Characters / RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Series 4

WARNING: Contestants are listed in order of elimination and there are unmarked spoilers on this page, potentially including spoilers for previous seasons.

Main (RuPaul, hosts and judges)

RuPaul's Drag Race UK seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Drag Race around the world:

Canada | Chile | Down Under | France | Holland | Italy | Mexico | Philippines | Spain | Thailand | UK | USA

All Stars & Vs. the World

All Stars (USA) | Canada vs. the World | UK vs the World

All names, ages, and locations stated are at the time of filming.

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Just May (12th)

Age: 32

From: Harwich, Essex, England 

"Girl Power. Y'know what I mean?"

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• Big Beautiful Woman: She's one of two gorgeously curvy queens this series, along with Pixie Polite.
• Celebrity Impersonator: She's a well-known Ginger Spice impersonator, though very much in the vein of an Affectionate Parody, and touts herself as "The World's Premier Geri Halliwell Impersonator" — with her tongue firmly in her cheek, of course.
  • For her Ru Are You? runway in the premiere, she sports her signature 1996-era Geri hair and a gown emblazoned with a kaleidoscopic repeating pattern of Geri’s face.
• Cold Ham: Her Meet the Queens video is a camp riot, in which she explains her stalker-ish love for Geri Horner of Spice Girls fame, but she delivers it all in an amusingly flat, deadpan tone. However, whilst this works well for a piece-to-camera, in the Werk Room itself, she easily gets lost in the crowd.
• Fangirl: Of Geri Horner (formerly Halliwell) AKA Ginger Spice, naturally. Her whole drag persona is built out on her being "The World's Premier Geri Halliwell Impersonator" and an obsessive fan of the former Spice Girl.
  Just May: Is Geri Halliwell gonna have to get a restraining order on Just May? Babe, I've already got it.
• Informed Ability: For a camp-queen, her delivery and persona is strangely flat (dry humour notwithstanding), and despite her noting that her drag brunch hostings are a riot, this never translates to her performance on screen, and at times she feels unsure — even a little out of her depth amongst such a strong cast.
• Living Statue: May has a rocky start to the competition, but her BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway look does have a touch of genius about it, as she portrays the famous bust of Queen Victoria that's been sat on the bar of the Queen Vic pub since EastEnders first began. Ru and Michelle don't quite get her application of the theme; Graham enjoys it though.
• Phrase Catcher: Straight off the bat, Ru announces her as "Not April, Just May".
• Precision F-Strike: After remaining quiet and a little unsure throughout the premiere, May finds her voice when asked to sashay away, exiting the main-stage with a brilliantly hearty “Get fucked”.
• Punny Name: Her drag name is a pun on "just me", using her own real surname, May.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Despite being a seasoned queen with an established Signature Style, she’s almost immediately identifiable as the Fish out of Water amongst a very strong bunch, and it’s tough to watch a queen who’s clearly not in the right headspace put herself up for judgement.
• Sad Clown: It becomes abundantly clear that May harbours fairly deep-seated confidences issues upon entering the competition — which is immediately picked up on by the judging panel. Her delivery, by default, is desert-dry deadpan, but this unfortunately translates into low-energy performance.
• Shrinking Violet: Upon May's entrance, we almost immediately cut to a confessional from Danny Beard, who quickly points out how timid May comes across. She struggles with confidence so badly that she even admits, during critiques, right to the judges, that her makeup skills are limited. At that point, she's practically begging to be sent home.
• Uncanny Valley Makeup: She's critiqued from the get-go for her over-stylised eye makeup, with her heavy contouring lending her an unintentionally sad, downcast look.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: After delivering two comparatively sub-par runway looks in the premiere, and an oddly flat, unsure account of herself, she lands in the bottom 2 with Dakota, who ultimately sends her packing in the lip-sync.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, so being a proud Essex-girl, May's look is based on the county of Essex's flag, which features three scimitar-like swords on a red background.

Starlet (11th)

Age: 23

From: Reigate, Surrey, England 

"Draglexa, play "Get Outta My Way" by Kylie Minogue."

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• Big Ol' Eyebrows: She sports a huge, bushy pair out of drag, but in drag, she typically opts for the pencil-thin brows of the 1930s.
• Biting-the-Hand Humour: National treasure Dame Joanna Lumley is a guest judge for the series' premiere, and Starlet takes a potentially huge risk by portraying her most iconic comedy creation, Patsy Stone, for the BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway. Luckily for Starlet, her look is spot on, featuring Patsy's signature Chanel jacket emblazoned with her classic "Bitch Troll from Hell" line across the back, accessorised of course with an ever-present cigarette and bottle of fizz. Dame Joanna loves her look, especially as it's the right side of Affectionate Parody, and she places high for the week.
• Costume Porn:
  • Starlet's entrance look — a beautiful Gem-Encrusted buff pink gown — is singled out by Ru as being amongst her favourite — if not outright favourite — entrance looks EVER. Considering how many she's seen over the years, this is incredibly impressive.
  • When she comes Back for the Finale, Starlet is in danger of seriously upstaging the final four, as her Princess Classic gown — complete with a silver silk bodice and an ice blue skirt made up of cascading layers of tulle — is nothing short of spectacular.
• Crippling Overspecialisation: Starlet paints an incredible face and her fashion is best-in-class, but her drag wheelhouse is seemingly limited to looks only, and in challenges where she's required to emote anything other than sultry, she's out of her depth.
• Deer in the Headlights: Her performance in the Yass-tonbury girls groups challenge is woefully low-energy, and despite looking sultry and gorgeous as always, she's clearly very much out of her Retraux girl comfort zone, which shows on her face and is immediately picked up on by the judging panel, with Michelle commenting that she looks "stricken with panic".
• Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: Which are a double-edged sword, as whilst they lend her a sultry, screen siren look on the runway, in challenges that demand more fun and high energy, she comes across as unemotional — pissed off, even.
• Emotionless Girl: Episode 2 makes this clear. Whether she's working a runway, or dancing, or lip-syncing, Starlet may look gorgeous, but she's just not one to give much emotion, doing it all with something of a blank look on her face. Starlet becomes Not So Stoic when she's eliminated — she briskly walks off stage with no exit line, and then we cut to the Werk Room, where a devastated Starlet has obviously cried some of her makeup off.
• Fairy Sexy: For her Ru Are You? signature drag runway she sports a beautiful fairy queen look, inspired by Lana Turner in Ziegfeld Girl in keeping with her passion for Retraux style, with a touch of Cinderella thrown in for good measure.
• The Fashionista: After Starlet's exit, the remaining girls breathe a sigh of collective relief, admitting that in terms of fashion, no other queen could hold a candle to her. In the limited time she appeared on the show, Starlet exhibited a truly beautiful aesthetic, with Ru even designating her entrance look amongst the best (if not the best) she's ever seen.
• Flat Joy: She's beautiful, and comes packing an enviable wardrobe, but her personality is oddly robotic and monotone, which works for a look-based runway challenge, but her limited range is exposed for the British Rockstar-inspired Yass-tonbury challenge, which demands a fierce, 'fuck it' approach — a vibe that's perhaps not in her wheelhouse, and is ultimately her downfall, despite her insisting that she was "Having. A lot. Of fun".
• Genre Savvy: She’s amongst the queens this series who can confidently handle a needle and thread, due to the fact that she went to (in her words) “hippie school”, where handwork was a main curricular subject.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, and as her original hometown of Johannesburg is known as "The City of Gold", she goes with a beautiful 1930's look inspired by The Golden Age of Hollywood.
• Hot as Hell: For her Neon Nights runway, she sports a horned velour bodysuit in hot-pink with acid-yellow feather flourishes throughout.
• Informed Attribute: In her Yass-tonbury verse, she describes herself as "a little bit goofy", even though her demeanor is stoic, sultry, and not in the least bit goofy.
• Proud Beauty: When describing her drag in three words, she simply quips “Prettier Than You”.
• The Quiet One: Doubling up as The Unintelligible at times; Starlet speaks with a very soft, slightly garbled voice, and has an accent that's a mixture of her native South African and the clipped tones of Surrey, which can be a little tricky to decipher in confessionals.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: When questioned, Starlet admits to barely having any experience as a performer, having only performed once before appearing on Drag Race. Sure enough, her wooden performance in episode 2's Yass-tonbury girl groups challenge and subsequent lip-sync against Jonbers lands her in the bottom, and sees her going home.
• Retraux: Her drag is very much influenced by Old Hollywood and she counts fellow starlets Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Lana Turner and Grace Kelly as her main sources of inspiration.
• Sore Loser: In a similar manner to Dahlia Sin from US Season 12, upon her elimination Starlet curtly thanks Ru before walking off with a flounce, without even giving the customary exit line.

