How Janelle Monáe Became the Queen of Halloween

Los Angeles Haunted Hayride — the sprawling attraction that packs a spooky patch of Griffith Park with ghouls, goblins and eerie attractions — has never closed for a private party. Not for the Obamas, the Beckhams, Christina Aguilera or any of the VIPs that have flocked to the pop-up during the Halloween season in its 16 years of existence. That changed on Oct. 10, when the public exited the area known as Midnight Falls to make way for host Janelle Monáe and nearly 100 of her nearest and dearest.

As zombie-like “scare actors” bobbed and booed their way through a crowd of her guests including Zola filmmaker Janicza Bravo and Insecure star Kendrick Sampson, a DJ in a skull mask pressed pause on Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” to make way for Monáe’s grand — and completely method — entrance, as she cut through the fog with a chainsaw and sprinted toward the stage. With her famous face covered in bloody prosthetics, the 38-year-old 10-time Grammy nominee and actor (Moonlight, Hidden Figures, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery) dashed toward the entrance of the haunted maze named in her honor, Monáe Manor, leading pals in a procession like a crazed serial killer.

“At her core, she’s incredibly playful,” says Bravo. “She hasn’t let go of who she might have been as a little girl. She still has that sparkle, that glimmer that a lot of us have lost somewhere along the way. The door never closed for her.” Indeed, Monáe says she’s eager to make herself as synonymous with Halloween as Mariah Carey is with Christmas. After steadily carving out her own scary-season lane with a signature Halloween party called Wondaween (named after her creative collective Wondaland Arts Society that encompasses Wondaland Pictures, Records and more), where she shows off her jaw-dropping custom costumes, this year Monáe launched Monáe Manor, partnered with AMC as the official FearFest host of its horror-centric programming block, appeared as Leatherface to DJ a Texas Chainsaw Massacre screening for Cinespia, and will reveal one of her 2024 Halloween looks with Google. 

If the past five years are any indication, people will be watching to see what Monáe becomes on Oct. 31. She first turned heads as a headless bride in 2019 and has topped herself every year since by slipping into prosthetics and partnering with stylists and special effects artists to morph into “Flyyyrene” (her name for the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head during the 2020 debate), the Grinch’s fictional grumpy daughter, the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, The Fifth Element’s Diva Plavalaguna and a literal chameleon (see photos below). For Monáe, these aren’t just costumes, they are characters she fleshes out with original backstories and method performances, and she often places them in environments to match their vibe — she rented out the Houdini Estate to become the White Rabbit, with a source citing a price tag of $1,750, simply to up the content captured for her 5 million Instagram followers. (See below for a costume roundup complete with Monáe’s creative inspirations for each.)

THR chatted with the self-titled “experience architect” about her creative process, the lengths she has gone to get it right and why she’s so obsessed with Halloween. “What I want people to see and to remember about me is that I wasn’t afraid to look silly. I wasn’t afraid to investigate my fears and turn it into a costume. I’m not afraid to transform,” she says. “I’m a transformative motherfucker.”

Do you remember your first costume?

A witch, a very Party City witch. That was during the time when my aunt would take us trick-or-treating. The costume that I really remember, though, is when I was Chucky from Child’s Play with a mask that I bought for $70 — a lot of money. We found it at Spencer’s in the mall, and I begged my mom for it, like, “Please, please, please! I will wear this mask all the time.” And I literally did. I slept in that mask for days after Halloween. I also needed the overalls and the striped shirt because I wanted to run around the halls of my school scaring everybody. We had to move to my grandmother’s house when we were between homes and there was a fire. The mask got burned and I was devastated.

How old were you?

I’m timeless. Maybe I was 3 feet tall.

You grew up in Kansas City around a large extended family, and I read that you would watch scary movies with your cousins. Which one had the most impact on you?

A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy Krueger! That song — (sings) “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door …” — I could not get it out of my head as a kid. I grew up with 49 first cousins. My grandmother had 12 kids, and every summer we would all bounce house to house. My Aunt Glo’s house was where we would all go to watch scary movies all night in the basement. We would go outside, run around, ride bikes, eat Popsicles, go to the park, and then at night, we would come home, take baths and then go to the basement to watch scary movies until 5 or 6 a.m. Freddy Krueger gave me a love for horror but also scared the living shit out of me. We were terrified at the thought of him coming to kill us in our sleep, but also very intrigued.

