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An annotated guide to Taylor Swift’s star-studded “You Need to Calm Down” video

The Pride-themed video is filled with queer celebrities, along with cameos from Ryan Reynolds and Katy Perry.

Constance Grady
Constance Grady is a senior correspondent on the Culture team for Vox, where since 2016 she has covered books, publishing, gender, celebrity analysis, and theater.

Taylor Swift just released the official video for “You Need to Calm Down,” the second single off her forthcoming album Lover, and it has quite the star-studded cast. The entire three-and-a-half-minute video is essentially a nonstop cameo parade, featuring celebrities from music, reality TV, Instagram, and everywhere else — and including Swift’s old frenemy Katy Perry. And nearly every celebrity in this Pride-themed video, which concludes by asking viewers to support the Equality Act to protect LGBTQ people, is queer.

Here’s a full list of every celeb who appears in the video, and exactly who they are.

Faces from RuPaul’s Drag Race pose as various pop stars
From left, Tatianna, Trinity Taylor, Delta Work, Trinity K Bonet, Jade Jolie, Riley Knoxx, Adore Delano, and A’Keria Davenport.
Taylor Swift

RuPaul and faces from RuPaul’s Drag Race

When Swift starts in on a verse about how all the women in the music scene are queens, there’s a quick recreation of a RuPaul’s Drag Race-style face-off. RuPaul himself is holding the crown, presenting it to a line of former Drag Race contestants, now dressed as various female pop stars. Season 11’s A’keria Davenport is Nicki Minaj, season six’s Adore Delano is Katy Perry, season three’s Delta Work is Adele, season two’s Tatianna is Ariana Grande, season six’s Trinity K Bonet is Cardi B, season nine’s Trinity Taylor is Lady Gaga, and season five’s Jade Jolie plays Swift herself. Riley Knoxx also appears as Beyoncé, but she’s not a drag queen, and she never competed on Drag Race.

Lambert tattoos DeGeneres’s arm at a kitchen table.
Adam Lambert and Ellen DeGeneres.
Taylor Swift

Adam Lambert

Lambert was a runner-up on American Idol in 2009, and in 2012 he became the first openly gay artist to top the Billboard charts when his album Trespassing premiered at No. 1. In 2011 he joined Queen as its new frontman, and he performed in that capacity earlier this year at the Oscars. He appears in “You Need to Calm Down” as Ellen DeGeneres’s tattoo artist.

Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres is Ellen, no last name needed; she’s the host of the daytime talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Lambert is tattooing the words “Cruel Summer” on her arm, an apparent (and as yet inexplicable) reference to the 2012 compilation album by longtime Swift enemy Kanye West.

Adam Rippon offers a woman a Sno-Cone
Adam Rippon.
Taylor Swift

Adam Rippon

Adam Rippon was part of the US figure skating team at the 2018 Olympics. When he won the bronze medal, he became the first openly gay athlete to win a medal in Winter Olympics history. He shows up in the video as a Sno-Cone vendor.

The Queer Eye guys drink tea with Taylor
Clockwise from top left: Taylor Swift, Bobby Berk, Todrick Hall, Jonathan Van Ness, Antoni Porowski, and Karamo Brown. Tam France is not pictured.
Taylor Swift

The Queer Eye guys

The cast of Netflix’s newly reimagined Queer Eye — Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, and Tan France — show up just before the two-minute mark for a quick tea party with Taylor.

Porter in a gown, snapping his fingers
Billy Porter.
Taylor Swift

Billy Porter

Billy Porter is Broadway royalty and the star of Pose on FX. He’s known for wearing gowns on the red carpet, which is why he’s sashaying past a line of protesters as Swift instructs listeners not to step on his gown.

Ciara marries Ferguson and Mikita under a flower-covered trellis
From left, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ciara, and Justin Mikita.
Taylor Swift

Ciara

Ciara’s the Grammy-winning singer behind songs like “Love Sex Magic” with Justin Timberlake, “1, 2 Step” with Missy Elliott, and “Body Party.” She appears in the video officiating Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s wedding to Justin Mikita.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Jesse Tyler Ferguson is the Emmy-winning star of Modern Family. He recently performed “Shake It Off” with Swift at Stonewall Inn.

Justin Mikita

Mikita is Ferguson’s actual husband and a lawyer. Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner officiated their wedding in real life.

Dexter Mayfield dances in front of a trailer while Hannah Hart looks on
Dexter Mayfield.
Taylor Swift

Dexter Mayfield

Mayfield is the one dancing in a rainbow onesie in front of Taylor’s trailer. He’s a queer plus-size model and dancer who’s worked with Jennifer Lopez and Katy Perry.

Hannah Hart in Taylor Swift’s music video for “You Need to Calm Down.”
Hannah Hart.
Taylor Swift

Hannah Hart

Hart is a podcaster and the YouTube star behind My Drunk Kitchen. She appears in the opening of the video weightlifting with a boombox. She and fiancée Ella Mielniczenko plan to marry in spring 2020.

Hayley Kiyoko in Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” video.
Hayley Kiyoko (lower right-hand corner).
Taylor Swift

Hayley Kiyoko

Kiyoko is a singer who released her debut album, Expectations, last March. She earned ire from Swift fans after remarking that while studio execs wanted her to stop writing so many love songs about girls, “Taylor Swift sings about men in every single song and video, and no one complains that she’s unoriginal.” The Swift fan base considered that line to be an attack, but Swift defended her, saying, “We should applaud artists who are brave enough to tell their honest romantic narrative through their art.” Kiyoko appears in the video shooting a bow and arrow at a target.

Laverne Cox in Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” video.
Laverne Cox.
Taylor Swift

Laverne Cox

In 2014, Laverne Cox became the first out trans actress to be nominated for an Emmy acting award when she received a nod for her work as Sophia on Orange Is the New Black. She appears in the video to water the lawn in front of her trailer and be judged by Chester Lockhart.

Chester Lockhart in Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” video
Chester Lockhart.
Taylor Swift

Chester Lockhart

Lockhart is the one who’s looking judgmentally at Laverne Cox when she walks out of her trailer. They’re an actor and singer set to be a series regular in the forthcoming CW pilot Glamorous, and they’re also close friends and frequent collaborators with Swift bestie Todrick Hall.

Todrick Hall dances with Taylor Swift.
Todrick Hall with Taylor.
Taylor Swift

Todrick Hall

Hall was a semifinalist on the ninth season of American Idol, but he really took off on YouTube, where he wrote and choreographed original songs and parodies. He appeared as a dancer in Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” video, and the two are close friends. They’re dancing together when Swift explains that shade never made somebody less gay.

Ryan Reynolds, looking appropriately confused in Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” video.
Ryan Reynolds.
Taylor Swift

Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds plays the pansexual superhero Deadpool, which we guess is why he shows up in this queer-themed video toward the end to do some painting. He’s also married to certified Swift girl squad member Blake Lively.

Burger Katy and French Fry Taylor share a hug.
Burger Katy and French Fry Taylor share a hug.
Taylor Swift

Katy Perry

Perry has the most dramatic cameo in the video: She appears in a burger suit (a wink to her outfit at the Met Gala afterparty in May) to embrace Swift, who is dressed in a french fry suit, as the video closes. Perry’s appearance signifies a detente in her long-running feud with Swift, which was sparked in 2014 when Swift implied to a journalist that her revenge anthem “Bad Blood” was about Perry. The two officially reached their truce on social media last week, when Perry posted a shot of a plate of chocolate chip cookies on Instagram and tagged Swift. “Peace at last,” said the caption.

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