Copper Topp (10th)

Age: 38

From: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England 

"I've got ginger nuts, so pop the kettle on and I'll give you a teabag!"

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• Appropriated Appellation: She took her drag name from one of many that bullies have called her over years due to her red hair, which over time she’s come to love and embrace. She also quips that “Fanta Pants” and “Ginger Fag” didn’t have quite the same ring...
• Demoted to Extra: Invoked — the other girls vote her "Best Background Actress in a Non-speaking Role" for the NAFF-TA Awards BAFTA spoof, designating her the queen who's failing to stand out. Sure enough, she's sent home the very same episode.
• Don't Shoot the Message: In-universe example. For her Ru Are You? signature drag runway in the premiere, she sports a bold yellow pantomime dame look emblazoned with the words "Ginger Fag" — a slur she's been called over the years, and one she explains she wants to reappropriate. Ru is a little uncomfortable with her statement and questions her taste-level; guest judge Dame Joanna Lumley appreciates her bravery and the importance of the message she presents.
• Hope Spot: In episode 3, she's voted "Best Background Actress in a Non-speaking Role" for the NAFF-TA Awards by her fellow queens, following which Manipulative Editing then presents her as a wrongfully maligned queen on a Redemption Quest, who'll make a triumphant return to snatch a win in the episode's design challenge. Except, she doesn't, and is promptly sent home.
• Mythical Motifs: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, and her Neptune-themed look is inspired by the fact that her hometown of Cheltenham is an ancient Roman spa town and features a statue of the god in a shell-chariot being drawn by four seahorses, heralded by conch-blowing mermen.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Initially, she's delighted to be paired up by chance with master-seamstress Cheddar for the Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge. However, on the runway, Cheddar's beautiful golden look, hair and makeup is so elevated from Copper's own that she stands out for all the wrong reasons, with the judges taking particular exception to the plasticky white majorette boots she sports, her unflatteringly-cut leotard, and her oddly leonine hairdo. As the girls are judged individually, she finds herself in the bottom 2, where Peppa sends her packing.
• Pantomime: The very British tradition is a key inspiration for both her drag aesthetic and sweetly old fashioned, damely persona. Outside of drag, she's an experienced theatre and pantomime actor, and has played multiple classic Dame roles in panto mainstays like Dick Whittington and Cinderella.
  • Whereas the other girls go psychedelic or club-inspired, she leans right into panto for the Neon Nights runway in a neon orange and blue New Romantic-inspired 'rococo-panto' ensemble.
• Performance Artist: Outside of drag, she's a professional actor and musical theatre performer, but as she was knocked out in episode 3's design challenge, she never got the chance to prove her mettle in the Improv, Rusical, and Snatch Game challenges, all three of which would have been right up her street.
• Portent of Doom: For the NAFF-TA Awards BAFTA spoof, the other girls vote her "Best Background Actress in a Non-speaking Role" — in other words the queen who's fading away and going home next. That very episode, she's outshined dramatically by Cheddar in the pairs-based Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge, lands in the bottom two, and is murdered by Peppa in the lip-sync.
• Redheads Are Uncool: She sports naturally very coppery hair out of drag, but the associated prejudice is something she sadly admits to having to deal with all her life, and via her ginger-positive drag, she hopes to show that red is beautiful too.
• Shaming the Mob: When the other girls (privately) vote her "Best Background Actress in a Non-speaking Role" for the NAFF-TA Awards over her perceived inability to stand out, she’s very hurt and afterwards demands a head count of every queen who voted her as such and why, before rebuking them all with a passionate “just you wait” speech. Sadly, her fellow queens prove to be a prescient mob and she exits the competition that very same episode.
• Small Reference Pools: For the BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway, she goes way more niche than her competitors, portraying the deaf, wizened old waitress Julie Walters played in the camp classic 'Two Soups' sketch from the late national treasure Victoria Wood's As Seen On TV comedy series. Her look and wobbling performance is well-referenced, but perhaps too oblique for the American judges, who note that they wanted more variety in her performance, despite the original sketch being a deliberate Overly Long Gag. Only Graham really gets it, and Copper ends up placing low.

Sminty Drop (9th)

Age: 23

From: Clitheroe, Lancashire, England 

"Let's ride, losers."

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• Brainless Beauty: For the NAFF-TA Awards BAFTA spoof, the other girls vote her "Best Hot Mess" in recognition of her cuteness, but also her bimbo-ish personality and slightly chaotic (yet strangely effective) 'fuck it' attitude.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: She’s a little mal-coordinated, which she acknowledges with her drag name, derived from her habit of always taking a pack of Smints mints out clubbing with her (in preparation for any action headed her way), which she would inevitably drop all over the floor.
• Deer in the Headlights: Sminty's downfall is the Improv-based Catty Man challenge (a spoof on judge Alan Carr's own Chatty Man show), where from the minute she walks on set, it's clear that she's hugely out of her comfort zone. Despite Alan throwing her a few obvious bones, her responses are delayed or nonexistent, and for most of the time, she sits there grinning in terror while she thinks of what to say — or performs "the saddest twerk known to man", according to the judges.
• Drama Queen: Prior to the Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge, due to her lack of sewing skills, she spends half the episode fretting, shrieking, and generally procrastinating, at one point collapsing melodramatically into a pile of blue fabric. When her and teammate Le Fil are invited over for a pre-challenge chat with Ru, their entire segment is taken up with Sminty frantically stressing over the challenge — so much so that poor Le Fil doesn't get to say a single word before their time with Ru is up.
• Gorgeous Period Dress: For her Ru Are You? runway in the premiere, she exhibits her Signature Style of towering hair, a minuscule waist, and thigh-length boots via a sexy, highly stylised take on the court fashions and sky-scraping wigs of Georgian era England.
• Graceful Loser: Sminty exits the competition with wry Self-Deprecation, performing her "sad twerk" as a Call-Back to her failed Improv challenge — which sees the judges and her fellow queens absolutely cracking up — before noting that she's had a blast, and exiting with a tearful smile as she acknowledges the sisterhood she's now a part of.
• Height Angst: The entrance to the runway is too small for her, what with her already-impressive height and penchant for towering heels and large headpieces/wigs, so she has to crouch or contort herself to pass under it. The judges all compliment her on handling it gracefully, and Graham even jokes that they've got to make the archway higher for this very issue.
• Hot Witch: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, and Sminty’s high fashion witchy look is a reference to Lancashire’s famous Pendle Witch Trials of the early 1600s, where nine women and a male accomplice were accused of practising witchcraft and executed.
• I Can't Dance: During rehearsals for the Yass-tonbury girl groups challenge, she fully admits to not being a dancer, and is very green in terms of performing live. In the performance itself, she wobbles and fluffs her lines, but her cheerfully high energy vibe and 'fuck it' confidence carries her through, and although she places low, she avoids the bottom 2.
• Insect Queen: For the Mane Event runway, she sports a beautiful "clothes moth" look, inspired by the time moths devoured her drag, complete with two giant antennae made out of bouncing plaits with tendrils flying about and a carapace-inspired bodice. She perfectly christens the look "Mothy Kendoll", in tribute to her drag mother, Gothy.
• Naïve Newcomer: Her aesthetic is established and infallible, belying her tender 23 years, but in terms of live performance, and the essential comedic aspects of British drag, she's almost completely green, which is ultimately her downfall when it comes time for the Catty Man Improv challenge in week 4, as she's unable to riff off of Alan, even with him feeding her a few obvious lines.
• One Degree of Separation: She's Gothy Kendoll's drag daughter and wryly notes in her Meet The Queens video that her drag-mother (who came in dead last in the UK's very first series) is "the biggest loser of Drag Race UK".
• Plastic Bitch: Sminty's bold aesthetic features dramatically vertiginous eyebrows and pouting lips that are almost circular in their exaggeration which, combined with her lithe, elongated figure, lends her an otherworldly look inspired by the most dramatically filtered denizens of Instagram.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: In her Meet the Queens segment, Sminty notes that she "had a good 8.3 seconds in the new Duran Duran music video" — without having a clue who the 80s super-group actually were.
• Sexy Whatever Outfit: She receives huge praise and places high for the BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway, for which she embodies the BBC's genteel Sunday tea-time classic, Antiques Roadshow, via a beautifully-constructed look themed around an ornate standing lamp, complete with a giant lampshade headpiece that's so tall she has to elegantly duck as she walks out onto the mainstage.
• Skilled, but Naive: Sminty paints great face, and has a well-honed Plastic Bitch signature aesthetic that stands her out amongst her competitors, but equally she’s very green when it comes to actually putting on a show, and admits to being a dilettante when it comes to the performance side of drag.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's tall to begin with, and her beanpole frame accentuates her height, but it's her penchant for towering heels that jack her up well beyond 6'5".
• Stripperific: Her signature style, as she loves to show off her lithe, statuesque figure, but as early as week two, Michelle and even Graham are demanding to see more variety in her looks, with the latter dryly quipping "I have a feeling Sminty's going to look good no matter what she wears".