Why did the genre strike such a chord?

I had the type of mom who wouldn’t let us watch nudity in films, but when it came to horror, psychological thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, she didn’t limit my watching. I really thank her because as a kid, it opened my imagination for what I could be and how I saw myself as a creative, as an artist, as a writer. I knew that I wanted to tell stories, and I naturally gravitated to the things that frightened me. When I would look for books, I was always intrigued by the sci-fi, horror and fantasy sections. I wanted to explore that feeling of, “Why am I scared?” That has continued to this day. I’ve always gone after things that terrify me to conquer them, in a sense. It’s this constant dance I do with the genre and with Halloween specifically. I love that I get a chance to bounce back and forth between what scares me and what intrigues me.

Was that ever an issue for your family? There are many religious people who don’t approve of horror, sci-fi or fantasy because they consider it the work of the devil.

Correct. I grew up in a very conservative Baptist church environment in Kansas. I had that one aunt who would be on the usher board, go to church every Sunday and still loved to go rent movies at Blockbuster like Candyman, Carrie and Halloween. I’m so thankful because I wasn’t forced to go to church on Halloween like a lot of my other cousins. We were a divided family. There are people in our family to this day who believe that Halloween is the devil’s holiday, and you need to be in church. They believe that participating is directly disrespectful to Jesus and to their God. I don’t believe that. I never believed that as a kid. Halloween is about creativity, about giving yourself permission to transform into whatever it is your creative mind wants to be. I get to explore the darkest corners of my mind and not hurt anybody.

How have your costumes evolved as you matured?

My costumes got better as I got more jobs. I was a maid. I was a waitress. I worked at Blockbuster, which I loved because I got to see all the movies before other customers. I got first dibs. I can’t imagine what my life would be like without having access to films that were around before I was born, like Night of the Living Dead and Psycho. I used to take money from those jobs and use it to elevate my costumes by mixing and matching from Spencer’s, Party City and thrift stores. That continued over the years. I looked at it as an art project, a moment when I got the chance to show people that I’m an artist with vision. People pay attention to Halloween costumes, so let me give them something to look at.

The first time you turned heads and got a lot of attention was as the Headless Bride in 2019, when you were photographed going to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Halloween party?

The Headless Bride was my first original costume. Up until then, I had been doing movie characters and I wanted to do something new that year. I create a vision about who these [characters] are. With the Headless Bride, was she terrorizing people? What happened on her wedding night? What happened on the wedding day? She’s immortal now, but where is her groom? I start by asking all those questions. The answers help inform the makeup, the blood that is on her neck and coming out of her mouth. Did she fall off a cliff? Did she get in a car wreck or did she fall off her horse on the way to the wedding? Now her bride or her groom are forever haunted by her in the most loving way. 

I remember going to that party and Beyoncé and Jay-Z and all the artists were looking like, “Wow.” From B and Jay’s party, I went to my party [Wondaween] and everybody looked up at me when I walked in. I feel like a giant internally, but I’m 5 feet tall. With that costume, my stature was very tall, and it’s the first time people were looking up at me and then down to see my head and hands. There was no greater feeling.

How did you get around that night in such an elaborate costume?

I collaborated on that costume with [designer and tailor] Alex Navarro and [stylist] Alexandra Mandelkorn — we collaborate every year. We worked on making sure that the costume was light enough for me to walk around and sit down. I wanted to be able to have a drink, talk to people and not be bitchy and uncomfortable. I’ve had prosthetics where I’m like, “Oh my God, I got to get out of this.” I film all my content beforehand and during that time I’m sort of uncomfortable, and then I end up making a party version of the outfit. We make sure to use light fabric and material.

It must feel good to become anonymous, to go from being a famous person who can’t walk down the street to nobody knowing who you are.

That’s what I love about Halloween — you get to have a break from the performative version of yourself. You get to perform somebody new.

Is the process challenging?

