photos by Danté
Have you heard about the chonkalicious kitty cat in a Queens bodega? What about the juicy bodega cat in East Harlem? If you have, then you’re probably one of the nearly one million people who follow Shop Cats online. If you’ve ever watched one of Shop Cats’ clips and clocked the host’s lethal, heeled knee-high boot, jorts, and neck tie combo and thought to yourself are they… you know…, you’re not alone. It’s natural to question whether a show about cats hosted by a smokeshow in a slicked-back pony is queer or just very New York, but to that I say — porque no los dos?
Shop Cats host Michelladonna is indeed queer and non-binary as well as an NYC born and raised comedic talent and community organizer. They are quite literally one of the most multi-hyphenated talents I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and sharing a stage with, and I’m on a mission to make sure the world knows they’re a star.
Luckily for me, this is an easy task. Earlier this month, Michelladonna and the Shop Cats team won a Webby Award for Best Social in the “Animals” category. Michelladonna wore a keffiyeh in support of Palestine while delivering an emotional, heartfelt acceptance speech, which I’ll transcribe below:
“Meow, meow, meow — thanks, y’all.”
Michelladonna has always been a multi-hyphenate. When they were a kid, their mom enrolled them in every class you could think of. They went to dance class, took singing and piano lessons, and were in an acting school. If Michelladonna wanted to try ice skating, their mom would sign them up for a semester so they could see how they like it. Now that they’re an adult, Michelladonna can appreciate the sacrifices or, as they describe it — real roll up your sleeves type shit — it took to afford that kind of education and experience.
Their passion for learning and trying new things certainly didn’t change when Michelladonna got to college for freshman year. They were president of the French Club, played on the soccer, volleyball and softball teams, ran track, did improve a few times a week, and had a job.
Michelladonna also runs a community program called I’m Finna Talk, which we discuss below and which helped their mom come around to expansive gender identities and sexualities. Their mom struggled initially with they/them pronouns. When Michelladonna took her to one of their I’m Finna Talk events, which acts as a safe space to a diverse group of people from many different backgrounds, it clicked. Michelladonna and their co-organizer do not make money from I’m Finna Talk events. Everything gets distributed back into the community. Attendees can request binders, packers, boxers, chest tape, and not only gender-affirming products. Attendees can also request astrology events, Cumbia dance workshops, and take-home journals.
In the last week, I have experienced Michelladonna in the following ways: watching Shop Cats in bed with my girlfriend, running into them at a pilot table read, watching them on a comedy show, and laughing at their Instagram stories. Usually when I see someone that many times in such a short amount of time, I’d grow tired of them. Not Michelladonna.
But how come? What’s so special about them? To help you understand, I spoke with Michelladonna about Shop Cats, the community organization they founded, their queerness, and how they manage multiple creative projects at once.
Motti: Say you’re in a room with a top exec and you’re wanting to show off, what’s your elevator pitch for yourself?
Michelladonna: I’ve been trying to figure it out because multi-hyphenate is fun, but it doesn’t tell you half of the things I do.
Motti: It doesn’t tell you the hyphenates.
Michelladonna: I am an actor, a comedian, a community organizer, a writer, a producer, a director, and a DJ. I could do it all. Just tell me what you need.
Motti: DJ? I didn’t know DJ.
Michelladonna: Oh, yeah, but I DJ for fun. Like, that’s not something, like — I do get paid to do it, but I cannot make that another fucking part of my business. I have a party collective and I have a party this Saturday. It’s called Gumdrop Button because I love Shrek, and my DJ name is Fairy Godmotha because I love Shrek.
Michelladonna: I love learning and I love experimenting and I love just trying new things. And I think being in entertainment, I made a choice being in entertainment. I made a choice to do this, and I can do whatever. Genuinely, have fun, baby girl. Because life is short and the world is on fire, so at least let me choose my own joy and my community’s joy. Try to get people paid when I can, and do it for Queens. Do it for the Queens baddies.
[Author’s Note: Michelladonna is first-generation Colombian American and grew up in Queens, New York. My parents are from Queens, so I second this notion, by the way.]
Michelladonna: A lot of people nowadays I’m talking to are like, “You’re, like, the only native New Yorker that I’ve heard from,” or stuff like that. And I take that very seriously because I’ve watched media for so long that I’m like, where are we? Like, you know? And so, I take that very seriously, and I am really trying to do it for the people. The people’s prince.
Motti: When did you make the decision to get into entertainment?
Michelladonna: Okay, so, oh my God, don’t get scared, but I used to be in finance. I went to Cornell for applied economics and management.
Motti: Wow!
