Myki Meeks On Life-Changing Experience Winning ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ & How The Team Raises The Bar Every Year – Contenders TV Nominees Studio

After 18 seasons on the air, RuPaul’s Drag Race has received a total of 88 Emmy nominations with 29 wins.

To celebrate its most recent slew of Emmy nominations, executive producer Natalia James, co-executive producer John Polly, production designer Jen Chu, choreographer Jamal Sims and Season 18 winner Myki Meeks joined Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees Studio to discuss how the show consistently hits the mark each year with critics and award voters alike.

Watch the conversation below and scroll down for more photos from the event.

“It starts with the queens,” said James, whose work extends across RuPaul’s Drag Race, RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. “To me, there’s no other show that has drag queens that have as much personality as ours do. There’s heart. There’s comedy. There’s emotion. There’s queer story,” she added.

Polly, who has been with RuPaul’s Drag Race since 2013 and its spinoff series RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars since 2012, credits the “raw talent” each season for making the show as successful as it has been.

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“It’s the raw talent that just needs a showcase, and we’re lucky enough to be able to put these amazing artists on TV and let them do what they do,” he said. “We have RuPaul — who is the most fantastic host, guide and sort of spiritual guru — mleading the whole team. But yes, it’s the queens, their talent and love of drag — it’s their exuberance, spunk and fight because it’s competition they want to win, which comes across.”

Myki joined the show representing Orlando, a love for her home state of Florida that she also represented in the studio by wearing a long white gown featuring the state’s fruit: oranges. In the finale of Season 18, Myki shared that she felt like she had started the reality competition as an ingenue and was leaving as a leading lady.

“The experience was a roller coaster start to finish. I always say I was a big fish in a small pond in my local scene, and I entered a full sea of whales, OK? I mean, look at the girls,” she said as the panel erupted in laughter.

“It’s a pressure cooker,” she continued. “You get there, and you start questioning, like, ‘Wow, what is it that I really do if you’re not 100% secure in it?’ It was the trials of the show, and constantly going 100% the entire time. It turned out to be for the better. I have even said that when we all came back together in the last episode, the queens who entered the workroom are not the queens that are leaving. I feel way more secure with what I do. I’m a much stronger performer than before, and that’s just now. Five years from now, who knows what’s going to happen.”

Sims works triple duty on Drag Race, serving face and as a guest judge and choreographer. As choreographer, he worked closely with Myki on her finale number: a performance of her original song “Versed,” featuring a showgirl theme.

“Again, it starts with the queens,” Sims said. “Myki had a clear idea of what she wanted, which is always helpful because not every queen comes with a clear idea. Sometimes I’m kind of fishing around, ‘And what do you think about…?’ Myki [for the finale] was like, ‘I know the song, and I know what I want to do.’ So that made my job a lot easier.”

Each week, the queens face off in unique challenges. Myki touts her favorite week was Snatch Game of Love: Island, which aired in February. With guest judge Brooke Shields in the house, the queens played the celebrity-impersonation competition with a twist. Myki dressed up as Drew Barrymore.

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Myki Meeks

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Jamal Sims

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Jen Chu

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Natalia James

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

John Polly

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

“My favorite set from the season was Snatch Game of Love Island, which shows how the show is always up to date with pop culture references and not afraid to play with what people are talking about nowadays,” she said. “I think that’s kind of drag too. When we’re at our local shows, we’re creating mixes based on what’s popular now, or just pop culture moments.”

Chu said of the set: “Obviously, we have some favorite colors on the show that pop like crazy on white. So it was everything we love together, and it turned out perfect. We love sparkly; we love hot pink and orange. It was nice to have an intense contrast and so much eye candy in that particular show.”

She tells Myki: “It’s so funny because you don’t know this about us, but we watch you all on the monitor. My team works 12 hours a day, and they work really hard. We’re all there long hours, and it’s really hot in the Valley. But whenever we watch the monitors, you girls are working so hard. It’s crazy. We know that we cannot complain because look at these girls; they didn’t know these songs, they had never done this dance before, and they had been up for 14 hours.”