Onya Nurve Wanted to Be Drag Race’s ‘Moment of Surprise’

Onya Nurve mounted a sneak attack. The winner of season 17 of RuPaul’s Drag Race wasn’t a loud presence when she walked in the room — she didn’t mention her theater training or that she was seasoned in speech and debate, or appear particularly interested in wresting the camera to focus on her. In her first performance of the season, the talent show, she placed solidly safe.

Then she kicked it into high gear, and by the end of the season, she entered the finale as the definitive front-runner. Over the course of the season, she won four challenges, largely due to her innate charisma and confident speaking abilities, and was positively critiqued in four other challenges, too. But even throughout that time, Onya seemed to be the only person realizing she was the frontrunner, while the other queens focused on Suzie Toot .



No matter: RuPaul was entirely focused on her. “Ru is the only thing that matters,” Onya says now. “That helped me.

” When planning for the finale, what did you want to showcase? I wanted to have fun. Up until that point, I had already done everything that I needed to do to prove that I should win the crown. Coming into the finale, I was like, “Girl, this is just another opportunity to show them exactly who you are.

You ain’t got to do nothing different. You’ve done everything you needed to do, bitch.” There was so much stress, I didn’t have time to stress some more.

What was the process of creating your finale song-and-dance number? What did you want the track to highlight? We gave the team an idea of what we want it to sound like, they send us a song, and we sing it. I trusted that they knew exactly what my song should sound like. I wanted to make sure it gave a feeling of soul.

I wanted it to feel like a song from a Black person. I wanted to have dance moves that relate to Black culture, and I wanted it to have a Lizzo, Bruno Mars vibe. I love to play the role of the actor and the performer and not the director.

So I love to give those reins to other people and just do the job that I’m supposed to do, which is to kill the material. I trusted them and then, once I got the version, I was like, “Oh yeah, I can do that.” They know I can sing, so I knew that they were going to give me something that I would want to sing.

Before you started filming, what did you think the “Onya Nurve” television character would be? Before I got on the show, my dad told me, “Do not let people, places, and things change who you are.” I was not going to overdo myself. What you saw on the show is exactly how I am as a person, and it was refreshing to watch myself be myself.

But you did make choices about what to highlight at various times. I didn’t know at first, for example, that you are a theater queen. Well, that was the thing.

There were so many things that I kept close to my chest because I didn’t want people to think that I was a certain type of queen. I’m almost every type of queen. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed, so I didn’t come on the show saying, “Oh, I am a singer, I’m a theater kid, I’m a speech and debate champion.

” I’ve been doing things on stage my whole life. I knew that my actions were going to speak louder than anything I had to say, and so I wanted it to always be a moment of surprise. You wanted it to be a surprise for the audience? Or for the judges and the other queens? For the judges and the other queens.

I wanted them to underestimate me, because if they kept the bar low, I could always exceed it. If the judges didn’t know exactly what I could do, there was nothing for them to expect. You expected to come in as an underdog? Oh, absolutely.

I had 1,300 followers before I got on the show. I didn’t know any of the queens. None of the queens knew me.

So what did you want to highlight with your talent number, which was your first showcase? Originally I wanted to sing and showcase my vocals right away, but due to copyright, I wasn’t able to do that. Since I had to make an original song, I decided to switch it up a little bit. Cleveland is a place that loves line dances and silly songs, so I decided to make a line dance.

It was another moment that I didn’t need to rely on tricks and gags. I could get on the stage by myself, no props, no people, and still command the stage and steal the focus. It felt unique to do a real rap song.

A lot of queens rap, but not a lot make “songs.” My brothers and my cousins are rappers, so it’s been something that is very close to me. It was fun creating that song.

My cousin’s name is Huck Peshi, and he produced the song that I put on the talent show. He was very, very happy and very proud. It felt like a Cleveland rap track.

I was like, “This queen listens to Kid Cudi.” Was that intentional? Yes! I wanted something where we could say, “Yeah, that is so Cleveland.” Did you talk to any other queens when prepping for the show? I talked to Saphirra Crystal a lot, also Heidi N Closet, Kornbread, and Jaida Essence Hall — all of those queens have been huge supports before and after the show.

All of my Black sisters were all up in my DMs showing me some love. What did you learn from them before going on? How to get on that show and be yourself. That’s what I knew I needed to do the most — I didn’t need to overproduce myself.

I could trust in being Onya Nurve. There was a sense when the season started that you were a bit leery of the other queens. Is that accurate? Well, yes.