Michelladonna: I graduated in 2020, and my graduation got canceled. The world was on fire. Queens, where I’m from, was the epicenter of coronavirus. I was seeing straight-up body bags coming out of Elmhurst Hospital on the news into trucks. I just remember that image so much, and I was like, “oh, I, me, could die tomorrow.” I could. And if I did that, if I was on that deathbed, would I be happy that I chose to go and do corporate, even for a few years, you know?
I’ve been acting since I was, like, 10, I think. So I’ve been doing this, but when I got to junior year in high school, I was like, “Mommy, I’m going to go to Hollywood. I’m going to go to acting school,” and she was like, “No, you’re not. You’re gonna go learn either business, law, or doctor. And then after you can go and do whatever you want. But at least you’ll have something to fall on.”
And at the time, you know, you’re like, damn, you don’t believe in me. But honestly, I’m so grateful that she did that because I know how to negotiate. I know how to read a contract. I know how to do all these things and advocate for myself without being scared. Because please, I’ve been in scary ass rooms.
So yeah, I just decided that if I was to die tomorrow, I want to know that at least I gave it a shot. And here we are, I guess, five years later. But I started comedy three and a half years ago. And even on my toughest day, even on the most stressful day or the slowest day or the most busy day, I am so grateful that I made that decision, because I’m literally living my dream life. And it’s only getting more dreamlike every day. Sometimes I have to pinch myself like, this is reality right now. And it’s like, it didn’t come out of nowhere. Obviously people were like, “Oh, you popped off” or whatever. But like, nah, I’ve been doing it. I’ve been begging y’all to come to my comedy shows for years. I’ve been going to the mics, you know? So it’s like people don’t see all the work, but I definitely feel it.
Motti: I feel like there’s this common misconception with comedians and also artists in general, but mostly comedians where the assumption is you probably didn’t go to college or you dropped out of college.
Michelladonna: Everything connects. I think everything fills you up into the person you are today. And if I hadn’t gone through those experiences, whether they were really good or really fucking tough, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. And so I’m really grateful.
Motti: What was the conception of Shop Cats? Is that something they found you for? Is this something you pitched? I don’t even know the lore.
Michelladonna: The lore is that they reached out to me for a meeting, they pitched it to me, and I sat there, and I was like, hmm. Okay. And then I gave my vision for the show. When they were telling me about the cats, I was like, but this is a great way to highlight our community, and this is a great way to bring in different languages and different perspectives. Because I am aware of how there is like a New York City kind of influencer kind of — I don’t know if it’s a language or perspective — that’s out there in abundance.
And so, I thought this was a really good opportunity to show another side of the authentic New York experience where — genuinely — I go into places and I demand the cat, and they will respect me because I’m a baddie from Queens. Like, we are speaking the same language, you know? And I thought that was very special, because I have a lot of friends that are born in New York, born and raised, and it’s like, yeah, we don’t see ourselves in the media that much. And if we do, it’s a very specific type of presentation. That’s not wrong, but damn, like, I’m not from the Bronx. No shade to the Bronx. I would never shade the Bronx, oh my God. But, like, people live in Queens. People are Colombian in Queens, and, like, we’re chill.
Eventually I showed my mom the video they first edited as a pilot, and she speaks English, but she was like, “I wish I could show this to my friends, but they don’t speak English.” And so I was like, okay, girl, let me cook. So I went back and I was like, “Can we do subtitles in Spanish? Like, it’s not that hard. It’s really not that hard. It’s gonna take, like, an additional 30 minutes, but compared to the process that it already is, it’s not that hard. It’s worth it.” They were immediately like, “Great idea!”
Motti: Did they find you from posting online?
Michelladonna: Yeah, I hadn’t met any of them in person before that meeting.
Motti: I guess that’s a testament to how social media is a creative’s living portfolio.
Michelladonna: When I book people, I say, “Where’s your Instagram?” Like, that’s just what it is. I know that we can hate it, but either you get bitter or you get better at it. You know what I’m saying?
Motti: I know there’s something that you’re wanting to make sure people are clear on, which is your queerness.
Michelladonna: (singing) Gaaaaaay! I am queer. I’m all over the alphabet. At the end of the day, like the great Keke Palmer once said, “I love whoever loves me.”
Motti: And you have a little she/they going on.
Michelladonna: I do have a little she/they going on!
[Author’s Note: At this time, Michelladonna takes a moment to really think about what they want to say on the topic. You can tell they care about it.]
Michelladonna: Performance is so interesting on and off stage. But what I’ve been realizing is that being a woman or how I’ve seen the world is a lot of performance as a woman. There are so many things that I’m perceived as — with me not even opening my mouth — based on how people look at me.
