Sapphira Cristál is ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’s’ Miss Congeniality. But in Philly, she was already a star

Philadelphia drag queen Sapphira Cristál likes to end her appearances with affirmations.

“I truly love and accept myself,” Cristál asked the audience at City Hall to chant when City Council honored her during Thursday’s session. She did the same Friday night during a RuPaul’s Drag Race finale watch party at the Edge in New York City — only this time, she had just fallen short of becoming America’s next drag superstar.

Though Cristál had placed second to New York City’s Nymphia Wind on Season 16 of the reality competition show, Cristál did walk away with the title of Miss Congeniality, an award given to the kindest competitor on RuPaul’s Drag Race. According to Cristál’s friends, family, and competitors, however, she’s been informally carrying the title for years.

» READ MORE: Philly’s Sapphira Cristál placed second on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ but won Miss Congeniality

The first contestant to represent Philly in the show’s 15-year history, Cristál became an immediate fan favorite because of her unwavering authenticity and selflessness: She’d wow the judges with a campy opera performance, then turn around and help a contestant who couldn’t sew fashion a goth-adjacent black dress, no questions asked. She’d counsel her competition through imposter syndrome, then immediately win a challenge that combined interior design skills, improv comedy, and teamwork. In between, she’d make host RuPaul laugh uncontrollably.

“It’s how I was raised: Do unto others as you would have them do unto yourself,” Cristál, 35, told The Inquirer at Friday’s watch party. “We’re all in this together. We’re all one, and when you get that, it makes sense that if I help you, I help me.”

Born in Houston as O’Neil Nichol Haynes, Cristál grew up going to church alongside Beyoncé and taking opera lessons to hone her six-octave vocal range. Cristál would start performing drag in 2009 while attending Bard College’s Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass. It was around this same time that Cristál became homeless, she revealed while on Drag Race, after her father — a Texas mixed martial arts legend — stopped supporting her because of her homosexuality. They had just rekindled a relationship, Cristál said, before he died of COVID-19 in 2021.

“He’d be over-the-moon proud if he was around right now, though,” Dawn Haynes, Cristál’s mother, told The Inquirer.

Cristál moved to Philly in 2014, where she would go on to become a fixture at Fishtown cabaret Fabrika and a decorated pageant queen, having racked up 14 titles. On Drag Race, Cristál had a reputation for record-breaking excellence after becoming the first queen to win four consecutive main challenges. But in Philly, Cristál was known not just for her theatrical drag, but also for her persistence and compassion.

» READ MORE: What to know about Sapphira Cristál, Philly’s first true ‘Drag Race’ contestant

“A lot of people will be there for you in the good times, but she comes through for you in the bad times,” said Joy Taney, a designer and one of Cristál’s drag children. Taney said Cristál gave them performance tips they still use today — such as how to clench your butt cheeks to appear more masculine while walking — yet the moment that sticks out to them most is when Cristál let them sleep over the night their dog had to be put down.

“She stayed at the vet with me until it was over and then said, ‘You shouldn’t be alone tonight,’” Taney said. “I felt so held and appreciated.”

Taney is one of more than a dozen local drag performers and costumers who helped put together Cristál’s larger-than-life runway looks for Drag Race, which ranged from a fairytale-inspired inflatable pumpkin skirt to an avant garde chain-encrusted bodysuit and a floral gown with petals so big that Cristál couldn’t fit through the door.

“I had to show off what we got in Philly,” said Cristál. “This isn’t just about me. .... We have a very rich culture of drag and art in Philadelphia ... that goes back decades, so I wanted to show that off. We belong on the map.”

Taney and the other designers had six weeks to complete about 20 looks for Cristál, often shuffling pieces between different Philly rowhouses in secret. The process was innately stressful, the group said, but Cristál was a natural motivator.

“She pushed me to a really great place,” said Iris Spectre, a local drag queen and designer who performed in the now-defunct drag troupe Philly’s Foxes with Cristál before working on Drag Race. “She always was encouraging, always saying, ‘I believe in you.’”

Cristál’s run on Drag Race was years in the making: She had auditioned for the show 11 times before Season 16. Last year’s audition tape was supposed to be her final.

“My attitude for this year was more of a ‘take me or leave me’ attitude,” Cristál previously told The Inquirer. “When you take your place where you’re supposed to be, you’re prepared for it.”

» READ MORE: Meet the team of drag performers behind Philly queen Sapphira Cristál’s larger-than-life ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ looks

Still, Cristál’s drag wasn’t always so polished. Haynes said she learned her son was doing drag after he borrowed a dress from her closet and returned it, still sticky with sweat from the club. And when Cristál started auditioning for Drag Race in 2013, her first round of style tips came from mom.

“The bold style choices? That’s something that she gets from me,” Haynes said. “When Sapphira first started auditioning, I said, ‘Baby, you have to step your fashion up.’ You can’t be a really good drag queen and hate fashion.”

Haynes said Cristál was “always a performer” and “love machine” who would attract attention wherever he went as a child. The sharp sense of self came later, Haynes said, after Cristál was bullied throughout middle school.

“You know an exceptional kid when you see one,” Haynes said of her son. “I wouldn’t have expected anything less. I’m proud of everything that she’s done, but watching the show back, I’m most proud of the way she showed up as a human.”