Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald is the drag persona of Donnell Robinson (born ), an American drag queen based in Washington, D.C. Known as "the doyenne of D.C.'s drag scene," she hosted a long-running show at the drag club Ziegfeld's and is a mainstay of the city's annual Capital Pride. Early life Donnell Robinson was born in the mid-1950s. He grew up on a farm in the area of Warrenton, Virginia, where he was raised by his grandparents while his mother worked as a domestic worker in Fairfax, Virginia. His first foray into drag, before he was even aware of drag's existence, was portraying the Flip Wilson character Geraldine Jones at an eighth-grade talent show. After struggling at Fauquier High School while balancing schoolwork with farmwork and caring for his grandparents, he managed to graduate, though he was not able to attend college due to his family's financial situation. A friend took him to the Pier 9 nightclub, where he watched a drag performance for the first time. He would go on to win his first drag competition there. Career Robinson moved to Arlington and began performing drag in D.C. in 1975. After initially taking the stage under the name Sharyn O'Brien, someone suggested that "you need an African American name. At your size, you should be Ella Fitzgerald," so Robinson began performing under that name.