About Gaysha
Meet Gaysha Starr
A life on stage. A place in community.
Gaysha Starr is a Seattle performer, host, speaker, and transgender community leader whose career began in April 1993. For more than three decades, she has brought quick wit, glamorous looks, and memorable performances to audiences, while building a career that reaches well beyond the stage.
Her story brings together drag, pageantry, fundraising, public speaking, and community leadership. These aren’t separate chapters so much as connected parts of a life spent entertaining people, bringing them together, and making space for conversation.
More than a title
Pageantry has been part of Gaysha’s career since the beginning. Her titles include Miss Neighbours, La Femme Magnifique International, Miss Gay Washington, and Empress of Seattle, Olympia XXIX. Each belongs to a career shaped by both performance and participation in community life.
Her community recognition includes serving as a Seattle Pride Parade Grand Marshal in 2022 and receiving the Empowered Filipino Award from the Filipino Community Center in 2025.
Now, she is pursuing Miss Gay Seattle ... a new campaign within a long-standing connection to Seattle’s drag and LGBTQ+ communities.
Bringing people together
Gaysha’s hosting and community work includes Seattle PrideFest, Seattle Red Dress Parties, and GenPride’s Pillars of Pride. Her experience spans celebrations, fundraisers, and events that give people a place to gather and connect.
In September 2024, she joined the GenPride board, adding another chapter to her community involvement.
Visibility, aging, and life beyond the stage
As a transgender woman, Gaysha speaks openly about transgender experiences and aging. Her speaking work brings those conversations into corporate events, panels, fireside chats, and community gatherings.
Her speaking experience includes conversations about LGBTQ+ history, the transgender movement, and her own public transition. Today, the speaking work she is developing also makes room for conversations about growing older, belonging, and connection across generations.
Whether she is performing, hosting, or joining a conversation, Gaysha brings the perspective of someone whose life and work connect the stage with the communities around it.
Connect with Gaysha
Explore speaking engagements, inquire about a performance or hosting opportunity, or follow Gaysha on social media.