[11] He has received five Emmy nominations, winning in 2017, 2018, and 2019 for Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programming due to his work on RuPaul's Drag Race.
[20] Chloe x Halle both wore Zaldy to the 2016 BET Hip Hop Awards; their stylist for the event, Zerina Akers, said: "I always like to use young, new talent, because I feel like we see so much of the same thing in fashion and on the red carpet.
"[21] The first stage costume Zaldy designed was for Lady Miss Kier, singer of Deee-Lite; she saw him at a club wearing a catsuit studded with mirrors and asked him to make her a similar outfit.
[24] In the late 1980s, Zaldy met the American drag queen RuPaul at a night club in Union Square, Manhattan.
[26][27] RuPaul wears Zaldy's outfits in the music video for his 1993 single "Supermodel (You Better Work)" and the Netflix series AJ and the Queen.
[29][30] For his work on Drag Race, Zaldy has received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and three wins, in the category of Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programming.
[35] In 2019 he also won an Emmy for the episode "Trump: The Rusical" alongside Art Conn, who designed Michelle Visage's outfit.