Miss Fame is the stage name for Kurtis Dam-Mikkelsen, who works in the USA as a model, drag queen, recording artist, and make-up artist. The superstar is also popular because of his appearance in the seventh season of the reality competition television series “RuPaul’s Drag Race”. After appearing on the show as a contestant, Dam-Mikkelsen started her music career with the release of her first single entitled “Rubber Doll” in April 2015, followed by her debut album “Beauty Marked” two months later, on June 9, 2015.
In January 2018, the celebrity announced that she would be signing with Wilhelmina Models – the news did not trigger a big change for her, but rather a phase in her modeling career and not a model named Dam-Mikkelsen, the former musician and reality show competitor chose the name, Miss Fame. Dam-Mikkelsen announced on Instagram in February 2018 that she would no longer tour and perform live.
Here you will find everything you need to know about the model; her biography, her early life as a boy, her husband, and other facts.
Bio of Miss Fame
Miss Fame was born on March 30, 1985, in San Luis Obispo, California, as Kurtis Dam-Mikkelsen. She had a very modest background, as she was raised on a farm by her grandparents. She is one of six children of her parents, but the names of her parents and siblings are not known.
Kurtis attended Templeton High School, which she graduated from in 2003. After high school, she attended beauty school, then worked in a salon before moving to Sacramento in 2008 and working as a male editorial model. Se never thought about becoming a model until she agreed to pose in a friend’s portrait series. She moved to New York in 2011 after fashion photographer Mike Ruiz advised her to do so.
In New York, Kurtis Dam-Mikkelsen began working as a make-up artist while doing smaller modeling jobs. As a make-up artist, she has worked for top celebrities and models such as Wendy Williams, Ève Salvail, Martha Wash, Michael Urie, JWoww, Snooki, and Marc Jacobs, who introduced him as their niece Naomi Campbell and Lil’ Kim, who wanted Fame for their make-up.
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She said she originally wanted to be an established male model, but when it turned out that agents and agencies weren’t so interested in a thin, tattooed guy with a Mohawk dressed in black most of the time, she decided to create a brand for herself, a drag persona: Miss Fame.
Dam-Mikkelsen was soon noticed by the English photographer Mary McCartney, who introduced him in her book “Devoted”. She was also introduced in a photo series of the series Leland Bobbé – Half-Drag, which attracted international attention. Miss Fame was soon featured in Vogue Italia and for Gorgeous alongside Tammie Brown, Candis Cayne, and Armen Ra.
In 2014 Miss Fame participated in the seventh season of the reality competition television series RuPaul’s Drag Race and became the first drag queen to appear on the show. She was distributed in the 9th episode and became 7th in total. After leaving the series, Dam-Mikkelsen started her music career by releasing her first single, Rubber Doll, in April 2015. Two months later she released her debut album Beauty Marked, which featured two of her drag race colleagues, Violet Chachk and Alaska Thunderfuck.
In 2016 she signed with IMG Models Paris. In 2017 Miss Fame contributed to the scrapbook Christmas Queens 3.
Miss Fame Early Life as a Boy
Miss Fame grew up on a chicken farm with her Mexican grandmother and her Danish grandfather. Since she grew up with her grandparents, Dam-Mikkelsen says that anything that showed even a hint of extravagance was discouraged.
At present, she identifies herself as gender-fluid, but this has not always been the case as she has struggled with her identity. With a limited queer community around her, she was only able to really grasp her identity in old age, which she believes has completely revived her soul, when she discovered that it can actually cross the boundaries of her body and at the same time the boundaries of the way she presents herself, since she has the soul and spirit of a woman, while still being the man sitting on the couch with her husband.
To top it all off, Fame says that her family accepts her just the way she is, even if they didn’t know at first how to deal with what she was.
Who is Her Husband?
Miss Fame is married to Patrick Berschy since 2013. The couple recently moved to a new home in Brooklyn with their two dachshunds – Mina and Shaya. According to Dam-Mikkelsen, they wanted a home for Mina and Shaya with more floor space and more parks nearby, as well as an environment that is a little bit more.
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Other Facts About The Model
- Fame is the brain behind the web series: Painted by Fame. In the series, she does make-up for other drag queens. She also runs her own YouTube channel, where she gives instructions on beauty.
- Dam-Mikkelsen has the tattoo of a chicken on her arm.
- Miss Fame has also been featured in several other publications including V Magazine, ELLE, LOVE, Vogue Germany, and Tush.
- The model has given beauty and make-up tips for Cosmopolitan, CBS, Mashable, The Huffington Post, PIX 11, etc.