International Court Council

Fourteen years ago, Donna Sachet started her adventure in San Francisco and the City has applauded her fun-loving spirit, quick wit, and musical talent ever since. The character of Donna Sachet was actually born at a retreat of the SF Gay Men’s Chorus with whom she continues to appear as soloist, emcee, and celebrity cameo. In 1993 she was selected Miss Gay San Francisco and two years later became the thirtieth elected Empress of the City. Donna can be seen throughout the Community, judging contests, emceeing fund-raisers, cutting ribbons, and hosting parties. She has entertained at venues as varied as The Plush Room, the Castro Theatre, Great American Music Hall, the Grand Staircase of City Hall, and Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco and in Washington, D.C. at the foot of the Washington Monument, in Sydney, Australia for Gay Mardi Gras, in New York City at the Marriott Marquis on Broadway, in Los Angeles at the Metropolitan Community Church with the cast of Mama Mia, and in Chicago for the San Francisco Party at the International Mr. Leather Competition. She has shared the live stage with Lily Tomlin, Harvey Fierstein, Bruce Vilanch, Rita Moreno, Carol Channing, Sharon McNight, and the late Nell Carter, to name a few. She starred in 3 successful runs of Artful Circle Theatre’s musical drag version of The Women, entitled Jungle Red , 2 special original performances of Who Murdered Donna Sachet?, several guest appearances in Incentive to Intrigues The Daddy, the Diva, and the Detective murder mystery dinners, and recently starred in a six week run of the play Love Letters..
As a live singer and tireless fund-raiser Donna has received many awards including the 1995 Darrell Yee Award from the AIDS Emergency Fund, 1996 Cable Car Entertainer of the Year, the 1997 International Jose Honors Imperial Award, the 1998 Inter-Club Fund’s Most Supportive Non-Leather Title-Holder, the Castro Lion Club 2000 President’s Appreciation Award, the 2000 Alice B.Toklas Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club Community Service Award, a 2001 Pollie Award from the American Association of Political Consultants, the 2003 and 2004 Best Community Entertainer Award from the Interclub Fund, Sainthood from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in 2004, 2005 San Francisco Police Officers Pride Alliance Award, and served as Grand Marshal of the 2005 SF Pride Parade. Thirteen years ago she established the long-running, annual Songs of the Season holiday variety show, this past year raising tens of thousands of dollars for the AIDS Emergency Fund with 2 sold-out houses at The Plush Room and seven years ago co-founded the Pride Brunch during Pride Weekend honoring the Grand Marshals of the Pride Parade and benefiting Positive Resource Center. Accolades have come her way from three San Francisco mayors, the City Board of Supervisors, the State Legislature, and the esteemed Herb Caen. She has served as honorary co-chair of the AIDS Emergency Fund, member of the Board of Positive Resource Center and the SF LGBT Community Center, co-chair of the Imperial Council, and president of the Empress’ Council and has co-chaired the annual fund-raisers of the GLAAD Media Awards and the Lesbian Health Resource Center. She is currently on the State Board of Equality California. Donna has served as national spokes model for Smirnoff Twist Vodka and the face of Halloween in the Castro in 2003-2005, co-anchored the live television coverage of the June 2002 SF Pride Parade on the WB20 network and the June 2003, 2004, and 2006 Parade on KRON-4, and recently appeared on Bay Area Backroads featuring The Castro through the eyes of Donna Sachet. She can be heard singing on the benefit holiday compilation Carols Across America, writes a biweekly column for the publication Bay Area Reporter, co-hosts the weekly Comcast cable original program OUT Spoken, stars in the weekly show Sunday’s A Drag at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, and serves as a hostess on various RSVP Vacation Cruises.