I always have one anxiety panic attack in makeup because I suddenly realize, “Oh my God, this is my new skin for the whole day and I can’t easily get out of this.” Then I ask everybody to clear the room for five minutes. I talk to myself and put on some Bernard Herrmann, and it’s time to go. I say, “OK, everybody come back in.”

What costume elicited the most intense panic attack?

Probably Flyyyrene. My nose was covered and I couldn’t see very well. I didn’t have a peripheral view due to the coverings that were placed over my regular eyes. I could only see through the slits of the big eyes.

Your costumes look expensive. How are you footing the bill for everything that goes into it, from special effects and custom costumes to an entire creative team?

I have a fairy Halloween mother.

Wow, you do?

Yes. Because it’s performance art. My job is to make people believe in their imagination. That is a job, that is my purpose. Imagination inspires nations. It is important to the committee of imagineers that I go out and I do that good work. There’s a fund that is set aside to make people believe in art, and again, believe in performance art. What I’m doing is performance art, and it is drawing attention to the need for money in the arts, for more grants for schools. We must tap into the imaginations of our kids. These are the people that are going to be the innovators of the future. I’m so happy to have support of people that believe in performance art and believe in me as the person to get that message out.

They’re smart to believe in you. Is this person like an anonymous benefactor?

Yep.

Without asking you to reveal their identity, are they a Hollywood person? Do they work in entertainment, music or filmmaking?

Absolutely not.

Do you have any idea what it costs each year? How much the artists get paid to create your costumes?

Well, we pay people in jellybeans. We pay in dandelions, we pay people in orchids, and we also pay them in sorbet. It’s a whimsical version like Burning Man where there is no currency.

How does being nonbinary influence your costumes?

Not every costume is influenced by my identity. Sometimes I put on a costume because I just love the character and I want to portray that. Other times, sure, it might. 

You’ve been called the queen of Halloween or the HalloQueen. Do you have a preference as someone who identifies as nonbinary? 

First of all, that’s a major compliment so let’s start there. To my writer’s and creative mind, the title HalloQueen is new and sounds cool because it’s a clever play on Halloween. In this instance, I’m humbled either way and not complaining.

How long have you been doing Wondaween?

I started Wondaween in Atlanta as a really intimate house party. It got more official when I moved to L.A. because a lot of my artist friends are out here. We host it at our arts collective, the Wondaland Arts Society. We would have actors and musicians, who would stop by from their tours. We get writers and poets, dreamers and people from the special effects community all saying, “Tonight we are going to transform, have the time of our lives, feel safe and comfortable.” That’s also important to me that the community I’m in is filled with artists and it doesn’t matter who you are, you can be my friend. You can work at Party City and be my friend. You can be in one of the biggest franchises in the world and be my friend. You can feel safe in my environment. That’s the experience that Wondaween curates.

What’s a Wondaween party like? Is it a rager that goes until the sun comes up?

Our number one rule is safety first, fun next. That’s who I am. If you hang out with me, you’ll get that’s what I’m all about. Because we’re all in costume, we don’t even recognize each other sometimes, and I love that. My great friends like Zoë Kravitz, Channing Tatum, Willow [Smith], Chloe Bailey all came last year. They can be in full costume and nobody knows who they are. They’re dancing with some of my cousins who flew in just for the party. 

Is there a project you want to star in that taps into horror or Halloween or is a reboot or remake?

I have my own TV and film company, Wondaland Pictures, and we are looking to have more conversations and partner with folks whose taste aligns with ours and with mine. Halloween gives me so many original IP ideas for horror films, psychological thrillers, science fiction, sci-fi worlds. I have a film that I’m developing with Universal and Akela Cooper, who’s a fantastic writer. It’s based on the Medusa story and it’s called Don’t Look. I’m so excited about that. It’s going to be a horror film that, again, is a play on the Greek Medusa story. I have other original ideas. I’ve been developing characters with my SFX team for albums, for movies. I cannot wait until the moment comes where we have a script and we’re ready to shoot it.

Going back to what you said about expressing yourself year-round, you told Harvard Business Review that you’ve shown up to business meetings in an astronaut costume. What’s a meeting like when you do that?

