"RuPaul’s Drag Race" started in 2009 and in recent years has only become more and more of a household name. Bigger ratings means a bigger reach for drag queens featured on the show.

"This is always fun," said Ed Popil, aka Mrs. Kasha Davis, as he looked back on a clip of the show. “It brings up all different kinds of memories.”

Watching your career growth through the lens of national television isn't something many people can do. For Popil, "RuPaul’s Drag Race" offered him just that.

“It was that Hollywood dream come true,” Popil said. “[It] was completely life-changing.”

After seven auditions, Popil made it onto the show for season seven, and again for All Stars 8. He ended up trading in a job at a call center and part time-drag for a full time drag career.

“All of a sudden people all over the world know who you are,” Popil explained.

Growing up, he felt he had to hide who he was for a more masculine presentation, so this platform meant more than just fame and money.

“If I can provide something that wasn't there when I was a child, like Drag Story Hour, like talking about my sobriety, [then] I'm making a difference in a way that wasn't there for me,” Popil said.

Which is why, among the glitz and glamour, there’s a message.

“I wanted to take this opportunity because of 'Drag Race' to be open and loud and proud and be this opportunity for someone to say that's an example for me that they can live happy and healthy," Popil said.

Mrs. Kasha Davis gives Popil the chance to do that, through a class at SUNY Brockport called “Teaching the Art of Drag,” to spreading love through community events.

“My heart, which is Story Hour, and the opportunity to speak at colleges, and help people to see the opportunity to never stop dreaming,” Popil explained.

These events are bringing important lessons to people of all ages.

“When I had a father come up to me after one of the performances and say, 'thank you for showing me that my child has a community,' I knew we were onto something big,” Popil said.

While the drag community continues to face hate across the nation, love is growing too.

“The priests in the area decided to say that this was horrible, and they band together to try to stop the brunch," Popil recalled. “The news picked it up and we sold out within two days, because the allies were like, 'oh, no, no, no. We're gonna come and support that'.”

It's support Popil keeps paying forward.

“Aggy Dune, Ambrosia Salad and Carmen Adore, and these other queens that I work with [...] are part of my family and they're apart of the shows we do all the time, and so I formed this company with my friends and my husband to give them the opportunity to have the "RuPaul's Drag Race' experience," Popil explained. "I can just go out on my own and do my own thing and just leave everybody aside, but I think that it's important to to lift others up.”

It's just as one show lifted this drag queen up.

“I think the 'Drag Race' experience, for me, has been an absolute gift," Popil said. "And it's not over yet.”

You can catch Mrs. Kasha Davis at various events in Western New York and nationwide. That includes the Drag Me To The Stage show June 20 in Rochester, where Mrs. Kasha Davis will be performing alongside four other RuPaul’s Drag Race queens.