When the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race aired in 2009, the show’s small cult following could never have imagined the format would turn into a global phenomenon. And while most television shows peak in their early days, Drag Race has gone from strength to strength, getting bigger with each season. It was only a matter of time before the show spawned international spin-offs. Following the success of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and Drag Race Thailand , Canada was next to follow suit and, at the beginning of September, crowned Indian-Guyanese drag queen Priyanka as its very first winner. STYLE LGBTQ+ Series: Queer voices Here are five things you need to know about the glamorous new “Queen of the North”. View this post on Instagram A post shared by priyanka (@thequeenpriyanka) on Jul 6, 2020 at 9:30am PDT Who is Priyanka when she is not in drag? Priyanka (real name Mark Suknanan) was born in Ontario, Canada, and is of Indo-Guyanese descent. She first started performing in drag in Toronto in 2017, going by the name of Priyanka Love. Priyanka, of course, is a popular female given name in Hindu and Buddhist cultures, and in this case is also an ode to Bollywood superstar Priyanka Chopra . She is already a TV star in Canada Before starring on Canada’s Drag Race , Suknanan was a host on children’s program The Zone and Canadian teen singing competition The Next Star . “Whenever you entertain children, you have to make a fool of yourself. And drag is just that. You have to be able to make fun of yourself,” she told Now Toronto . 8 transgender queens who starred on RuPaul’s Drag Race In 2019, Priyanka was voted Toronto’s Best Queen in an annual reader poll and went into drag full-time from that point on. View this post on Instagram A post shared by priyanka (@thequeenpriyanka) on May 23, 2020 at 11:30am PDT Priyanka is also a decoy During an episode of Canada’s Drag Race , Priyanka revealed she had created a fake girlfriend for herself and also given her the name Priyanka as a decoy to hide the fact that she is gay from her father. However after winning the show, she finally came out to him – as a gay man and as a drag queen. View this post on Instagram A post shared by priyanka (@thequeenpriyanka) on Sep 8, 2020 at 9:16am PDT 5 Asian queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race – who is your favourite? Her mum is her biggest fan Priyanka’s mum has been supportive of her from day one, and was right by her side when Brooke Lynn Hytes uttered “Condragulations” and crowned Priyanka the show’s winner. The following day, she publicly saluted her son on Instagram, saying: “We had lived in a country where there was no tolerance for anyone of LGBTQ+ representation. However last night was undeniable proof of how the acceptance and open-mindedness of parents can enable your child to blossom and be successful.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by priyanka (@thequeenpriyanka) on Apr 13, 2019 at 10:28am PDT 6 Filipino drag stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race She is in a Spice Girls tribute act When Priyanka isn’t dazzling fans as a drag star, she is wowing audiences as Scary Spice. That’s right, this queen also regularly performs as Mel B in a touring Spice Girls tribute drag act alongside fellow season one competitor Juice Boxx, who plays Baby Spice. Want more stories like this? Sign up here . Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter .