Shuga Cain

Martinez was born in Oakland, California and as a child moved to Northern California, where he grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood. His father was Salvadoran, and his mother was Apache with Spanish ancestry.^[1]

In 2011, Martinez starred in a production of Xanadu, portraying Sonny Malone.^[2] He started drag full time in 2017, quitting a corporate job with the Scholastic Corporation to pursue it.^[3]

In March 2018, Shuga Cain was a part of Max Emerson's Drag Babies series, hosted by Bob the Drag Queen. She was a Drag Mentor, alongside Peppermint and Chi Chi DeVayne.^[4]

Shuga Cain was announced to be one of fifteen contestants competing on season eleven of RuPaul's Drag Race on January 24, 2019.^[5] She was the fourth Native American Drag Race contestant, following Stacy Layne Matthews in season 4, who is Lumbee, Kelly Mantle in season 6, who is Cherokee, and Trixie Mattel in season 7 and All Stars 3, who is Ojibwe. In episode 3, she was a part of the historic six-way lip-sync (the first time in the show history in which more than two contestants had to lip-sync to avoid elimination), which she survived.^[6] Shuga Cain lipsynced once again in episode 5, where she sent home Ariel Versace to Whitney Houston's "I'm Your Baby Tonight".^[7] Despite never winning a challenge, Shuga Cain placed in the top during the season's Snatch Game challenge, where she portrayed Charo.^[8] She was eliminated in the tenth episode after lip-syncing to "No More Drama" (2001) by Mary J. Blige against Vanessa Vanjie Mateo. Shuga Cain finished the competition in seventh place.^[9] During her time on the show, she released Shuga in the Raw, where she recapped every episode of season 11.^[10]

From March 26 to September 6, she was a part of the rotating cast for RuPaul's Drag Race: Season 11 Tour, presented by Voss Events and World of Wonder, and hosted by Asia O'Hara.^[11] The show kicked off in Los Angeles on May 26 during the RuPaul's DragCon LA wrap party (hosted by Drag Race judge Michelle Visage) and concluded with a final bow on September 6 in New York City (also hosted by Visage) at the top of RuPaul's DragCon NYC.^[11]

Shuga Cain was announced to host Gimme Some Shuga, a six episode mini-series on WOWPresents Plus. The series focuses on Cain and baker Justin Salinas creating cakes inspired by RuPaul's Drag Race legends.^[12] She was announced as part of the cast for A Drag Queen Christmas, a Christmas-theme drag show hosted by Nina West.^[13]

Martinez married Tim Carswell in late May of 2025.

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