I’m Renée Nicole Gray, an NYC-area actress and singer, writer, playwright, and designer. I’m a member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, The Association of Dress Historians, and The Playground Experiment, where I participate in new play readings and development. For nearly a decade, I performed internationally as the world’s leading Lady Gaga tribute artist, appearing at events and in productions around the globe. My work as both a performer and creator is shaped by a strong foundation in visual culture and storytelling, supported by a Bachelor of Liberal Arts with concentrations in art history and graphic design. This perspective also informs Streisand Style Files, my ongoing project exploring fashion history through the style legacy of Barbra Streisand.
I was born and raised in Maine and moved to NYC at 18 with $150 in my checking account and a dream. I spent a year in LIU Brooklyn’s theatre program before switching to HB Studio, where I trained in musical theatre and acting. Eventually, I got paid tens of dollars for my work in lead roles in the NY Fringe Festival and Midtown International Theatre Festival, commercial print gigs, voice-over work, and more. I also did all kinds of commercials, stand-in, and TV/movie extra work. Those many jobs eventually led to me earning my SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity cards…two milestones I’m still very proud of today.
In addition to performing, I have always loved to write. An early blog I created led to several of my stories being published by SheKnows, and I became involved with NYC Playwrights, where I had the opportunity to have some of my plays read.
In 2010, I won a Lady Gaga lookalike contest, which I only entered because I was broke and trying to win a free ticket to the Monster Ball. There was so much press there that day that I ended up all over global news, and eventually landed numerous lookalike agents. It unexpectedly led to nearly a decade of performing globally in the tribute show I would go on to produce, called The Lady Gaga Experience. In addition to performing, I wore just about every hat imaginable—designing costumes, editing music and concert visuals, booking travel, hiring dancers, and managing PR.
During my time as a Lady Gaga impersonator, I portrayed her in productions for MTV, E! Network, in The Fashion Planet on Dutch/German TV, and performed at events for ABC, Polaroid, Bravo, Lan Kwai Fong (China), The Tower Of David, Resort Worlds Casino, Nordstrom, Citi Field, and at hundreds of private celebrations nationwide. I also headlined at Pride events across the country, including opening for Rachel Platten at Long Island Pride. Sometimes at public appearances and gigs, I would actually be confused for her and have crowds swarm me for photos, which was surreal. While all of this was fun, I ultimately craved artistic fulfillment beyond copying someone else. I didn’t want to find myself years down the line still doing gigs in a bubble dress, so I began planning my exit strategy.
By 2018, I was winding down doing Gaga gigs and had launched a small boutique selling my original fashion designs both online and at NYC pop-up markets, which had always been a dream of mine. I also began to seriously study fashion history and created Streisand Style Files, honoring the style legacy and fashion journey of my favorite artist.
I continued performing sporadically while building my new business through late 2019, but with the onset of the pandemic, I never got to have one last celebratory show before retiring the bubble dress.
In 2020, while the world was in quarantine, I decided to apply to college to finally complete the degree I had started many years before. I was accepted into UMass Lowell’s Bachelor of Liberal Arts program, where I chose concentrations in graphic design and art history. After years of hard work, I was proud to graduate in 2024, Summa Cum Laude.
While the pandemic brought the unexpected positive in being able to get my degree, it also profoundly changed things in difficult ways. Being high-risk due to multiple autoimmune conditions made it unsafe for me to unmask and rejoin the world in person when everyone else did. Without being able to grow my fashion brand further in person and with online sales declining, I made the difficult decision of up closing up shop after eight years. Since COVID isn’t going anywhere, I still mask and, at this point, am unable to safely return to performing and many areas of in-person life. The Uncoverings Project is one way that I’ve tried to make art out of this situation.
Thankfully, writing and graphic design are something I have been able to continue doing safely from home. I still maintain Streisand Style Files and hope to publish it as a book. I’ve also continued my fashion history research and studies, and remain an active member of The Association of Dress Historians and The Textile Society of America.
As an emerging playwright, my work was selected for NYC’s 2024 Faces of America Monologue Anthology and Festival, where it was published and performed. In 2025, my monologue “Space Guts” was published in Fresh Words International Literary Magazine’s “Shh! Breathe Slow Volume 3” anthology, and one of my short plays “Ezra, Henry, and The Purple One” was selected for production in Scream Scenes: Horror One-Act Festival in Brooklyn. Some of my monologues and plays are available at New Play Exchange, and I frequently have new work read as part of The Playground Experiment’s ongoing Volumes.
In addition to making art & writing plays, I’m also working on a memoir documenting my crazy adventures as a Lady Gaga impersonator. In the words of David Bowie, “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.”