Fenton Bailey is co-founder of World of Wonder, the award-winning, multi-platform production company behind RuPaul’s Drag Race, the Million Dollar Listing franchise, Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, and over 20 years of groundbreaking unscripted, scripted and documentary content. Alongside co-founder Randy Barbato, Bailey became a trailblazer in Hollywood by creating provocative documentaries and series that give a voice to outsiders and marginalized communities. Bailey and Barbato are the driving force behind World of Wonder’s continued commitment to innovation, building a robust multi-platform distribution model and massively successful events business in addition to their traditional TV and film productions.

World of Wonder’s revolutionary television series RuPaul’s Drag Race, for which Barbato and Bailey serve as Executive Producers, received 12 Emmy® Award nominations and 6 wins in 2018. In its 10th season, it continued to break ratings records and dominate the pop culture landscape. 

Barbato and Bailey’s passion for telling fascinating real life stories touches everything they produce and direct. Recent projects include Menendez: Blood Brothers starring Courtney Love on Lifetime, which they co-directed, Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couricon National Geographic, and the Emmy-winning documentary Out of Iraq.

Barbato and Bailey are Sundance veterans, known for their often controversial and subversive projects including Inside Deep Throat, Becoming Chaz, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster, and the Emmy-nominated Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures, all of which first premiered at the festival.

At the forefront of World of Wonder is Barbato and Bailey’s commitment to creating disruptive content for a new tribe of viewers, cultivating a unique direct-to-consumer relationship. This includes the international launch of SVOD service WOW Presents Plus, which offers a slate of original programming as well as WOW favorites from the archives. WOW Presents Plus content includes UNHhhh starring Trixie & Katya, Bobbin’ Around with Bob, Reading Queens with Char Margolis, animated series Drag Tots, and more - with new content arriving regularly. World of Wonder also programs for its popular YouTube channel WOW Presents, which has surpassed 1 million subscribers. In 2017, WOW sold three shows from digital to TV including The Trixie and Katya Show to Viceland and their Emmy-nominated RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked to VH1.

With an aim to create an in-person experience for fans of all ages, Barbato and Bailey also created the world’s largest drag convention, RuPaul’s DragCon - a bi-coastal, bi-annual event that drew 100,000+ attendees in 2018. RuPaul’s Drag Con provides a platform for fans from all walks of life to meet and interact with world-renowned celebrities and icons in a creative, friendly and accessible environment.

World of Wonder creates out of a historic building in the heart of Hollywood.

Speaking on: In Conversation With: Fenton Bailey (Co-Founder, World of Wonder – Executive Producer, RuPaul’s Drag Race)