Baby (8th / quit)

Age: 25

From: Lambeth, South London, England 

"No one puts Baby in a corner. Obviously."

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• The Baby of the Bunch: Her drag-name comes from being the youngest sibling of five.
• Fangirl: When Ru asks the girls about who inspires them musically prior to the girl groups challenge, Baby reveals her love and respect for English singer-songwriter FKA twigs. Lo and behold, the guest judge that week is none other than Ms Twigs herself, and Baby goes into paroxysms of fangirlish squeeing.
• A Foggy Day in London Town: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, so being a London girl, her all-grey puffy look is themed around London's famous smog.
• Head-Turning Beauty: For the NAFF-TA Awards BAFTA spoof, the other girls vote her "Best Actress Resting on Pretty" — in other words, the Trade of the Season.
• Heroic Fatigue: After 5 weeks of stiff competition, Baby bravely admits that her mental health is suffering as a result, and voluntarily leaves the show in order to take care of herself.
• Nice Mice: For her BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway in the premiere, she leans into her Afro-Caribbean heritage to portray a dragged-up take on CBeebies' lovable Rastafarian rodent, Rastamouse.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: By episode 5, Baby's struggles in the competition have taken such a toll on her mental state that she decides to self-eliminate, having decided her mind just isn't where it should be for a competition like this. And it's not a Ginny Lemon-esque Screw This, I'm Outta Here — no, Baby simply interrupts Ru before the decision is made on her and Dakota's lip-sync, then respectfully but plainly states that she has to Opt Out. Tellingly, when Baby gets back to the Werk Room, she looks completely at peace.
• Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: In the Lairy Poppins Rusical, she plays a harassed London yummy-mummy who solicits the services of the eponymous Lairy when her twin daughters start getting in the way of her jet-set social life.
• Performance Artist: Before beginning her drag career, she honed her dance and drama skills at the Brit School, an august creative arts college in South London whose alumnae includes Adele, Amy Winehouse, Jessie J, Leona Lewis, Imogen Heap and her idol, guest judge FKA twigs.
• Sore Loser: She turns out a fierce performance in the Yass-tonbury girl groups challenge, and does her best to mentor the other girls — Sminty and Starlet in particular, who are self-admittedly not great dancers. When their group ultimately delivers a disjointed, slightly sloppy performance, Baby (slightly understandably) rounds on her teammates in a pouting, accusatory tone, with Jonbers having to remind her that yes, of course they're all disappointed.
• Strong Family Resemblance: For the Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge, she's randomly paired up with Dakota, a queen whose pastel-based aesthetic is very different from her own. However, with black as their designated colour, she and Dakota ace the challenge, creating a pair of complementary looks — Baby in a bubble-skirt, Dakota in bubble-sleeves in varying textures of black fabric, accented with Versace-esque print flourishes throughout — and deservedly go on to win the week.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: The Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge of week 3 allows her to show off her skills as a seamstress, with she and her partner Dakota being designated the winning pair.
• Whole Costume Reference: For the West End Wonders runway, she pays tribute to the eponymous Juliet from & Juliet, a relatively new musical based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which posits a What If? scenario in which Juliet doesn't die alongside Romeo after their suicide pact.

Le Fil (7th)

Age: 36

From: Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England 

"Aye-up, loves! I'm Le Fil, and I'm here to fill you up!"

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• Bad Impressionists: For the Snatch Game, he has two options planned; Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham and Japanese decluttering queen, Marie Kondō. Going with the latter proves to be a rash decision, as Kondō herself is so serene and pleasant that there's not much humour to be had with her, unless resorting to chronic exaggeration or subversion. Sadly, Le Fil attempts neither, and his entirely literal performance lands him in the bottom two, where Peppa sends him packing after a very close 'sync.
• Beary Friendly: For the BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway, he celebrates the BBC's annual Children in Need Telethon drive by sporting a dragged-up take on Pudsey Bear, the charity's cute Inspirationally Disadvantaged teddy bear mascot.
• Call-Back:
  • For the Catty Man Improv challenge, he plays the brilliantly monikered 'Dr Felina Muchbetta', named after the irrepressible Baga Chipz' Character Catchphrase.
  • He exits the competition with cheerful grace and a humorously defiant line taken from his role as the OG Mary in the previous week's musical challenge:
  Le Fil: Take this wig, AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ARSE!
• Dresses the Same: Albeit separated by a few years and a couple of series, his Queen of Your Hometown look, inspired by a Northern brass band leader, follows the exact same theme as Divina de Campo’s Brighouse tribute in Series 1.
• Even the Guys Want Him: He notes that dating can be a bit of minefield, as his aesthetic is judged either too butch or too femme, though he also admits that in terms of hook-ups, his greatest success is with straight men.
• Gender-Blender Name: His drag name is a masculinised version of the French word for girl (La Fille).
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: For the Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge, he’s randomly paired up with Sminty, a queen who’s a self-admittedly poor seamstress and who spends most of their preparation time mired in a melodramatic funk. Le Fil quietly beavers away Out of Focus whilst Sminty hogs the camera, but when both queens stomp down the runway in beautifully complementary azure-blue resort wear, it’s clear their highly-praised looks are mostly down to Le Fil.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Le Fil sports beautifully glossy, naturally waist-length hair in deepest black, and for the Mane Event runway, he sports an artfully gross drain hair-inspired look, the wig of which he whips off to proudly reveal and whip his own impressive mane, which he notes (with some melancholy earlier in the Werk Room) that he grew out in defiance of the short, gender-norms haircuts little Chinese boys are mandated to sport.
• Magical Nanny: For the Lairy Poppins Rusical, he takes the role of the 'OG Mary' — the original prim and proper British nanny who's horrified to discover her young charges have been whisked away to enjoy misadventures in Bin Land by her Evil Twin, Lairy. After having a psychotic breakdown over the Rusical's dark take on the wholesome classic, Mary is encouraged by the cast to embrace her dark side, and reels off a hilariously PG list of Gosh Darn It to Heck! British expletives to the tune of "Supercallifragilisticexpialidocious", flashing her Union Jack knickers and smacking her own arse screaming "bum, bum, bum, bum!" with mad abandon.
  OG Mary Le Fil: Todger, titty, knockers, willy! Bumhole, spunky, booby, hanky-panky, any hole's a goal! Stiffy, whiffy, hairy badger — boy, I'm on a role! Up your bum, no babies, like a stripper on a pole! [...] And take this umbrella, and SHOVE IT UP YOUR ARSE!!
• One Degree of Separation: He isn’t just from the same town as Divina; he went to the same school as her, and they were even in the same school choir!
• Oop North: He was born and raised in Yorkshire and is the second West Yorkshire queen, after Divina de Campo (who's also from Brighouse), to compete on the show. His Queen of Your Hometown promo look is a dragged up take on a classic Northern brass band leader, in celebration of his local Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, complete with Shoulders of Doom designed around a pair of tubas.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's a petite queen — Sminty towers over him by a clear foot — and is an enthusiastic ball of energy, as seen in confessionals, and during rehearsals for the Yass-tonbury girl groups challenge, where he takes charge of the choreo and delivers an expert, rockstar performance.
• Singer-Songwriter: Le Fil is a member of the Sink the Pink performance collective and represents something of a first in the UK series, as he’s not primarily a traditional drag queen, but rather a pop-singer and visual artist, though his cool, artsy aesthetic certainly offers something new and compelling amongst his competitors.
• Vocal Dissonance: Petite, beautiful Le Fil merrily trots into the Werk Room — only to bellow "Aye-up loves!!" in the most hilariously deep, bucolic Yorkshire accent possible.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: For his Ru Are You? signature drag runway, he sports a bright red silken look emblazoned with a Union Flag motif across the front, symbolising both his Chinese and British heritage.
• Whole Costume Reference:
  • For the Neon Nights runway, his hi-vis cleaning look pays tribute to British supermodel Naomi Campbell and the infamous moment she turned up for the final day of her court-ordered litter picking duty in a silver couture gown.
  • For the West End Wonders runway, he pays tribute to Yul Brynner's iconic role as King Mongkut of Siam in the movie musical The King and I via a beautiful, dragged-up take on Mongkut's Requisite Royal Regalia, complete with bejewelled abs.

