Philadelphia drag performer Daelicious O’hare Mizani found dead at 23, leaving friends and family reeling

David Manley didn’t drive, so he could often be found lugging his makeup and costumes onto buses and trains across the city, heading to his next performance. Drag was his whole life.

On the evening of May 9, Manley, who performed under the name Daelicious O’hare Mizani, was found dead at a friend’s home in Warrington, authorities said. He had just turned 23.

Friends and family described him as a vibrant performer with a penchant for gravity-defying acrobatics, including jump splits in which he would launch himself off a bartop or stage, and land in a full split. He started performing in 2022 right after he turned 21, because he was finally old enough to get into the bars where many shows take place. He especially loved lip-syncing to “Liquorice,” by Azealia Banks, and was always on the verge of putting on a show.

“If he heard music playing, even if it was just in the street, the alley, he was flipping, he was splittin’,” said Vanity Killz, a fellow performer and part of Daelicious’ drag, or chosen, family. “Whenever I would see him, he would always scream ‘Sister!’ and run into my arms.”

The cause of Manley’s death remains unclear. A friend told investigators that Manley was assaulted in Philadelphia a few days before he died, but the Bucks County coroner’s office said his autopsy showed no signs of trauma or assault-related injuries that could have led to his death. The office said it does not suspect foul play, and is awaiting the results of a toxicology report to determine the cause of death, a process that could take up to six weeks.

Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said Manley did not report the assault to Philadelphia police, though investigators are still looking into what happened.

“There’s a very good chance he was assaulted,” Vanore said. “But we don’t have any reason to believe the assault was related to his death.”

In the days since his death, grief, outrage, and grim rumors have ricocheted across Philadelphia’s drag community and beyond.

Manley was born in Yeadon and grew up in Sharon Hill, said his sister, Elizabeth Manley. One of four siblings, with an identical twin, Manley was a performer ever since he was a child. As a 9-year-old, he made his first dress out a sheet; as a teenager, he broke the family’s living room floor doing splits.

The family was Christian and he often heard at church that people who were gay were going to hell, Elizabeth said. Even so, Manley came out to his family when he was 13.

“I always said he was extra,” Elizabeth said. “He naturally was a performer, all of his life.”

Drag became a refuge for him. He talked about performing so much it sometimes started to get on his fellow drag performer and close friend Shikita Karr’s nerves.

“I’m like, ‘Baby, listen, you ain’t got nothing else?’” she recalled asking him. “’Nothing else makes you happy?’ He said, ‘No. I love drag.’”

At drag brunches and shows across the city, Manley, who friends called “Dae Dae,” impressed longtime performers and cheered on newcomers. After being cast in Snatcherella, a weekly competition show in Philly inspired by RuPaul’s Drag Race, Daelicious wrote on Instagram about his hopes for the next chapter.

“As one of the ‘baby queens’ of the cast, I not only want to prove to myself that I can play with the big kids and hold my own, but I also want to prove to everyone around me that I’m more than just that ‘Dancing Diva,’” he wrote last September.

Outside of drag, Manley was still mourning the death of his mother, said Karr, and that of Valencia Prime, an aunt and beloved Philly drag performer who died after collapsing onstage at Tabu in 2022. And while he and Karr planned to get an apartment together, Manley was bouncing between homes, staying with a friend in Warrington at the time of his death.

His friends and family are now left trying to reckon with his death.

“We’re trying to figure out if that wasn’t the cause of the injury, what was?” asked Nicolette Potts, Elizabeth Manley’s fiancé.

The drag community is hosting a benefit show to raise money for funeral costs on May 14 at Franky Bradley’s. Doors open at 8 p.m.

“I know he wouldn’t want anyone around wearing black and being sad,” said Vanity Killz. “He would want everyone turning up, listening to his favorite stuff, and having it be nothing more than an outpouring of community love.”