Central Florida’s 1st Place Favorite Local Performer: Musician
Tymisha Harris is at home on a stage, whether she is acting, dancing or wowing the audience with that amazing voice of hers, but she is more than just a triple threat as she is also a proficient puppeteer, acrobat, stilt walker, costume designer, choreographer and more.
Known as Tush to her friends, Harris has been lighting up Central Florida with star power for the last three decades getting her Orlando start by working with some of the most popular boybands of the ‘90s.
“I was assistant choreographer for *NSYNC and a backup dancer for LFO,” Harris said in a 2019 interview with Watermark Out News. “This was the very beginning and it was a crazy time. I had just come to Orlando, Lance [Bass] had just joined the group and I had no idea what was happening. Fresh-faced and everything, we started working with the boys at an old martial arts school off of Kirkman and 50. No one had a studio yet, so that was the only space we could use and we’re in there trying to teach the boys how to dance.”
Harris, who is also a founding member of the performance troupe VarieTease, took her spotlight to a national stage in 2016 when she began work with director-producer Michael Marinaccio on developing a one-woman show about legendary performer Josephine Baker for Harris to headline.
“We started digging into her life and brought in Tod [Kimbro, ‘Josephine’s’ playwright and musical director] and he is a genius and found a great voice for Josephine,” Harris said in 2022.
The show premiered at the San Diego Fringe Festival in 2016, where it won Best Show and Outstanding Solo Performance. Harris eventually took it Off-Broadway in 2018, where New York audiences, and RuPaul herself, praised her performance and realized something our readers already knew — Harris is one of our favorites, and that’s why our readers named her their favorite musical performer in Central Florida.
“I know there are other performers that were doing amazing things last year, so to know people saw me and that I stood out for them is amazing,” Harris said while striking a pose at our Watermark Out News photoshoot. “Orlando has been a home for me and holds me down, so this honor is really beautiful.”
To see all the other 2025 WONDER Award winners, go here.