Dakota Schiffer (6th)

Age: 22

From: Horsham, West Sussex, England 

"Here in mint condition."

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• Always Identical Twins: Her twin Harry, who also does drag (as Winona Schiffer), and came out as queer at the same age as her. The two are so close that Dakota says she could deal with bullying at school because she knew her best friend would be walking back home with her. Both are trans or non-binary, but came out at different times.
• The Baby of the Bunch: At 22, Dakota is the youngest of the Series 4 queens.
• Bait-and-Switch: In a curious Foreshadowing of Baby's voluntary exit from the competition, at one point during their lip-sync to "No Way" from Six: The Musical, Dakota momentarily exits the stage, looking for a couple of seconds like she's pulled a Ginny Lemon manoeuvre and quit — before merrily popping back round.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: In the Lairy Poppins Rusical, she and Peppa play the Prude twins, a pair of whiny Boarding School girls whose jet-set mum dumps them on the eponymous Lairy when they start getting in the way of her social life. Dakota quails at the prospect of the musical-themed challenge — she admits to "hating" musicals, to the amusing pearl-clutching horror of her competitors — and worries that playing a bratty teenager will pigeon-hole her. In the challenge itself, she puts on a good show, but the standard is so very high across the board that she ultimately lands in the bottom 2 with Baby who, in a surprising but heartwarming twist, voluntarily quits the competition to focus on her mental health, saving Dakota in the process.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: By week 5, her performance in the competition is the least consistent, being made up of dramatic peaks and troughs, with two convincing wins, but also two bottom placements under her belt, and only one safe placement overall.
• Country Mouse: She hails from the pretty market town of Horsham, and notes that the West Sussex drag-scene is all but non-existent.
• Cultural Rebel: Her fellow queens react with aghast mock-horror when she admits to hating musicals.
• Curtain Clothing: Dakota's Mane Event runway was inspired by the tasseled curtains she and her twin used to style and plait at her grandmother's house, after her parents forbade them playing with dolls. She weaves a large tasseled curtain tie-back into her hair and sports a beautiful mini-dress with a long train made of damask curtain fabric.
• Doting Grandparent: Dakota details how she and her twin found sanctuary at their grandmother's house when growing up, as their parents disapproved of them playing with dolls and dressing up in feminine clothes. She dedicates her Mane Event runway to her liberally-minded, supportive grandmother and the tasseled curtains she used to let her style and play with.
• Flower Motifs: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, and Dakota's pale lavender and green ensemble is in tribute to Sussex's prolific lavender fields.
• Genre Savvy: As team captain of the "Queens of the Bone Age" in the girl groups challenge, her leadership style is diplomatic and gentle-touch, but she immediately and resolutely bans any queen from using the mercilessly overused "snatch the crown!" lyric in any of their verses.
• Girly Girl: She's sweet, softly-spoken and her aesthetic is pretty, floaty, and uber-feminine, but equally, she's absolutely capable of going out of her comfort zone when needed.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Mild-mannered, pastel-shaded Girly Girl Dakota goes way out of her comfort zone for the Yass-tonbury girl groups challenge, showing that she can bring out the British Rockstar in her when needed. As team captain of the "Queens of the Bone Age", she and her teammates look perfectly on-brief with their Misfits-inspired look, and turn out a performance that's a cohesive blend of camp, drag and rock, deservedly winning their first RuPeter badges.
  • In the Catty Man Improv challenge, Dakota plays a pop star whose voice was 'stolen' by Baby, and she greets Alan with a voice so shockingly deep and raspy (and so out of character) that it surprises even her, and has Alan and the whole panel cracking up.
• Historical Domain Character: For her BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway, she portrays England's legendarily scandalous queen, Anne Boleyn, as presented by the BBC's children's history series, Horrible Histories.
• Named After Somebody Famous: 'Dakota' is after Dakota Milton from the early 2000s cartoon reality show Total Drama, and 'Schiffer' is (of course) in tribute to the iconic 90s supermodel, Claudia Schiffer.
• Proud to Be a Geek: Despite her fashion-queen aesthetic, Dakota proudly admits to her passion for video games and anime — particularly Mario Kart and Pokémon, the latter of which informs her Neon Nights runway look.
  Dakota: I present this way but I'm also kind of like a massive nerd so I think when I'm getting ready, I'll just put on Pokémon instrumental music or like the Coconut Mall Mario Kart soundtrack and I'll just be doing my makeup and pretend that it's 2006.
• Recursive Crossdressing: An interesting example in her Snatch Game portrayal of Dead or Alive's late frontman, Pete Burns, as Dakota is a female drag queen portraying a subject who presented and identified as a non-gender conforming, androgynous gay man. Her performance itself is witty, smartly well-observed, and uncannily similar looking to Burns, complete with grossly over-inflated lips, widely staring eyes, and his signature fur coat.
• Retraux: Dakota exhibits a Twiggy-esque, ‘Swinging London’ 1960s Signature Style via her penchant for floaty, babydoll dresses, Beehive Hairdo and dramatic, doll-like lashes. She cites Sharon Tate's iconic role as Jennifer North in the darkly satirical Valley of the Dolls as a key inspiration for her drag.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: She’s a stunning beauty, and amongst the prettiest queens to grace the franchise, but the judges note that her looks are often a little too close to the original source material, without dragged-up interpretation, exaggeration or subversion, and verge on being simply good costuming, as opposed to good drag.
• Strong Family Resemblance: For the Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge, she's randomly paired up with Baby, a queen whose urban-leaning aesthetic is very different from her own. However, with black as their designated colour, she and Baby ace the challenge, creating a pair of complementary looks — Dakota in bubble-sleeves, Baby in a bubble-skirt in varying textures of black fabric, accented with Versace-esque print flourishes throughout — and deservedly go on to win the week.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: The Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge of week 3 allows her to show off her skills as a seamstress, with she and her partner Baby being designated the winning pair.
• Underdressed for the Occasion:
  • Most of the queens go all-out for the Ru Are You? signature drag runway in the premiere, as it's their first chance to completely embody their aesthetic point of view in one look. Sadly, Dakota's mint-green satin gown and fluffy hat are way too simple compared to her competition, with guest judge Dame Joanna Lumley noting that the gown's train even looks a little sad and unfinished. Dakota lands in the bottom 2, where her slick choreo versus Just May saves her from crashing out in last place.
  • For the Queen for a Day makeover challenge, in which the queens are tasked with making over members of the 'Queen Team' (the backstage production and wellbeing crew), Dakota is paired with Lucie, a sweet, very femme-presenting woman. Despite the great synergy between them, the peachy 60s look Dakota designs for her and Lucie (now dubbed 'Brigitte') is critiqued for just being pretty — gorgeous in fact, just not drag — and Dakota lands in the bottom two, where Pixie sends her packing in the lip-sync.
• Vocal Dissonance: Dakota's breathy tones contrast with her perky, youthful appearance—especially notable given that she's the youngest queen in Series 4.
• Whole Costume Reference:
  • Her look for the Neon Nights runway, with a full-fringed wig, puffer jacket and spiked headphones, is a complete reference to Electric-type gym leader Elesa, from the Generation V Pokémon games and specifically her Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 appearance.
  • For the West End Wonders runway, being a Retraux queen, she pays tribute to Barbra Streisand's iconic turn as Fanny Brice in the 1964 classic Funny Girl.

