Kerri Colby’s Difficult Past and how Cannabis is Helping the HIV+ Community

Kerri Colby was born Elyse Alessandra Anderson in Dallas, Texas, on July 30th, 1996. She is a drag performer who rose to fame after competing and placing ninth on the 14th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. 

Kerri Colby/ Instagram

Another important aspect about her life is her openness regarding marijuana consumption and how that helps her with the fight against AIDS. 

“Cannabis has become more prevalent in the queer community. The community is often trying to find something new or a new norm, and once people hear positive reviews the queer community is generally your trendsetter for a lot of things. I’ve seen cannabis become more of a recreational thing across the board, and the more the community uses it, you see more improvement in people. The ‘California sober’ people have cut out things like drinking or things with addictive tendencies and replaced it with an occasional cannabis [consumption] and that keeps them at the perfect state of balance and helps get things done today and take the edge off,” Kerri stated to Forbes in an interview last year.

Who is Kerry Colby?

Kerri Colby is a trans woman known for guiding fellow Drag Race member Kornbread Jeté through her transition. She has also helped inspire Jasmine Kennedie to come out as a trans woman in an episode of Untucked on season 14 of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

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Although she was born and raised in a Pentecostal family, Kerri never identified with the faith. She was much more interested in topics such as diversity- so much so that by the time she saw the fifth season of RuPaul’s reality show, she started to feel like she belonged in the drag world and community.

As she no longer felt comfortable in her family home, she left at the tender age of 15 and rented an apartment with friends. During that time, she encountered people who put her through abusive situations, and from then on, her life was never the same.

One day, at a train station, Kerri met a person who truly helped her by giving her a home until she turned 18. Even now, in several interviews, Kerri has stated that this friend she met casually has been her guardian angel and that without her help, she would not have been able to move forward.

Kerri Colby’s artistic career

In the 14th season of RuPaul’s competition Kerri Colby earned a place on the small screen and in the hearts of her fans. In episode 4, she fell to the bottom two spots and lip-synced against Alyssa Hunter to Jennifer Lopez´s song “Play.” In episode 8, she again fell to the bottom two spots against Jasmine Kennedie, and lost the lip-sync to Toni Braxton’s song “Un-Break My Heart.”

Kerri Colby/Instagram

Then, she was nominated at the 2022 WOWIE Awards as part of RuPaul’s DragCon in Los Angeles in the Best Viral Moment category (The America’s Next Top Meme Award), shared with drag queens Daya Betty and Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté.

In 2022, Colby was invited to participate in an advertising campaign for the cannabis drink brand Cann, along with her partners from season 14: Willow Pill, Jorgeous, and Kornbread, as well as other LGBTQ+ celebrities, such as Hayley Kiyoko and Gus Kenworthy.