Samuel Landry, better known by his stage name Sami Landri, is the first Acadian drag queen to compete on the cult TV show Canada’s Drag Race. Born in Dieppe, New Brunswick, this multi-talented artist shines both on stage—with Le Sami Party, a show combining drag and comedy—and online, where he’s followed by over 470K people on TikTok and 180K on Instagram.

Now based in Montréal, Sami Landri explored various artistic avenues before settling in the city, including music, dance, visual arts, and acting. However, it is through the art of drag that his ambitions found success. Samuel’s career took off in his homeland thanks to the impact of his Acadian drag collective, Haus of Ménage, founded in 2018, as well as the title of Acadian Queen, which he won in 2019 (under his former name, Mona Noose). Another success: Sami Landri and long-time collaborator Xénia Gould won the Vague Award for Best Acadian Short Film at the Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie for their film Mona (2021).

It was in 2021 that Sami went viral on TikTok. “As-tu des cigarettes? (Got any cigarettes?)”—a simple question that resonated with millions of viewers, who shared his videos across the world. Samuel’s alter ego, “trashy, straight out of the 2000s, with a spicy sense of humor,” not only helped popularize chiac, the Acadian dialect Landry proudly speaks, but also tackled current political issues with irony, such as the fear of “wokeness” and the right-wing fixation on pronoun use.

It certainly looks like Sami Landri is on the road to stardom. He’s stacking TV appearances (Crave, CBC, etc.), interviews (with URBANIA, La Presse, Le Devoir, Interview Magazine, among others), has hosted multiple shows during various editions of Fierté Montréal and Just For Laughs, and hosts a recurring drag night— Sami Party—at Montréal’s most iconic drag club Cabaret Mado. The event has become so popular that it is now touring across Canada.

Your favorite Acadian queen also co-hosts the web series Helpez-moi with sidekick Chiquita Mère, with clips that quickly went viral on social media. This rising star now performs across Canada and even overseas—in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Geneva, and Brussels.

When you shine this bright, who needs a lighter?