Pixie Polite (5th)

Age: 29

From: Brighton, East Sussex, England 

"They say the camera adds ten pounds. Probably shouldn't have had so many for breakfast, should I? What am I like?"

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• All-Knowing Singing Narrator: For the Lairy Poppins Rusical, she initially selects Lairy for her role before swapping with Danny to play Lick van Dick, a wise Cockney binman spoof of Dick Van Dyke's role as Bert the chimney sweep, who acts as the Fourth-Wall Observer. The judges love her hammy performance and hilarious crooked smile makeup, and she places high for the week.
• Always Someone Better: Pixie has, by all accounts, an excellent week in episode 4; she wins the mini challenge, every member of her team places high in the main, and her runway look is applauded for its beauty. Unfortunately, while backstage, most of the praise goes to Danny for her performance, leaving Pixie feeling passed over. When Danny ends up winning, the camera focuses on Pixie looking disappointed.
• Anti-Climax: Pixie seems incredibly confident going into the General Erection Roast challenge, as this is finally a chance for her to put her touted comedy skills on display. And... she doesn't. She seemingly loses her nerve by the time she gets up there and flatlines the entire set, even ruining a joke she polished to perfection with guest coach Aisling Bea. It proves to be her downfall, and she's knocked out just prior to the finale.
• Big Beautiful Woman: She's one of two gorgeously curvy queens this series, along with Just May.
• Big Fun: Pixie's a ball of positive energy, which is especially evident prior to the Yass-tonbury girl groups challenge, where she flings herself into rehearsals with gusto, helps design her team's Misfits-inspired look with excess fabric she has to hand, and turns out a high-camp, rock n roll performance in the challenge itself.
• Black Comedy: Pixie nails the perennial Reading is Fundamental mini-challenge with this amusingly off-colour quip:
  Pixie: Baby? No thanks, I'm pro-choice.
• The Burlesque of Venus: For the Mane Event runway, she presents her own take on the Stock Shout-Out, putting a curvaceous spin on things and sporting a clamshell covering her...clam, as well as a towering auburn wig. It's the most beautiful she's looked so far, and her makeup is perfect — a deliberate choice, she notes, as she wanted to go from playing a comically foul old woman in the Improv challenge to showing she could effortlessly pivot to beauty for the runway.
• Camp: In the UK series, Once a Season there's always a queen who encapsulates the bawdy, Pantomime campiness of British drag, and Pixie joins the ranks of her predecessors Baga Chipz, Ginny Lemon and Kitty Scott-Claus in terms of queens who perfectly represent traditionally British, camp-as-Christmas drag.
• Curse Is Foiled Again:
  • The two previous Brightonian queens, Joe Black and Anubis, both crashed out in last place, leading to the "Curse of Brighton" becoming memetic, in reference to the town seemingly always fielding last-place contestants. Pixie presents a solid performance in the premiere, and the curse is smashed.
  • Pixie is also the first UK queen to win the Reading is Fundamental mini-challenge and not be eliminated in the same episode, thus breaking the curse that took down Crystal, Sister Sister, and Choriza May.
• Doting Grandparent: Like Dakota, Pixie was encouraged and supported by her late grandmother, and her flower fairy-themed outfit for the Queen for a Day makeover challenge is inspired by flowers that grew in her grandmother's garden. Pixie can’t help but tear up when describing the significance of her concept.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Seen out of drag, very briefly, in the Queens On Lockdown UK Series 2 special while she was living with Tia Kofi, credited as “Tia’s boyfriend”.
• Honour Before Reason: Pixie well and truly lives up to her moniker 'Polite' when she's gifted with the opportunity of assigning the Lairy Poppins Rusical roles, and makes sure everyone else is happy before picking a role she'd like. In the end, she's left with Lairy — the lead role — but subsequently realises that it's a poor fit for her. Luckily, Danny suggests a swap, which works out well for both queens.
• Improv: As seasoned queens, it comes as no surprise that Pixie, Danny and Cheddar absolutely smash the Catty Man improv challenge, and Pixie narrowly misses out on the overall win against Danny, playing Cheddar's back-from-the-dead sister, with whom she used to perform as acrobatic yodellers, the crowning moment of hilarity being Cheddar whipping off Pixie's wig to reveal a horrendous shake-n-go monstrosity underneath.
• Meaningful Name: Pixie is a sweet, self-deprecating Nice Girl who very much lives up to her moniker of 'Polite'.
• One Degree of Separation: Pixie is a founding member of the drag girl group 'The Vixens' alongside Woe Adams and beloved UK Series 2 alumna, Tia Kofi, whom she was actually in a relationship with for five years. She also counts Series 1 alumnae Sum-Ting Wong and Baga Chipz as her "evil stepsister" and "drunk cousin" respectively.
• Our Fairies Are Different: For the Queen for a Day makeover challenge, in which the queens are tasked with making over members of the 'Queen Team' (the backstage production and wellbeing crew), Pixie is paired with the adorable Wendy, the Team Mum of the crew, who's so dedicated that she once had to nip under a queen’s skirt to pop a stray bollock back into her tuck. With Wendy now dubbed 'Trixie', the pair present a 'panto-fairy' look that whilst cute, is poorly fitted on Wendy, and her makeup is a panda-eyed mess, landing Pixie in the bottom two.
• Recursive Crossdressing: For the BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway, she presents a Rule 63 version of Del Boy, the beloved cockney wheeler-dealer from the BBC's hugely popular Only Fools and Horses comedy series, complete with Del's iconic donkey jacket stuffed full of RuPeter badges.
• Regency England: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, and as Brighton is famed for its Regency architecture, particularly its Royal Pavilion, (which Joe Black infamously failed to embody in Series 2), as well as its seafront promenade, she goes with an early 1800s bodice and panniers look, coloured white and turquoise green, which is an additional nod to Brighton's bold take on the classic London black cab.
• Self-Deprecation: Pixie has a tearful moment in the Werk Room after narrowly missing out on the win to Danny in episode 4's Improv challenge, noting that she's "always the bridesmaid, never the bride", and uses said loss to contextualise her whole drag career — something the other girls reassure her is blatantly untrue.
• Shoulders of Doom: For the Neon Nights runway, she sports an acid-green and red pleather mac with hugely exaggerated shoulders in celebration of the UK's notoriously changeable weather.
• So Okay, It's Average: In-universe example. For the Snatch Game, Pixie goes with iconic Welsh singer Dame Shirley Bassey — a high-camp subject to begin with, and one rife for a dragged-up portrayal. However, Pixie plays it too small, and her performance, whilst having funny moments, is unsure, slightly awkward, and more Bubbles DeVere than Dame Shirl. Overall, she places low.
• Stout Strength: Being a fuller-figured queen has its advantages in the musical chairs-themed Line of Booty Duty mini-challenge, and Pixie uses her generously-padded posterior to barge her competition out of her way, ultimately being the last queen standing.
• Whole Costume Reference:
  • For the West End Wonders runway, she pays tribute to Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray — a part she notes that she's always dreamed of playing in the West End.
  • For the Tickled Pink runway, she states that she's portraying Ru herself, in a pink version of her racing gear from Drag Race's opening credits. Parallels to a legally-safe Penelope Pitstop are clear, however.

