Nina West went from “Drag Race” to Queens of the Dead

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Nina West has a phone call from friend Zelda Williams to thank for giving her her biggest acting opportunity to date.

“Zelda Williams calls. ‘My friend put you on her vision board for this movie. Would it be okay if I showed up?’” recalls West, the drag queen also known as Andrew Levitt.

Their mutual friend was Tina Romero, a filmmaker and daughter of the late zombie master George A. Romero, the revered Night of the Living Dead director.

The young Romero wrote a note to West, recalling how before her father's death in 2017, she had received his blessing for her project, a film titled Queens of the Dead. The horror comedy centers on drag queens and club kids battling the undead during an outbreak at a Brooklyn commercial rag show. Would West want to be in the film?

West, best known as a contestant on RuPaul's Drag Racepreviously worked on screen in the biopic Weird Al Yankovic, Strangeplaying the role of Drag Icon Divine.

His latest film was shot this summer and stars Katy O'Brian, Margaret Cho, Brigette Lundy-Paine and Cheyenne Jackson.

“It’s this incredibly magical queer cast,” West says. “It’s camp. It’s horror. I’ve never seen a movie about the undead like this.”

The summer shoot marked a busy time for West, as it took place in the midst of the launch of The stars of RuPaul's Drag Race season nine, which saw her doing promotional activities during her off-shoot weekends. She used the show to raise money for The Trevor Project and even gave out a T-shirt to raise money for the LGBTQIA+ youth charity.

West is currently touring with a solo show and plans to take on more film roles after Queens of the Dead whether in drag or out. West says, “I don’t have to be in drag to play a role. But it’s definitely a skill that I bring to the table, and it’s also informed my storytelling.”

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