Bold & Beautiful: Diana Lone

On a recent Thursday night at Why Kiki Bar, Diana Lone is dressed for the occasion. Sporting a matching black suit ensemble with a popped, crisp white button-up, she isn’t dressed in her usual full-glam attire. Instead, she’s letting the attention for the night ride on the contestants for the bar’s inaugural pageants—Miss and Mx Why Kiki. 

A Why Kiki resident performer since summer 2021, the 26-year-old is used to the competitive nature of drag. Not only has she played co-host to the entertainment bar’s first beauty contests, but she’s competed in last year’s Lip Sync Battles, tying for first place with Rosa Rica. From shows at Edison House to opening for Chappell Roan at The Depot last September, Lone has cemented her place in Utah’s drag scene.

But before her entrance into the drag world, Lone’s inherent knack for the craft came naturally when she was young. “When I was a kid…I’ve always been really weird. Let me just start with that,” she laughs. “I would get scraps of cardboard and make shit out of them. Just really crafty for no reason.” She’s since graduated to creating or altering more than half of her drag outfits, creating looks aligned with themes ranging from country to Alice in Wonderland.

Ever since she was eight, Lone has made her home on stage. A stint in a local theater’s production of Oklahoma!— where she earned her first dance solo after impressing the director with her rendition of High School Musical’s “Bop To The Top”—jumpstarted her child acting career, culminating in an audition for an advanced acting class at 16. 

At that same age, on March 20—the first day of spring, she remembers vividly—Lone came out to her parents. Soon after, she was disenrolled in the aforementioned class. “It’s like everything just came to a screeching halt right then,” she recalls.

With her creative outlet gone, Diana turned to seemingly the only opportunity available: enlisting in the army. “At that time, my parents already knew I didn’t want to serve a mission. And so, I would never admit this at the time, but at the back of my mind I was like, ‘I need to make it up to them somehow. I need to prove myself to them,’” she says.

“At that time, my parents already knew I didn’t want to serve a mission. And so, I would never admit this at the time, but at the back of my mind I was like, ‘I need to make it up to them somehow. I need to prove myself to them.'”

Stationed in Poland, Lone watched RuPaul’s Drag Race religiously. The deployment took place from August 2018 to August 2019, as part of her six-year military contract. Her notes app dates back to this time, and includes her first sketches from when she started challenging herself to design on-theme for the Drag Race runway. Drag stars such as Sasha Velour and Trixie Mattel—the latter’s signature snatched and thick-winged liner also having a place in Lone’s early doodles—influenced Lone’s dip into drag culture, but it wasn’t until seeing Sasha Colby on Season 9 of the reality competition that fixed Lone’s desire to perform again.  

“It was healing at the beginning, it was like a release. But now, I’ve processed most of that trauma. So I do carry it, obviously. I think it’s always going to be with me. But drag is not so much a medicine as it is like a meal. Now, I eat to survive. I do drag as a job, as a living.”

Lone’s visit to Utah came more abruptly than anticipated. After a call with her sister at 4 a.m., she caught a flight back to Utah within 24 hours. She had lost a family member, her brother who had died from suicide. It was after her brother’s funeral that Lone realized she needed to find an outlet for her pain. Following her deployment, Lone returned to Utah and performed in drag for the first time at City Limits Tavern. Now, her drag has developed into something beyond recovery.

“It was healing at the beginning, it was like a release,” she says. “But now, I’ve processed most of that trauma. So I do carry it, obviously. I think it’s always going to be with me. But drag is not so much a medicine as it is like a meal. Now, I eat to survive. I do drag as a job, as a living.”

Her drag name, although a play on words, serves as a reassurance. “I think gay people, or anyone really, feels they’re probably going to die alone,” she says. “How I grew up, that’s what you’re told. You either get married in the Temple to a woman or you live alone your whole life until you die. It took me until I was an adult to be like, ‘Nonsense. How silly.’ So that was like my way of reclaiming it.”

Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” sets up Lone’s appearance on stage. A few musical bars later, the country singer’s “I went sky diving” verse is interrupted by the whistling cry of an unknown falling object. Then, as the sounds of cartoonish splats fill the space, Lone’s act continues alongside subsequent audio stops—including “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls and Anna Faris’ iconic “What are you waiting for?” line from Scary Movie. Lone’s final act is a reveal, ripping her dress to uncover her bloodied attire.

“I try to keep it fresh and interesting because I get bored of [doing] the same thing over and over. Any little thing to make it more elevated, I’m always trying to improve my drag. That’s what pushes me to keep going. It gives me strength; it gives me hope.”

Leaning into these comedic yet slightly twisted performances keeps Lone’s wit and creativity unrestrained. Coupled with her lineup of ever-changing outfits, makeup and hair looks, she sets the bar high for drag performances in Utah. “I try to keep it fresh and interesting because I get bored of [doing] the same thing over and over,” she admits. “Any little thing to make it more elevated, I’m always trying to improve my drag. That’s what pushes me to keep going. It gives me strength; it gives me hope.”

Like Mattel and her entrepreneurial ventures in TV, cosmetics and real estate, Lone aspires to be a “do-it-all girl.” Taking up as many opportunities as she can fit into her schedule, she has set forth her first bit of merchandise—pins etched with her signature look and name—and most recently, becoming a satellite ambassador for Identity Hormones and Healthcare, an LGBTQ-centered medical clinic that provides gender-affirming care to transgender and nonbinary youth and adults.

While she continues to up her projects and polish her performances, Lone’s most ambitious goal spells not only future success and growth for herself, but for Utah’s drag scene as a whole. 

“I want someone from Utah to get on Drag Race,” she professes. “That’ll put us on the map, finally. That’s what I’m looking forward to. Being on the show, or—bare minimum—supporting somebody that is. But between you and me, I’m going to be on that show one day. It’s going to happen.”

Keep up with Lone on Instagram at @thedianalone and catch her at Why Kiki Bar on Saturday, July 20 at 8:00 p.m. Get tickets here. 

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