Who is drag queen Priyanka, the newly crowned Indian-Guyanese winner of Canada’s Drag Race, the latest RuPaul spin-off?
From the fact that her father didn’t know she was a drag queen until she won the show, to her regular performances as Mel B in a Spice Girls tribute act: here are 5 surprising facts about Priyanka that just make us love the Indian-Guyanese queen even more
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.
Here are five things you need to know about the glamorous new “Queen of the North”.
Who is Priyanka when she is not in drag?
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.
In 2019, Priyanka was voted Toronto’s Best Queen in an annual reader poll and went into drag full-time from that point on.