the
reality television show RuPaul's Drag Race to
Logo TV, which was immediately picked up for a season and aired in February 2009.[34] The company also produced multiple spinoff series:
RuPaul's Drag U, which lasted for three seasons from 2010 until 2012
World of Wonder has produced many feature-length documentary films, many focusing on provocative subjects, several of which have garnered
industry awards and nominations. These include Inside Deep Throat, which premiered at
Sundance Film Festival,[36] HBO
biopicWishful Drinking, starring
Carrie Fisher, which received two Emmy nominations,[37] and Becoming Chaz, which premiered at Sundance as the
Oprah Winfrey Network's (OWN) first ever documentary[38] and was nominated for three Emmy awards.[39]
Barbato and Bailey have produced a host of other original documentaries, including Party Monster: The Shockumentary,[22]The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Monica in Black and White,[2]Gender Revolution with
Katie Couric,[42][22] and The Last Beekeeper.[43] In 2017, Out of Iraq, a documentary chronicling the relationship between two soliders serving in
Iraq won a
daytime Emmy for Logo TV.[44] In March 2018, the documentary When the Beat Drops, directed by
Jamal Sims, premiered at the
Miami International Film Festival, where it won the Knight Documentary Achievement Award.[45][46] In 2018, World of Wonder produced and directed Liberty: Mother of Exiles, an HBO documentary examining the history of the
Statue of Liberty.[47] The company was also commissioned by
YouTube to create Stonewall Outloud, a documentary based on the
Stonewall protests of 1969, using the audio recordings of
StoryCorps founder,
Dave Isay.[48]
Content
Over the years, World of Wonder has expanded its presence into new media types, including conventions,
video-on-demand,
social media, and
blogging. The WOW Report, a blog providing daily coverage of the pop culture and nightlife sectors, was named Best Counter Culture Blog by LA Weekly in 2011.[49]
In January 2020, the production company began their first
Las VegasStrip residency, RuPaul's Drag Race Live!, where former contestants from the
Drag Race franchise perform at the
Flamingo Las Vegas, directed by RuPaul and Jamal Sims.[56] World of Wonder also has a YouTube channel with the name WOWPresents, which features over 5,000 videos and has more than 1.9 million subscribers.[57]
WOWIE Awards
First introduced in 2013, the WOWIE Awards are World of Wonder’s tribute to the best in LGBTQIA+ entertainment, trailblazers, activism, artistry, and pop culture. The awards coincided with World of Wonder’s annual holiday party until 2022, when they included it as a closing event at DragCon LA.[58] Since 2020, the awards ceremony is streamed live on the WOWPresents YouTube channel.[59] Categories include Best Drag Queen Music Video, Best Red Carpet Look, Best Breakout Star, Best Blog or Website and Best LGBTQ Comedian.[60][61]
In November 2017, World of Wonder launched the
subscription streaming serviceWOW Presents Plus.[62] The service contains a multitude of original series and live events spanning the realm of pop culture and
LGBTQ society.[63] Exclusive original series include: Sketchy Queens, UNHhhh, and Painted with Raven. The service is also the main international distributor in some regions for RuPaul's Drag Race and the international versions of the franchise. It also includes many web series found on WOWPresents' YouTube channel, such as Detox's Life Rehab and La Vida de Valentina.[64]
29 Emmy Awards nominations and 13 wins for RuPaul's Drag Race, including Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program in 2016 and 2017, as well as Outstanding Makeup and Outstanding Editing in 2017.
^Pike, L (2006). "Channel XYZ: drag queens, club kids, and amateur erotic filmmakers make WOW TV the online outlet for artists on the edge", Los Angeles Magazine, as
archived on gcnext.com, retrieved April 4, 2009.