Black Peppa (3rd=)

Age: 28

From: Birmingham, West Midlands, England 

"Fuck salt. 'Cause Peppa's here."

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• Accidental Misnaming: After Copper Topp's exit, the queens gather to reminisce by her station, where Peppa hilariously notes how much she'll miss "Ginger".
• Animal Motifs: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, and as she originally hails from the island of St Maarten in the Caribbean, her beautiful golden look features the island's pelican symbol as a bold headpiece.
• Bad Impressionists: Prior to the Snatch Game, she frets over her admitted lack of comic talent, but manages to gee herself up after a pep talk with the girls, choosing to go with rapper Lil Nas X. Unfortunately, her fears turn out to be warranted, and her performance is an Epic Fail, with literally no drag-spin on her subject, or any humour in any of her reponses, despite Ru throwing her a few lines. Landing in the bottom two with Le Fil, both queens put on a great show, and Peppa just edges to the win.
• Be Yourself: Peppa sadly relates how the societal pressure to straighten and texturise her Black hair resulted in most of it falling out. Now, she embraces all types of Black hair and therefore her Mane Event runway is formed of woven braids and dreadlocks which, in her words, she dedicates to Blackness.
• Beginner's Luck: One of the supreme examples of this in the franchise, up there with India Ferrah on All Stars 5. Peppa nailed the premiere, winning the mini-challenge and maxi-challenge, only for her to lose her confidence and struggle hard once comedy and acting challenges come along. She survives thanks to her enthusiasm as a lip-syncer, and by the time she's eliminated in the finale, she only has that one maxi-challenge win and four bottom placements to her name.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: In the Lairy Poppins Rusical, she and Dakota play the Prude twins, a pair of whiny Boarding School girls whose jet-set mum dumps them on the eponymous Lairy when they start getting in the way of her social life. Her performance is judged to be more high energy than Dakota's, and she's declared safe.
• Cool Mask: Peppa is undoubtedly the first queen in Drag Race herstory to walk into the Werk Room wearing a mask of her own face, which at first glance isn't that obvious, so when she pulls it off, it makes for an uncanny moment and sets her stall out as one of the more creatively avant garde queens of the series.
• Conjoined Twins: For the Queen for a Day makeover challenge, in which the queens are tasked with making over members of the 'Queen Team' (the backstage production and wellbeing crew), Peppa is paired with Fleur, now dubbed 'Chili Peppa', playing conjoined twins linked by a pink ponytail braid that they unclick and click back together. Their performance and concept is fun, but the judges note that the simple black dresses Peppa put them in are underwhelming, and overall, she's declared safe.
• Creepy Mascot Suit: For her BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway in the premiere, she presents a high-fashion, elevated take on Mr. Blobby, the bizarre, bright pink, occasionally unsettling....thing that originally started out as a Drop-In Character on British Saturday night TV mainstay, Noel's House Party, and soon became its mascot. She's highly praised for taking Blobby's signature pink and yellow polkadot colour scheme and overall weirdness and presenting her own spin on it, which ultimately snatches her the first win of the competition.
• Dark and Troubled Past: While she’s proud of the paradisiacal nature of Sint Maarten, Peppa had to leave due to the open homophobia she endured at home and school. After she was filmed without her knowledge at an underground gay club, her father threatened to kick her out. She subsequently moved to England, which is where she began her drag career.
• Dramatic Irony: She's voted "Beast in Show" for the NAFF-TA Awards as the queen with the most star quality. That very same episode, she lands in the bottom for a disastrous showing in the sewing challenge and then falters for the rest of the season, only placing safe or landing in the bottom two.
• Dressed All in Rubber: For the Neon Nights runway, she sports a beautiful, spray-on neon yellow rubber dress, matching killer heels, a gigantic Diana Ross-esque afro wig, all topped off with what must be amongst the widest hats ever seen on the main-stage.
• Dresses the Same:
  • Both her and Danny present Mr. Blobby for their BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runways, though while Danny's Club Kid version brings the weirdness, Peppa's is a smarter, more elevated take.
  • Happens again for the Queen for a Day makeover challenge, where both Peppa and Danny use heavy white foundation for their assigned drag sisters, and even facial hair (Peppa and her sister have painted-on curly moustaches, while Danny gives hers a fake pastel beard to match her own).
• Edible Theme Naming: Her drag name derives from her love of spicy food — and the fact that she’s black of course, which she admits is a cliché she loves — though she decided to change up the spelling after watching Peppa Pig.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Peppa seemed like a major threat after she utterly smashed the premiere, first with her jaw-dropping entrance look, then winning the photo-shoot mini-challenge, and then dominating both the BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute and Ru Are You? runways. She was even voted the queen with the most star-quality by her competitors. However, since that time her performance absolutely fell flat, culminating in her reaching the top 4 having four bottom two placements and otherwise having just been safe for the entire season.
• Invincible Incompetent: Peppa is a look queen with great Dance Battler skills, but that's very much the extent of her wheelhouse, as any other challenge presented — sewing, acting, comedy, improv, impersonation — she completely bombs, yet manages to hang on in there right up until the final four purely by virtue of her devastating lip-sync skills.
• Mellow Fellow: Peppa exhibits a sunny, laid-back persona, and even when the occasional Wardrobe Malfunction potentially threatens her progress in the competition, she handles it all with a relaxed, easy-going confidence.
• No Sense of Humour: Comedy — an inherent element of drag, but particularly UK drag — is not her thing, and while her looks are perfection, and her vibe engaging, she's self-admittedly not a comedienne.
• One Degree of Separation: She's the drag daughter of Mo Heart, from Drag Race US.
• Proud to Be a Geek: A self-described nerd, Peppa first moved to the UK on a scholarship, and holds a first-class Masters degree in Biomedical Science from Coventry University. Her nerdiness is what helped her escape a homophobic environment and be proud of her queerness.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: She may have been voted the queen with the most star quality by her competitors, but even a seasoned queen like Peppa lets herself down in the obligatory, Once a Season design challenge, where her lack of sewing skills lands her in the bottom 2.
• Recursive Crossdressing: She chooses to play the male Lil Nas X for the Snatch Game, and it ends very badly, resulting in her ending up in the bottom.
• Rummage Sale Reject: For the Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge, she's randomly paired up with Jonbers and the pair are designated green for their colour palette — never an easy colour to make fashionable. Peppa goes with a fabric-sculpting approach (usually a disaster on this show) and begins weaving together pale mint fabric into a latticed bodice. Timing is clearly not her thing, and her final look is sloppy, washes her out and — the absolute final sin — begins coming apart on the runway. She lands in the bottom with Copper, but turns out an incredible lip-sync and survives the week.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: For her Ru Are You? signature drag runway in the premiere, she presents a tribute to the UK's venerable confectionary brand, Cadbury, in a beautiful deep purple silk gown topped off with a headpiece formed from various different chocolate bars. She looks stunning, but her posing causes her to dislodge her headpiece, which crash-lands on the runway, though she recovers well enough to still earn her first win of the competition.
• Whole Costume Reference: For the West End Wonders runway, she pays tribute to her favourite film as a child, The Lion King, via a beautifully constructed, tribally-inspired look complete with a giant leonine head piece.
• Worthy Opponent: For the NAFF-TA Awards BAFTA spoof, the other girls vote her "Beast in Show", the queen with the most star-quality and the biggest threat in the competition.

Jonbers Blonde (3rd=)

Age: 33

From: Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

"Blonde just isn't a hair colour, it's a lifestyle."

