Dashaun Wesley

Dashaun Wesley is an American dancer,^[1][2] actor,^[3][4] choreographer,^[5] and ballroom performer,^[6][7] MC,^[8][9] and commentator.^[10][11] He is known for hosting the voguing competition series Legendary^[12] and for his appearances on the television series America's Best Dance Crew^[13] and Pose.^[14] He is often called the "King of Vogue".^{[15][16][17][18]}

Wesley was born in Brooklyn, New York^[16] and grew up in its Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.^[19] He began dancing at age four.^[20] Wesley first encountered voguing at 14^[21] and became involved with the ballroom scene as a teenager.^[16]

Wesley has worked as a dance^[7][22] and vogue instructor.^[23][24]

Wesley became involved in ballroom as a teenager in the late 1990s^[18] and has competed in balls frequently since then,^[19] also hosting^[18] and commentating at balls.^[25] He began emceeing balls in 2003,^[14] and first performed voguing "in front of a big crowd" in 2005 or 2006.^[19] Wesley has been a member of a number of houses, including the House of Latex (which he joined in 2000),^[19] the House of Evisu,^[26] and the House of Lanvin,^[27] in which he was a father.^[28][18] He is the founder^[29] and father^[30] of the House of Basquiat, which debuted on the second season of Legendary in 2021.^[31] Along with the House of Garçons, he was featured in the 2023 Capital Pride parade in Washington, D.C.^[32][33]

He is a ballroom legend^[34] and received icon status in 2018.^[35]

In 2009, Wesley competed on the fourth season^[36] of America's Best Dance Crew as a member of the group Vogue Evolution.^[37] In 2013, he appeared as a dancer^[38] on Hit the Floor.^[39] In 2015, Wesley appeared in the film Magic Mike XXL,^[40] for which he also instructed Channing Tatum in voguing.^[41] Later that year he was an ensemble member in The Wiz Live!^[42] Wesley played Shadow Wintour (also known as Shadow Khan)^[43] in seasons two^[44] and three of Pose on FX.^[19] In 2020, he was announced as the host of the HBO Max ballroom competition series Legendary,^[45] and served as host and MC^[46] over the show’s three seasons.^[3] In 2022, he was featured in Billy Porter's^[47] performance at the BET Awards.^[48]

In 2013, Wesley was featured as a dancer in the music video for Fergie's song "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)".^[49] In 2015, he performed as a vogue dancer^[50] and commentator for FKA Twigs' show "Congregata".^[24] Wesley was a dancer for Rihanna's 2016 Anti world tour^[51] and featured in Teyana Taylor's 2018 K.T.S.E. tour.^[52] He also appeared in the music video for Taylor's song "Work this Pussy".^[35]

Wesley is a member of MikeQ's label Qween Beat^[53][13] and was featured on the track "Walk" on its 2016 collection Qweendom.^[54] In 2023, he was featured on the song "Giant Bird in a Man Suit" on the cast recording of the off-Broadway musical Lewberger: The Wizard of Friendship.^[55] In 2024, Wesley released the song "Ovah the Top" featuring 808 BEACH and Kiwi Dreams.^[56] Later that year he was featured on the vogue remix of "Crazy" by Le Sserafim.^[57]

Wesley is gay^[17][58] and lives in Los Angeles.^[59]