| Jade
Esteban Estrada was born and raised in the Tejano music
capital of the World, San Antonio, Texas. He performed at
the famed Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and honed his craft
in the acting company Los Actores de San Antonio. He
attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New
York and worked with such show business luminaries such as
Charo and Zoe Caldwell. He has appeared on Comedy
Central's The Graham Norton Effect and PBS's
In the Life and his dance music can be heard on the
Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning police drama The
Shield on the FX Network. He has also been a
guest speaker at Princeton University and several other
colleges of note. He has been hailed as one of the most
successful solo theatre artists in the United States.
In
1997, he debuted his first one-man show It's Too
Late...It's Already in Me which debuted at the Festival
de Libre Enganche.
Estrada released his first full-length CD Angel
in 2001 to great acclaim and Out Magazine christened him
"the first gay Latin star." He appears on the
all-star music CD Being Out Rocks with Sarah
MacLachlan, Cyndi Lauper, kd lang, the B-52s and other
musicians of note.
In
April 2002, he turned his attention to the theatrical stage
debuting his second one-man show Tortilla Heaven,
written by his sister Celeste Angela Estrada (Winner of the
2004 Gertrude Stein Literary Award) and won the coveted
Premio Estrella at the 9th Annual Encuentro Awards for
Outstanding Achievement and Recognition in the Entertainment
Industry as an openly Gay Latino from LLEGO, the Latino/a
advocacy organization in Washington D.C.
In
September 2002 he debuted his third one-man show ICONS:
The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 1 at the
Columbus National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival
where he depicted six figureheads of LGBT history:
Sappho, Michelangelo, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia
Rivera and Ellen DeGeneres. Estrada toured the show
extensively in the United States. Roy Proctor of the
Richmond Times-Dispatch calls him "a master entertainer."
Tom Sime of the Dallas Morning News calls him "funny
and irreverent."
Estrada debuted the show's sequel, ICONS: The Lesbian and
Gay History of the World, Vol. 2 at the Columbus
National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival in September 2004
portraying a new set of ICONS featuring Alexander the Great,
Queen Christina of Sweden, Susan B. Anthony, Billie Jean
King, Harvey Milk and 9/11 hero Mark Bingham and won a
series of awards and recognitions (2004 Audience Favorite
Award in Solo Performance, 2005 Best Performance of the
Year, 2005 Performance Artist of the Year). Kati Schardl
of The Tallahassee Democrat calls him "an absolutely
fabulous,
sumptuously entertaining Latin pop
singer/comedian/cross-dressing historical interpreter."
In
November 2005, Estrada was commissioned to create and
perform his fourth one-man show TransWorld! The
Transgender History of the World for the University of
California at Berkeley. In this show he portrayed Joan of
Arc, We 'Wah of the Berdaches, Christine Jorgensen, Brandon
Teena and RuPaul.
In
2005, Estrada was inducted into the 2005 GLBT Hall of Fame
at the Stonewall Society.
ICONS 3: The Final Chapter will debut at the 2006
Columbus National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival with six
new ICONS to be unveiled.
For more information on Jade Esteban Estrada, visit the
Texana Collection at the San Antonio Public Library or the
ONE Institute in Los Angeles.
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