Anania Can Only Ever Be Authentic

For Anania, comedy started as a means of survival. The comedian, who uses she/they pronouns, grew up in Davenport, Iowa, where their trans identity wasn’t always understood by their classmates. So, Anania learned to be funny. “If I wasn’t the class clown in middle school, I don’t think I would’ve made it through that hell,” they say.

Now the 25-year-old singer, drag star, and Gaydar host is making her Broadway debut, but she carved out some time for a spirited Zoom chat between rehearsals. Anania has also found solace in pop culture, a passion that would lead her to viral fame a few years down the line. Her favorite movies were Shrek, The Proposal, Identity Thief, and Madagascar (“It’s still my favorite”). But it was the musical comedy series Glee that holds a special place in her heart, having grown up performing in show choir.

“Glee kind of changed my life,” Anania says. “Right before I went to college, I remember sitting down and watching it all the way through, because I’d only seen some random episodes when it aired. I really liked Santana and Mercedes. And also Roz Washington, the coach that NeNe Leakes played. She should’ve gotten an Emmy for that!”

As a proud Gleek, Anania’s current project is a full-circle moment. They’re making their Broadway debut in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a cult classic that they first fell in love with because of a certain group of mismatched McKinley High students. The 2026 revival opened on March 24 and runs until June 21.

“My introduction to Rocky Horror — you’re going to gag — it was Glee,” Anania says, referencing Season 2’s themed episode. “Amber Riley was my Frank-N-Furter.” It wasn’t until she was cast in a 2024 drag parody of Rocky Horror that Anania finally watched the 1975 movie. “It’s so weird, but I fell in love with the absurdity of it,” they say. In the drag show, they played Magenta, but for Broadway, Anania is a swing for both Magenta and Riff Raff. “Rehearsing as Magenta has been really fun, but right now, I’m most excited about singing Riff Raff’s parts.”

The audience are sharks; they can smell artificiality.

Though Anania is new to Broadway, she’s no stranger to the spotlight. She gained a large following on TikTok during the pandemic, posting comedy skits (a clip imagining a Gen Z president was her first big hit) and makeup tutorials as she discovered her drag persona. “When I first started, I was just doing anything,” she says. “It was just purely out of fun, curiosity, and boredom.” Her secret to viral success is simple: Never try to be who you think viewers want to see. “The audience are sharks; they can smell artificiality. My goal is always to make sure that in 15 seconds, people remember my name and know what I want to do in life.”

Toward the end of 2023, Anania moved to New York City. (“There were so many logistical, administrative things. It’s not that Sex and the City bullsh*t where you just put on a mule and run across the street.”) After a few months, they were approached to host the online quiz show Gaydar, a TikTok- and YouTube-based series on which Anania tests celebrities on queer history and pop culture. The series has blown up in the past year, with buzzy guests like Chappell Roan, Reneé Rapp, and Zohran Mamdani — but they’re still pursuing their white whale.

“I want RuPaul on Gaydar,” she says. “I think she’d be the best episode yet. I want her to show up in one of her f*ck-*ss TikTok wigs and a pair of sunglasses, and just give it to me.”

And yes, they’ve considered auditioning for Drag Race, but won’t pull the trigger until they feel they can match up to Season 15’s winner. “This sounds so pompous, and my disclaimer is, I promise I’m not an *sshole. But the way that Sasha Colby didn’t need to go on Drag Race — but she did, and swept it — I want that same experience,” Anania says. “I want to make sure that when I go on, I can literally walk to the top four. Because I know that I’ll be going into debt. I’m going into financial ruin for at least a couple years if I do Drag Race.”

For now, Anania is happy to be a fangirl. That’s sort of their default mode anyway. They credit anime hits from the 2000s with sparking their love of fan fiction. “My first fanfic was Bleach, when I was 12. Then the floodgates opened when I watched Naruto,” Anania says. “People were slutting out Naruto and Sasuke everywhere. That’s where I got my angel wings.”

Her current fandom obsession, as anyone who follows Anania on social media knows well, is HBO Max’s medical drama The Pitt. She started the show because of one ship that’s been prominent online, but now that she’s seen the dynamic on screen, she isn’t exactly on board. “I kept seeing so much Hucklerobby; that’s Whitaker and Dr. Robby fan fiction and fan art. So I was like, ‘Let me lock in and see what this is about.’ The whole time, Hucklerobby was a red herring. And I hate Robby.”

Their preferred ship is Mohabbot, the imagined pairing of Dr. Samira Mohan and Dr. Jack Abbot. So, Anania is in mourning when we talk, as just days earlier, Mohan actor Supriya Ganesh was announced to be exiting the series. “Don’t even get me started,” they sigh, revealing the pain over the departure has seeped into her dreams. “I had a dream last night that Supriya Ganesh sicced a crocodile on me, and it was chasing me during her wedding. I don’t know what that symbolism is, but I was like, ‘Why would she do that?’”

While her current focus is Broadway over television (“I absolutely want to do TV, but I want to see this musical theater thing through now that it’s happening”), she can’t help but fantasize about a role on the rumored night shift spinoff of The Pitt. “If that happens, I want to be part of it,” she says. “My night shift doctor, when she’s not at the ED, she’s twirling for sticky dollar bills on a Pittsburgh nightclub floor.”

Anania has clear goals for the future, but they’re more interested in making the most of their present success, helming both a hit digital series and making it big on Broadway at long last. They have just four words they use when manifesting a happy and fulfilled life: “Sanity, serenity, sexuality, transgenderism.”