Motti: (in trans) Mhmm.
Michelladonna: I realized I do not perform that every day. Even if I’m not performing woman or “she,” sometimes I don’t feel like that. Straight up, sometimes I’m just a dude in the middle. I don’t even know if it’s all the way to “he,” but who gives a fuck? To me, it’s like, dog, I want to dress up how I want. I want to talk how I want. I want to like people how I want. Who has to report to anyone?
Motti: That’s why, even though I’m medically transitioning, I keep a “they” in there. “They” is going to stay there until someone takes it from me. I feel the same way about “dyke” and I feel the same way about being non-binary. I still want the fluidity and the flexibility and the ability to kind of show up however the hell I want.
Michelladonna: I have some Indigenous ancestry in me from Colombia, and I just imagine them not giving a fuck. Two-spirit people were really respected and taken as guides and folks that would have wisdom. So I’m like, dog, if my folks back in the day wouldn’t give a fuck, why would I? I don’t care.
Michelladonna: I think little acts of that type of exploration and rebellion and also kindness can get us farther because now my mom defends LGBT down. Yo, the other day, this lady came at her “Somethin’, somethin’, somethin’, and your daughter’s gay!” My mom was like, “Shut the fuck up. Don’t even play with my daughter. First of all, don’t even play with my LGBTs, all right?” Like, she’s with it.
Motti: Talk to me about I’m Finna Talk.
Michelladonna: I started it when I started comedy. So, I’m Finna Talk and I are pretty much the same age in stand-up and comedy. I was going to open mics in Manhattan… that’s not me. It was a bunch of dudes — white dudes — stroking each other. I was like, y’all don’t even understand what the diva is doing right now. It was really hard to find community in comedy. I thought, “There has to be a way that I can connect with creatives that are queer, people of color, that don’t have all the bread in the world, that don’t want to pay $20 for a ticket to do something… that literally stops me from eating or it stops me from buying a MetroCard.”
So I found a grant. I got money. I had this idea [for the first event]: I want people to walk out with free stuff, plants maybe. It was a writing workshop with Julissa Contreras, shout out Julissa. I was really happy with how it went, and people were asking me “When’s the next one?” If there is demand, I shall supply. That’s how it works. Three and a half years later, in June, we have our four year anniversary.
When I was coming up with the name, it had to be New York, obviously. It was about expressing ourselves because again, it always goes back to the media. What have I seen represented as a queer Latina woman? What has been represented as a queer non-binary Latina person? Not the best stuff, you know? Sometimes it’s very stereotypical and I’m so fucking bored. Boo! They show the same fucking character 10 different ways. How boring is that? That’s why I love Julio Torres.
Motti: I love him.
Michelladonna: I met him yesterday! I was freaking out, and everyone was like, “Girl, just go up to him!” I did, and I was like, “Hola. Because you dream so big, I’m able to dream even bigger.” Like truly, truly, truly. Julio has impacted the way I write and the way I dream so much.
That was why I wanted to bring the “talk” of it all. It’s about writing. It’s about expressing yourself. It’s about putting, in history, what our life is. We should be able to share that. We usually have an open mic at the end of our events, and that’s where, whatever we’ve been journaling about, we talk about. We have poems, singing, whatever it might be. That’s how I’m Finna Talk came to be. It’s my baby. It’s full of passion. It’s full of community.
Motti: Is your short film inspired by that?
Michelladonna: I was inspired by myself doing my own crazy ass fantasy, right? I don’t have to limit myself. I just feel like anything’s possible. Who cares? I’m not gonna let someone else tell me no. If someone wants to, I’ll let them. But I don’t care.
My short film is a gay twist on a bisexual love triangle from what was happening in salsa when salsa was being created in New York City. It’s sparkly and lights and everything. But it’s music too, which is so big. I love salsa. I got my own bell. Do you know what I’m talking about?
[Author’s Note: Michelladonna takes out a Latin percussion salsa handbell and plays it.]
Michelladonna: I’ll put you on, brother. Shit. I just got this jawn in Colombia. Watch out, y’all. I’m playing the bell. My poor roommates.
Follow Shop Cats and their own Instagram to see more of Michelladonna, and if you’re a queer person of color in NYC, you should check out I’m Finna Talk events. Michelladonna’s next comedy show, Lil Sàbado, is on July 19th at Trans Pecos at 6pm.
Michelladonna, es my queen. I love you, I am witnessing your hard work. Usted es una berraca!
literally my favorite thing is actually getting a little behind on Shop Cats so then i can MARATHON A BUNCH
Really enjoyed this also as a white nonbinary person from Finland