Dwayne Cooper

Dwayne Cooper, also known by the drag persona Milan and professionally as Dwayne Milan, is an American actor and entertainer. Raised in Florence, South Carolina, he attended West Florence High School, where he served as student government president during his senior year in 1993. Cooper went on to study at the University of South Carolina, initially intending to pursue journalism before switching to theatre.

After relocating to New York City, Cooper built a career across stage, television, and film. His Broadway appearances span from 2002 to 2025 and include Seussical, Hairspray, Floyd Collins, Sweeney Todd, and Motown The Musical. On Broadway, he originated the role of Thad in Hairspray, performed in the ensemble of Motown The Musical, and served as a swing in the 2023 revival of Sweeney Todd. Cooper has been credited as the first contestant from RuPaul's Drag Race to land a role on Broadway. Beyond Broadway, his stage work includes national tours of Show Boat and Smoky Joe's Cafe. The cast of Smoky Joe's Cafe received the Outstanding Ensemble, Off-Broadway award at the 2019 Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography.

Cooper competed on the fourth season of RuPaul's Drag Race under the drag persona Milan, finishing ninth overall. During the competition, Milan survived two lip-sync battles before her elimination in the sixth episode. In the fourth episode, she defeated Madame LaQueer in a lip-sync to Pink's 2003 song "Trouble," and in the fifth episode she beat Kenya Michaels lip-syncing to Madonna's 1990 song "Vogue." Milan was eliminated after losing a lip-sync against Jiggly Caliente to Lady Gaga's 2011 song "Born This Way" in an episode requiring contestants to design and wear pride-themed floats. For the Snatch Game challenge in the fifth episode, Milan impersonated Diana Ross. Since appearing on the show, Cooper has performed in drag only for acting roles, including playing a drag queen in the film Spoiler Alert.

Cooper is also a member of the Doo Wop Project, a supergroup composed of Broadway actors who perform pop songs from the Great American Songbook. He has credited Nashom Wooden of the electronic dance music group The Ones with helping him enter the drag scene, and once staged a show for the group.