That’s me. Some people don’t blink, don’t bat an eye. People on my team are like, “That’s Janelle. Every day she records her songs in astronaut costumes.” I do what makes me happy. More than ever these days, we have got to find the happy and be diligent about it. I don’t want to go into meetings giving myself a boring experience. I must entertain myself. As I grow as an artist, my spirit always leads me back to what makes me happy. If I didn’t get paid $1 to do this, will I walk away and say I enjoyed that experience or working with those people?

Halloween is such a happy space for me. It has been since I was a kid. It opens a larger conversation of how do we become agents of joy? How do we become agents of happy? How do we become agents of imaginations? I’m just doing what I want to see more of. Bringing Halloween experiences and creative experiences is heart work, not hard work. I do this because my heart needs it.

***

Janelle, Is That You? 

Monáe on the inspiration, execution and elaborate backstories of her last five years of epic ensembles.

Flyyyrene (2020)

“This was a spin on the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head during the debate [in 2020], which was such an iconic moment. She’s so cute, but it was also a political act to advocate for voting. Obviously, I didn’t want people to vote for [Donald Trump and Mike Pence] because that would’ve been the real horror. Flyyyrene became famous overnight after and suddenly she had an agent, manager and publicist [Jordan Firstman] because everyone was trying to book her and get her attention. It took about five hours and my team included costume designer Alex Navarro, stylist Alexandra Mandelkorn, makeup artists Sasha Glasser and Laney Chantal, DYAD Make-up & FX Studio, and Fancy Fairy Wings & Things. I always try to have a surreal element added to my costume, and this was my favorite because we had wings that moved and made me fly. I can’t give away the secret of how we made it happen, though.”

The Grinch’s Grumpy Daughter (2021)

“Jim Carrey was iconic enough as the Grinch, so I was the daughter he never knew that he had: Johnny Grinch. Her whole thing is that she’s grumpy, she doesn’t believe in dating, she doesn’t believe in love. I found a house on Airbnb that had this great late ’60s, early ’70s vibe, and I styled Johnny in that California house and we shot it like a day-in-the-life. She was eating green eggs and ham, lounging on the sofa, having a nap in bed and posing next to a cactus because she’s prickly like that. She also had a punk band and we called her the Mean-o Grinch.”

Alice in Wonderland’s White Rabbit (2022)

“I love Alice in Wonderland — my arts collective is the Wondaland Arts Society — so I was so excited to transform into my version of the White Rabbit. I always start by exploring what will give me that whimsical feel, and I rented out the Houdini Estate in Los Angeles. It has some of the most beautiful landscaping I’ve ever seen. My White Rabbit owns a psychedelic company and got rich from selling mushrooms and tinctures. I wanted the shoot to feel super trippy and surreal, so you see me sipping on mushroom tea and posing in a giant red chair and with an oversized clock. I wanted it to look like a spread in Architectural Digest.”

The Fifth Element’s Diva Plavalaguna (2022)

“The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies and she has always stood out to me as the most revered operatic performer in the universe. I had so much fun in that costume. It took probably six hours to put together. I stayed in character singing opera the whole night. I went to Megan Thee Stallion’s party and I was singing in her face. I stayed out until 4 or 5 a.m. and probably had one drink. I was locked in — true performance art. Everybody wanted to hear me sing but nobody knew it was me until I posted the photos the next day. I’m a theater kid! I live for the theatrics.”

Chameleon (2023)

“I plan my costumes at least two years in advance so I had last year’s already set, then we went on strike. SAG-AFTRA issued guidelines discouraging members from dressing up like film or television characters, so I stood in solidarity with my people and switched up my plan. It was very fitting for who I am as a creative. Each of my albums sound different. I transform into different characters for films. My spirit is very much a chameleon. That costume took the longest because we had to put scales all over my body. I needed to be naked and covered only in scales. I wanted a long tail. I wanted to have everything a real chameleon would have. We got the translucent tones right and you could see a different color depending on where the light hit it. I finished shooting all my content on one day but my party, Wondaween, was the next day. I couldn’t sit for another eight hours again the following day, so I slept in my costume overnight, only taking the top part of my face off so I could breathe. Everything else I left on and slept like a chameleon in my bed.”

This story appeared in the Oct. 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.