By Mack Cooze • St. John's • 2026-05-29
Serving you face and a teeny waist since 2021, Tara Nova’s here -- just for a little while longer -- to spin, dip, and hair flip her way through the spotlight. From St. John's, the town they call a city, all the way onto the main stage of Canada’s Drag Race, her fierce looks and Newfie charm have not gone unnoticed.
Tara Nova celebrated her 25th birthday in early January and also... announced that she now goes by she/her pronouns. “I worked up enough courage to let my family know. Now I’m ready for everyone to be on the same page,” she writes in the caption of her Instagram post.
Wayves' Mack Cooze recently spoke with Tara to hear her story.
my mom says I came out with lipstick on
She says “I’ve always known: my mom says I came out with lipstick on. As time went on, it was more evident to me that I was stuck in a place, and I didn’t know how to get out of it.” She says she’d never really been content with herself, her mind, or body, and growing up felt very repressed and ashamed of who she was. This started changing when she was 16 when her partner at the time introduced her to Rupaul’s Drag Race.
“He knew that at the time I used to play with makeup and stuff a lot, ‘cause I had been doing makeup, doing my friend’s hair, doing my friend’s makeup, doing my own makeup since I was 11. He was like ‘I think that you could really do this!’” She says she got really inspired, and she loved that drag was such an art and that it was a way for her to be able to “present the way that I wanted to the world.”
Tara recalls her first time experiencing drag in person; when she and her friends had planned to go to Velvet Club & Lounge in St. John's, she was in drag, in an outfit that she had made herself. “I was immediately asked to get up on stag, and from then on I was booked.” She credits most of her impactful first impression on her visuals: the hair, the makeup, the outfit! Drag allowed her to become Tara, to be feminine, but she says that it ended up being a double edged sword when she first started transitioning.
“I was like ‘Well now I'm transitioning, who’s Tara Nova?’ It made drag feel weird because it then solely became an art and it wasn’t something so connected to my heart, I had to detach from it a little bit, so it took a shift in my job and my everyday life.”
Tara recalls that when she was just getting started on her journey as a drag queen, the community was much different as opposed to what it is now, because booked queens were not receiving fair pay for their performances. Queens were unhappy, relationships between them and the clubs hosting their performances weren’t as effectively established, and there was tension between the queens and the venues. Now, even after losing the last gay bar in St. John’s, the local drag scene is stronger than ever.
“A queer space is what you make it; like going to a rave. Everyone is of a collective mindset, it’s a place where you can be yourself, be free, and dance free of judgement – and it’s the same with queer spaces. We go into these clubs and make community.”
What's next?
What's next for Tara after 5 years on the drag stage? Moving to Toronto, where she plans to keep building the Tara Nova name, turning out more looks, and telling that catwalk what it knows.
But before that, she'll be concluding her Newfoundland chapter with a farewell, Eras of Tara, show at The Rock House on George Street in St. John's for fans and queens alike to celebrate her journey and impact on the local drag scene.
"These past few months with my transition and everything else I have going on in my life have been so transformative -- and informative. A lot of people probably wouldn't move at this time in their lives, but I need something different. I need something to push me, I need a change of pace, I need to find myself more. Even though I've done a lot of finding myself already, I'm 25, there's a whole world out there for me to discover! These past few months have taught me a lot, but I'm ready to learn more."
You can keep up with Tara Nova and her shenanigans on her Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook where she posts updates on her life, fierce mugs, and upcoming appearances. Go off, Queen!
Tara Nova's Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook
Mack Cooze (he/him) is a queer freelance artist and writer residing in Newfoundland. He hopes to put a brighter spotlight on the queer happenings on the island, and maybe crack a joke or two. When he’s not nose deep into his research, you can find him creating artwork, spending time with his friends, or cuddling with his cat, Banjo.