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• All of the Other Reindeer: After Dakota is sent home following the makeover challenge, most of the other queens expressly state that Jonbers should have been the one to sashay away that week, and there’s a tense moment in the Werk Room when she robustly counters their critiques.
• Badass Biker: For her Ru Are You? signature drag runway in the premiere, she sports a bodice and thigh-high boots created from her father's old biker leathers.
• Captain Ethnic: Her original choice for the Snatch Game is ethereal Irish singer Enya, though for some reason, Ru almost immediately steers her away from this subject, suggesting (nay insisting) that she portrays 'St Patty', a Rule 63 version of Ireland's national saint, St Patrick. Jonbers' subsequent performance is a merciless flurry of Irish puns and references, combined with great use of an Aside Glance to add a tongue-in-cheek aspect to her showing. Whilst she notes that she'll "never be able to set foot in Ireland again", the judges love it, and she places high.
• Cool Boat: For the BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway, she celebrates the BBC's venerable children's magazine serial Blue Peter — the world's longest-running children's TV show — in a beautiful blue and white look featuring the show's iconic blue galleon logo as a handbag.
• The Fashionista: In addition to working with drag designers like most queens, she complements her drag wardrobe with actual high end labels like Christopher Kane, Gucci, Comme des Garçons, Balenciaga, and Gareth Pugh.
• Historical Domain Character: For the Mane Event runway, Jonbers pays tribute to the late Raine Spencer, Countess Spencer, a Socialite and British camp icon known primarily for two things; being Princess Diana's Wicked Stepmother, and for sporting the most fabulously bouffant, ozone-layer-destroying Power Hair known to mankind.
• Homeless Pigeon Person: For the Lairy Poppins Rusical, Jonbers takes on the role of The Bird Lady, a bizarre half-human hybrid of the original "feed the birds" bag lady — and an actual bird. Wanting to stand out after a tough few weeks, Jonbers flings herself into the role, presenting The Bird Lady as a disturbingly hilarious Predatory Prostitute, and wins high praise from the judging panel for her efforts.
• Meaningful Rename: Ru makes it very clear from the get-go that she hates the drag name 'Jonbers', and as with Heidi N. Closet of US Season 12, she insists on a rename, always referring to her as 'J-Blonde', 'JB', or a variation thereof.
• Motor Mouth: Jonbers is a sweet, wide-eyed, chatty queen, but this bites her in the arse for the Yass-tonbury girl groups challenge as she's so keen to cram as many lines as possible into her self-penned segment that she confuses herself and ends up fudging her performance, which lands her in the bottom 2.
• Named After Somebody Famous: 'Jonbers' comes from her original drag name, JonBenet, after JonBenet Ramsey, a former child pageant queen who was found murdered in her family's home. She perhaps wisely decided to change her name to something less macabre prior to competing. 'Blonde' is, well, because she's blonde out of drag.
• Oireland: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, so being Irish, Jonbers goes with a high-fashion Leprechaun/Irish farmer look in a fitted tweed trouser-suit and shamrock accessories.
• Playing Drunk: For the General Erection Roast, she stumbles out of '69 Downing Street' and crashes into the lectern, pissed off her face. Her drunk politician persona is a smart choice, as it lends her performance a theatrical crutch which, combined with some witty Black Comedy, means she ends up doing better than expected, and is Damned by Faint Praise courtesy of Ru, who notes that "the biggest shock is that you didn't suck!".
  Jonbers: I'm so Northern Irish, my gender reveal was a bomb scare!
• Rummage Sale Reject: For the Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge, she's randomly paired up with Peppa and the pair are designated green for their colour palette — never an easy colour to make fashionable. Her finished look is a sloppy mess, with a dragging hemline and in so pale a shade of mint that it washes her (already very fair) skin out. She very narrowly avoids the bottom 2 — unlike her teammate.
• Whole Costume Reference: For the West End Wonders runway, she pays tribute to Debbie Reynolds' iconic role as Kathy Selden from the movie musical Singin' in the Rain (which was later adapted into a stage musical on the West End) in a fashionably asymmetrical, dragged-up take on Kathy's bright yellow raincoat and umbrella.

Cheddar Gorgeous (runner-up)

Age: 38

From: Manchester, Greater Manchester, England 

"Intrigued? I think you will be."

