That same year, Laverne Cox was on the cover of Time magazine. While Cox was sharing her own experience with the type of person who would pick up a news magazine, Madison was reaching others in a whole other way via a very different medium. Some people — even members of her own community — labeled one as right and the other wrong. For Madison, she was just being herself.
"I reached an urban secular level of people who probably is not going to pick up a Time magazine," she said. "They’re going to be really introduced to this conversation."
"People started to vilify me," she added. "The LGBTQ community started to say, 'Oh, well, Madison, you're a bad representation of the community ... (Laverne) was getting a lot of glory at the time and they were they were telling me how I was awful. I didn't do anything but post my video in a place that I thought was safe for me to post like others were doing."
Not only did that viral Vine pose new questions for people, it also garnered Madison more of a following, and from there she posted even more than before. From dashboard videos of her driving to clips of her eating dinner on her TV tray, she shared whatever she wanted.
Sailey Williams, founder of TENz magazine — a publication for the LGBTQ POC community — has been covering Madison for the last decade.
“TS has dominated the internet from days on Vine to YouTube, television, film and countless memes by being herself and keeping all her intersecting communities in mind,” he told TODAY.
"Her abilityto own all of her truth while expanding her knowledge on social issues and maintaining her unbothered brand of humor is why shecontinues to reign supreme."
A life-changing bond with RuPaul
Her realness soon caught the eye of RuPaul, the same person who inspired her so many years ago.
RuPaul got her producing partners at the company World of Wonder to invest in Madison. They greenlit a few web series for her, and featured her as a guest judge on "RuPaul's Drag Race."
This full circle-ness of her journey is not lost on Madison, and she has made sure to let RuPaul know every chance she gets.
"I say, 'I know these girls coming here every season (of 'RuPaul's Drag Race') and they tell you how much you mean to them but girl, you really have no idea how much you really mean to me,'" Madison said, getting emotional. "'I know you hear it all the time. It’s a cliche thing for you by now but I gotta tell you for me, I was so lost and trying to figure out where I’m going to be in the world and then I saw you. I sat on my floor and something spoke to me."
World of Wonder co-founders Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey told TODAY via email: "TS is a key member of our chosen family.She is a larger-than-life personality completely true to herself and who brings light love and laughter wherever she goes."
Why are people so drawn to her? According to them: "People are always going to respond to those who refuse to be less thanthemselves."
"This is why I always say that stuff is bigger than you," Madison said. "You really go through the world and you're trying to figure it out but it’s just so much bigger than anyone of us. One of the biggest support systems for me — World of Wonder and all that stuff —all the people that were part of RuPaul's life are now a part of mine. You think about who your tribe is, who you are weaved together with in this world and how you are even connected to people in this world. I was trying to figure out where was I for so long and finally ... I found it."
From online exhibitionist to movie star
With the support of RuPaul and World of Wonder, doors began cracking open for Madison but she still had to knock first. She's written her own autobiography, released numerous songs over the last few years, and in 2021 became the first Black trans woman to star and produce her own reality show for WeTV, a cable station owned by AMC. (That series "The TS Madison Experience" was renewed for a second season and will premiere in 2023.)
“TS is a prophet,” Alaska —Season Two winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" —told TODAY via email. “Her work and her words are always inspiring, and if you’ve had the chance to work with her you know that her energy is uplifting, captivating, effervescent and unforgettable.”
Madison’s captivating energy even reached the queen bee herself, and Beyoncé included a speech of hers in a track on her groundbreaking album "Renaissance" that came out this past summer. The song "Cozy" features Madison pontificating, "I'm dark brown, dark skin, light skin, beige, fluorescent, beige, b----, I'm Black." It's a testament that darkness is not the absence of light, but a culmination of so much more.
“Thank you to @beyonce for understanding culture and knowing my staple and Place in the COMMUNITY as a whole and choosing to use me as a part of this monumental album,” Madison wrote on Instagram when the album came out in July.
Of all these esteemed accomplishments, Madison’s crossover from viral online exhibitionist to movie star may be the most impressive.
In 2018, she was cast in “Zola” as Hollywood, a stripper momma bear and mirror image of her own online persona. Janicza Bravo —who co-wrote “Zola” — told the New York Times she watched her Vine “maybe 20 times in a row,” adding, “I became kind of obsessed with her."
According to Madison, the "Zola" credit booked her more roles — like the one for "Bros" and a Gabrielle Union-led project coming out next year called "The Perfect Find."
“The thought of TS Madison being in 'Bros' was such an exciting idea because she is an actress and an LGBTQ+ activist,” Gayle Keller, "Bros" casting director, told TODAY via email.
According to Keller, Eichner and director Nicholas Stoller were “really excited about her auditioning.”
“TS brought lots of comedic energy and style to the role. Since Nick and Billy really like actors to improv, TS proved herself on all levels and won the role of Angela,” Keller added. “She was a brilliant and exciting actress to have in the film, along with the entire cast of LGBTQ+ talent.”
Stoller —who's also directed "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Neighbors" —told TODAY via email: "Billy and I were aware of TS Madison from her social media and then from 'Zola.' However, it was her audition that really caught my eye. She was so naturally funny and just jumped off the screen. She has a complete comic persona that is true and honest to who she is that we both immediately loved."
'I am standing here'
With all of these impressive contacts she's formed in Hollywood, the most important relationship of Madison’s life is the one with her mother.
Despite being strained after she first came out as trans, their relationship mended when in 2003 Madison got sick from some of the implants she received off the black market. Because of a lack of resources or insurance, many trans people resort to procuring implants or hormones in illegal ways, often leading to botched surgeries that create horrifying medical complications down the road.
“My mom came and she saw me and that was it for us. She was like, ‘Oh no. Nope! I’m not gonna be separated from my child anymore.’”
ts madisonon reconciling with her mom
This silicone poisoning nearly killed her, and she moved back home with her aunt. Almost losing her child was enough of a wake up call for her mom, lovingly referred to as Mrs. Mary. She didn’t want to spend another moment estranged from her daughter.
"When you come home sick the first thing they think, 'Oh you have AIDS?' It was the silicone black market stuff I had injected into my body which was poisoning me," Madison said. "I was very sick. My mom came and she saw me and that was it for us. She was like, 'Oh no. Nope! I'm not gonna be separated from my child anymore.'"
That rekindling with her mom gave Madison the emotional boost she needed to keep going and fighting for herself.
"I can go through it now," she said. "Something's gonna give somewhere. I felt that something's gonna happen for me. Just like Ariel, 'I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know something's starting right now.'"
And it has.
On the red carpet at the “Bros” premiere in New York on Sept. 20, 2022, Madison got out of a black Escalade, her phone in hand going live on Instagram, sharing every step of the way with her more than 700,000 followers on the platform. In a sleek black sequined dress and an even more sleek black bob, she radiated under the flashing bulbs of photographers.
"I am standing here in New York City at the premiere of 'Bros' in front of AMC Lincoln Square baby, and I am TS Madison," she told me on the carpet. "If you don't really understand what that means — TS Madison on a red carpet, at a Universal Pictures film, with such great major characters and actors? Oh honey, you don't even know.
"I am overjoyed, I am ecstatic, and I am where I belong."
Alexander Kacala is a reporter and editor atTODAY Digitaland NBC OUT. He loves writing about pop culture, trending topics, LGBTQ issues, style and all things drag. His favorite celebrity profiles include Cher — who said their interview was one of the most interesting of her career — as well as Kylie Minogue, Candice Bergen, Patti Smith and RuPaul. He is based in New York City and his favorite film is “Pretty Woman.”
