John Polly

John Polly is a Co-Executive Producer for the Emmy-award winning competition TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race. He has been a part of the crew since Season 5 and All Stars 1. He has also hosted and produced the The Official RuPaul’s Drag Race Podcast and Extra Lap Recap Web Series on WOW Presents Plus and YouTube.

John has won 3 primetime Emmy-awards for his work on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

John grew up in the little town of Big Stone Gap, in Southwest Virginia. He is the son of the late Brownie Polly (local Dentist for decades in Big Stone) and Barbara Polly (who for over 50 years was an essential figure and producer of the Trail of the Lonesome Pine Outdoor Drama). John went to the University of Virginia from 1987-1991, where he got a Bachelor of the Arts, English and Drama.

John got his start working in magazines in the 1990s in Los Angeles, contributing to publications like Genre, Travel & Leisure, and the Los Angeles Times. In 2001 he moved to New York City, and served as the editor-in-chief at Next Magazine, a weekly NYC magazine covering gay culture and nightlife.

He would stay with Next until 2004, when he became the senior online editor for LogoTV, soon after the channel’s launch. He was responsible for writing and producing video content. It was here where he began hosting video recaps of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which eventually led to being hired by World of Wonder Productions in 2012 to be a Consulting Producer on RuPaul’s Drag Race.  His first work in this position could be seen in All Stars Season 1 and Season 5. Since then, Polly has become a prominent figure within the World of Wonder and Drag Race team. He has also worked as a producer on other WOW-produced shows such as Life With La Toya, #Candidly Nicole, Andy Cohen’s Then & Now, and The Trixie & Katya Show.

He currently lives in Los Angeles, and still loves his family back in Virginia, and his beautiful hometown of Big Stone Gap.