I knew I wanted to observe and get an idea of who everyone was. What you saw was me watching, taking notes, and then trying to figure out the best time was to pounce. I was tense until I was able to become that apex predator in the building.

When did you feel that that happen? Around the time Crystal and Kori left. They were such strong energies in the room and a lot of the girls liked Kori, especially when it came to the workroom dynamic. She’s a wonderful entertainer.

Once those two left, I was able to really step up and be the big dog in the scene. Before that, they really took the energy of the room. As they should! Early on in the competition, when you started getting those wins, what was your dynamic with the other queens? You said you were an underdog, but pretty quickly you were doing very well.

Even while winning, I was underestimated. I really don’t know why, but I think the girls thought that at some point I was going to stop winning. It wasn’t until I got my fourth win that they were like, “Hold on, wait, how did we get here? How did she win four already?” And then at that point, girl, the competition was almost over.

There was a sense throughout the season that you were the only queen who was seeing eye to eye with the judges. Why could you do that? I’ve been a student of the show as long as I’ve been doing drag, and I just had a good idea of what the judges were looking for. It was especially real in the Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent monologues , when RuPaul said that this was not a place for earnestness and that you leave earnest at home.

That was the moment where I was like, “I’m exactly what they’re looking for because nothing about my drag is earnest.” I knew in that challenge that that’s not what they were looking for. At that point I was like, “I have a good idea of what the next superstar needs to be.

” But the judges do want vulnerability sometimes. How do you know how to walk the line? I just had to use my intuition and know the moments that they wanted to be fun. It’s Drag Race , so that’s almost all the time.

At that point in the competition, some of the girls thought, “Oh, this is the moment for me to give a dramatic monologue.” I had a feeling that if everyone was being dramatic, I needed to be extra stupid and fun. One of your biggest strengths was public speaking.

Well, you do know that I’m a speech and debate champion. Tell me about that. I won the State of Ohio Speech and Debate competition in 2011.

I’m a national qualifier! I’ve been speaking on stages for a very long time. But you didn’t mention that. No, it was nothing I needed them to know.

That’s why I was so surprised when no one fought me for the monologue role in RDR Live! I was like, Are they seriously about to let me get this? Because I’m about to walk this challenge like a dog. The arc that ended up defining your run was the story of learning to make drag friends and connect with the other girls. Does that sound like an accurate reflection of the season to you? Yeah, I think so.

That’s what I learned the most about myself. In Cleveland, I’m a friendly queen, but when it came to the competition space I didn’t understand how to develop relationships when there was $200,000 on the line. I learned that I didn’t have to have any walls up, and that I could have been my complete self the entire time.

If I was to do all of this over again, I would be a lot more open. How do you think the two larger fights that you got into throughout the season affected that trajectory? It allowed people to understand that we, my sisters included, are human, and we do make mistakes. When it comes to friendships, it is not about the highs, but it’s about the lows and the problems about how you overcome them.

And at the end of the day, it was cool to see us not only become friends, but sisters. When you were filming, did those fights affect how you approached the competition? No, I really couldn’t let the fights affect me too much because we had to get up and be together the next day. And thank God I’m a Gemini, so I never held any grudges.

It takes a lot less energy to move on and love someone than it does to hold a grudge and be hateful. Where did that centeredness come from? It just came from doing it for so long. I’m used to auditioning for roles, I’m used to doing speech and debate and either winning or not winning.

I knew whether I got eliminated day one, or if I won the crown, that I was confident in my abilities. Did you think that it was a chance that you would be eliminated day one? You know what? Yes. Especially when the talent show was going on, I knew that my talent was going to be a hit or miss, because the girls were going to be judging me.

I was surprised they didn’t put me in the bottom that week. Really? Watching back, it looked like Ru would’ve put you in the top two. Yeah, but Ru wasn’t judging.

I knew that if Ru was judging, I could have been in the top two, but I knew if the girls were judging, there was a chance I could have been in the bottom. After I performed, I saw on Ru, TS Madison, and Doechii’s faces that they really liked it. I did hope that the girls saw the judges’ reactions.

That helped. What was your answer when Latrice asked you about your five-year plan? I really want to buy a house in the near future. As much as I love Cleveland, I’ve been living in Ohio my entire life, so it would be nice to move somewhere with sun or closer to Broadway.

Do you see yourself as an actor? I definitely do. I’ve been an actor my whole life, darling. I just haven’t had the proper stage.

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