Fit Check, Food Check: Michelladonna on Colombian Fashion and Manifesting a Private Chef

If TikTok is the kingdom, Michelladonna is its foremost court jester. They’re the host of Shop Cats, the bilingual, award-winning video series that’s dominated the algorithm since 2024. In each episode, the Colombian-American interviews a cat from a bodega, or corner store, in her native New York City. Some clearly aren’t media trained, while others seem as camera-ready as any other influencer. But Shop Cats is just the tip of the iceberg on Michelladonna’s resume. They’re also a filmmaker, community activist, and creator of Lil Sábado, a recurring variety show inspired by Sábado Gigante.  

We met Michelladonna at Casa Colven, a cozy Colombian restaurant in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Over pandebono and Postobón (manzana flavor), she reflected on summers spent in her mother’s native Cali, on the ways Shop Cats has empowered her, and on Azúcar, the short film they recently wrote and directed, slated for a 2027 premiere.  

Read on for a glimpse into Michelladonna’s world, from her favorite aspects of Colombian fashion to the importance of risk-taking in creative fields. 

Fit check: How does your Colombian heritage inform your personal style? 

My mom used to send me to Colombia for the summers so I could learn Spanish and spend time with my family — and you know, humble me, too. I was the only one born here on my mom’s side. In Colombia, they wear their clothing really tight. Even as a kid, I’d come back and wear my clothes really tight. But then the style from New York is very baggy, you move around a lot. So it’s interesting to play around with it. New York, that’s my country.

Food check: How does your Colombian heritage inform the way you eat? 

Growing up, people would see one Latine person and say, “That’s all of you, right?” People would always think I liked beans and spicy stuff, but I hated beans for a long time and Colombians don’t really eat spicy food. I love empanadas, I love fritanga, which is a bunch of fried stuff. Eating wise, I’ve had to adapt because I can’t eat like that every day.

My thing is, I don’t cook. When I was really young, my mom told me, “You’re going to have to learn how to cook for your husband one day.” I was like, ew. What if I had a private chef? In my head, since I was young, I was always going to have a private chef. And I will one day. Watch.

Tell me about the process of writing, directing, and filming Azúcar.

My mom is from Cali, Colombia, which is the world capital of salsa, to me. I grew up with salsa at every point in my life. After college, I started researching salsa and finding people who I didn’t know I didn’t know. As I was doing all of this research, I was like, it’s the 1960s and it’s New York City — there were no gay people? Someone’s lying. I was like, you know what? I’m going to make something where I see my fantasy. I want to see what this would look like with queer people. Also, I get really bored with the stereotypes of queer trauma. Of course that’s there, but other things happen, like love and messiness. I really wanted to see different perspectives, so that led me to write Azúcar. 

I knew I wanted to direct it, and that was awesome. It’s crazy to see people saying words that I wrote, singing songs that I wrote, dressing exactly how I imagined. I was also very adamant about every person on our set being a queer person of color, in front of and behind the camera. There’s enough talent, you just have to look for it. We needed background actors, so a lot of my homies pulled up, which was beautiful because I’m doing this for us. One of those people was my mom. We’ve come a long way, my mom and I. She’s such a huge part of my life and accepts me fully now. It was so beautiful to have her in a space that I created.

What’s next for Michelladonna? For Shop Cats? For Azúcar?

Shop Cats has some really amazing things coming up. You’ll see Azúcar in 2027. I’m writing some more stuff, like Bodega Chat, a podcast that I had a couple years ago. At the time, I was doing interviews in my living room, and that was nice, but I wanted it to be exactly the way it was in my head. Now, we’re doing that. We’re in pre-production. Then there’s Lil Sábado on July 18, my variety show. I started it because I loved Sábado Gigante. It’s a way to bring people together, and I want it to feel like it’s 2005 and we’re all in the sala watching this together.

Any advice for queer Latine creatives who are trying to find their niche?  

Just do it. Everyone’s going to judge you. Everyone’s going to think it’s cringe. Who cares? The second you start turning a profit, they’re going to be like, “Oh my God.” Something that really helped me disconnect from my perfectionism was thinking, do I enjoy it? If yes, do it. I just remember when I started my page and I’d get 10 likes. I would be so proud of myself. You have to start somewhere. Don’t wait for the right moment. Be bad. You have to be bad to be good, but you won’t know if you’re too focused on perfecting something. 

Find creatives. Find community, people who are on the same plane as you and see how you can help each other out.