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• Alien Princess: Describing her drag as "punk-rock alien deity", she presents the zenith of this aesthetic for her Grand Finale Eleganza runway in a sumptuous, H. R. Giger-inspired look that's the perfect blend of high fashion drag and biomechanical alien royalty.
• Ambiguous Gender: Invoked in her drag, designed to make her look more like an Angelic Alien being — as per her Ru Are You? signature drag runway — than a pop star or supermodel.
• The Apunkalypse: Her Signature Style takes many cues from both the classic and future punk aesthetics, so for her Ru Are You? signature drag runway, she sports a suit of badass Post-Apunkalyptic Armor to portray, as she describes it, an ancient, post-apocalyptic, non-binary, alien warrior deity caught up in a perpetual war for resources across their ruined planet.
• Battle Strip: For the final lip-sync to Shirley Bassey's "This Is My Life," Cheddar takes pieces of her dress off, one by one, so she can move around the stage better. By halfway through, the dress has become a glorified swimsuit, but unfortunately for Cheddar, it just didn't add anything to the song, and she comes up short to Danny Beard, who had the stronger emoting.
• Be Yourself: In a touching mirror-moment, Cheddar explains that she suffered from meningitis at age 18, and her hair never really grew back, though she now embraces her baldness and credits it with making her more beautiful than ever — and for making it far easier to apply a wig.
• Bee People: The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, and Cheddar's bee-themed look is both a nod to the fact that she's the self-described "Queen Bee of Manchester", as well as the Manchester 'Worker Bee', one of the best-known emblems of the city and symbolic of Mancunians' hard work ethic.
• Black Eyes of Evil: She sports fully-black lenses in many of the looks she presents, as part of her "Alien queen, punk rock witch" Signature Style.
• Consummate Professional: Ru is never one to use the term lightly, though she declares Cheddar to be a true pro — a well-deserved accolade for a queen who displays an elevated aesthetic, often with an important message behind it, and conducts herself with calm, composed focus throughout her time in the competition.
• Creepy Cockroach: In keeping with her penchant for an insectoid theme, in the Lairy Poppins Rusical, she plays Rochelle La Roach, a gross twist on a French Maid who inhabits the magical Dark World of 'Bin Land' and encourages Lairy's young charges to chug on her speciality bin-juice.
• Experienced Protagonist: Prior to the premiere, she was the most-followed queen this series, and is arguably the best-known in queer circles, having been eagerly anticipated to compete on the show ever since the UK series' inception. As head of the Gorgeous drag family, she also hosted her own series, Drag SOS, on the UK’s Channel 4 network. Two of the queens, Peppa and Sminty, cite Cheddar as an inspiration for starting their drag careers.
• Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind: On stage, she's an avant garde queen with seemingly limitless creativity, flaunting the very best of the British Punk aesthetic. Out of drag, she's a softly-spoken, smartly articulate person, who maintains her composure despite the mayhem surrounding her.
• Improv: As seasoned queens, it comes as no surprise that Cheddar, Pixie and Danny absolutely smash the Catty Man improv challenge, and Cheddar gets to exhibit her excellent comedy chops, playing a lofty former child star who performed in a double act as an acrobatic yodeller alongside her presumed-dead sister, played by Pixie. All three queens place high for the challenge, with Danny's star-turn designating her the winner of the week.
• Genre Savvy: One of the few girls this series who can handle a needle and thread, which saves her bacon in the Bingo She Better Don't! design challenge where her partner Copper's efforts pale in comparison to her well-crafted, molten gold look.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Citing her subject as the OG drag queen, for Snatch Game she portrays England's famously virginal and legendarily formidable monarch, Queen Elizabeth I of The House of Tudor. Presenting Her Majesty as an extreme Mood-Swinger, Cheddar's genius portrayal swings from giggly, flirty and verbose from one minute, to tyrannical and bloodthirsty the next, and she expertly riffs off of Ru, even including a smart Call-Back to Rosé's Snatch Game portrayal of her cousin and bitter rival, Mary of Scotland back on US Season 13. She's deservedly crowned Snatch Game champion of Series 4.
  Elizabeth I Cheddar: I believe you had a relative of mine on one of your many shows in your empire?
  Ru: Mary Queen of Scots, yes.
  Elizabeth I Cheddar: I just wanted to let you know. She's dead.
• Icon of Rebellion: For the Tickled Pink runway, she presents a brilliant Cyberpunk look adorned with multiple pink triangles, a symbol initially created and enforced as a badge of shame in Nazi concentration camps, but later reclaimed as a positive symbol of queerness. Out of respect for her subject matter, Cheddar’s runway is given its own space, with no judges’ commentary.
• Location Theme Naming: Her drag name is a play on Cheddar Gorge, a limestone gorge near the village of Cheddar in Somerset which features an extensive cave system of archeological interest. 
• Mushroom Man: Mushroom goddess, in fact; her Neon Nights runway is a psychedelic riot, featuring a mushroom-covered gown painted in dizzying rainbow shades of neon that she describes as her favourite look of all time.
• No Brows: Her eyebrows are completely shaved off, something she admits actually got her dumped a few years back, though at the time she wittily quipped back "you know what, it's for the best".
• Power Trio: Across the UK franchise, Cheddar, Bimini Bon-Boulash and Ella Vaday form a trio of exceptionally high-performing queens, having all won at least 4 maxi-challenges. In further parallel, of those wins, all three won their series' Snatch Game, Girls Groups, and Acting challenges.
• Punk Rock:
  • Her drag has a cool, punk vibe to begin with, so it's no surprise that she and her fellow "Queens of the Bone Age" nail the British Rockstar-inspired Yass-tonbury groups challenge, with Cheddar bringing great punk energy for her performance, and an awesome look featuring a towering mohican.
  • The Pretty in Punk runway is literally made for Cheddar, and she doesn't disappoint, sporting a classic late 70s/early 80s punk look comprised of an original 80s punk leather dress, triple-pointed acid green hair, and gigantic bovver boots.
• Renaissance Woman: By episode 8, Ru designates Cheddar as an all-rounder who can turn her hand to any form of challenge presented and do well to exceptional, from sewing and runways to comedy and dance.
• Shout-Out: Her entrance line is taken from the increasingly chaotic Mary Brazzle infomercial sketch (essentially a piss-take of venerable UK lifestyle guru Rosemary Connelly) performed by beloved UK comedienne and camp icon Julie Walters on her early 90s sketch show.
• The Smart Girl: Out of drag, she holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Manchester, making her the first Ru Girl with a doctorate. Even her Instagram name credits her as “Dr. Cheddar Gorgeous”.
• Strong Family Resemblance: For the Queen for a Day makeover challenge, in which the queens are tasked with making over members of the 'Queen Team' (the backstage production and wellbeing crew), Cheddar is teamed with Gemma, whom she initially (and brilliantly) dubs 'Mini-Cheddar'^note  after the popular cheese-flavoured crackers — similar to Cheez-Its, for non-Brits, but after she's made aware that the name is already in use in the drag community, she goes with 'Brie Gorgeous' instead. They emerge onto the runway in identical draped outfits, Cheddar’s in amber and brown and Brie’s in blue and brown, looking like a pair of beautiful alien twins, with matching hoods, rolled hair, and Cheddar's signature gilded makeup. The judges love the pair's synergetic looks and the elegant theatricality of their performance, and Cheddar bags her third win of the competition.
• Too Clever by Half: Being the cerebral queen that she is, Cheddar approaches the General Erection Roast much more like a piece of comic political theatre as opposed to a snappy, gag-after-gag beatdown. Her material is eloquently designed, with a smart Framing Device about her being an alien overlord come to snatch everyone's babies, but it sails over the judges' heads, and she ultimately places low, but safe.
• Very Special Episode: Being The Smart Girl of the competition (and amongst the most eloquent across the franchise), she imparts her knowledge of queer history and culture in a highly articulate manner, with special mention going to her episode 6 Werk Room talk on HIV and AIDS, in which she debunks common misconceptions and educates (primarily the viewer, via confessionals) on safe practises, and how to support those living with HIV and AIDS.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Her BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway is amongst the smartest of those presented. She portrays the classic BBC 'Test Card F', used from the late 60s up until the 90s, which featured a central image of a young girl playing noughts & crosses with her homemade-looking clown doll (known as 'Bubbles the Clown'), surrounded by various greyscales and colour test signals used to assess the quality of the transmitted picture. Cheddar paints her face to resemble Bubbles, and her ensemble is patterned after the greyscale signals, lending her a smartly bizarre look which is enhanced by her quirky, performance art-style presentation.
• Whole Costume Reference:
  • For the Mane Event runway, she embodies the Cheshire Cat from children's literary classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and while it's a source material that's been mined before on Drag Race, Cheddar mixes things up and presents a sexy, sultry take on the inscrutable feline and coughs up a hairball for good measure.
  • For the West End Wonders runway, being a punk queen, she pays tribute to Hedwig Robinson, the eponymous hero from the seminal Queer Media classic, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, in an expertly-accurate look complete with a pair of Isis wings upon which is written the iconic line — "Deny me and be doomed".

Danny Beard (winner)

Age: 29

From: Liverpool, Merseyside, England

"Daddy's home!"

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• The Ace: Danny has the best track record this season, winning four challenges (including the Rusical and the Roast challenges), as well as never ending up in the bottom or lip-syncing at all. After such an exemplary run, she's deservedly crowned the series' winner.
• Affectionate Parody: The normally confident Danny has a lapse of self doubt prior to the Snatch Game, as a table-talk with Ru makes her question her choice of subject, The X Factor judge, Louis Walsh. Abandoning Louis, she goes with Liverpudlian city treasure and UK 80s/90s TV mainstay, the late Cilla Black, and while the humour in her performance is inconsistent, she nails our Cilla's strained tones and her look (complete with comically big teeth) is spot-on. It's enough to declare her safe.
• Animal Motifs:
  • The theme for this series' promo looks is Queen of Your Hometown, and Danny's feathered look is a nod to Liverpool's Liver Birds — mythical creatures normally represented as a pair of cormorants that appear on the city's arms — though she notes with wry self-deprecation that she looks more like "a chicken on acid".
  • For her Grand Finale Eleganza look, she presents a far more elevated take on the Liver Birds via a beautiful, figure-hugging black velvet dress that's adorned with a spray of sumptuous golden feathers applied fore and aft. It's the most beautiful she's looked, and a perfect way to Bookend to her time on the show prior to her crowning.
• Attention Whore: For the NAFF-TA Awards BAFTA spoof, the other girls vote her "Best Scene Stealing Attention Grabbing Camera Hog" in recognition of her bold, unapologetically brassy style. True to form, she gives a hilariously hammy acceptance speech when collecting her award and is the only queen to gain additional screen-time by doing so.
• Bait-and-Switch: Prior to her team's performance in the Yass-tonbury girl groups challenge, Danny hilariously quips that her team, made up of the more campily-inclined queens, is "going to look like the queue for Greggs"^note  a self-deprecating remark, as Greggs is beloved amongst Brits for being a knowingly no-frills establishment. However, when they burst out onto the mainstage, team "Queens of the Bone Age" absolutely look like rockstars in their cohesive Misfits-inspired outfits, and end up kicking the competition into space with their camp-rock performance.
• Beneath the Mask: Danny is loud, confident and brassy, which makes it so surprising to the rest of the queens when, in the Werk Room after being declared safe, she admits to being shaken up and putting up a front to disguise deep insecurities.
• Big Sister Instinct: Despite the blustery persona, Danny is a sweet queen at heart and usually the first to make a supportive comment or lend a shoulder to cry on when a fellow queen is upset.
  • While gunning for the win in the Catty Man Improv challenge of episode 4, she is very proud of Pixie for being such a good captain, to the point where she notes she would be happy if Pixie got her second badge in her place.
  • She comes to Pixie's aid once again prior to the Lairy Poppins Rusical when Pixie realises that she's mis-cast herself in the lead role, and would be better off taking on Danny's role — something that Danny volunteers readily as a solution, and the pair make the swap.
• Call-Back: For the Mane Event runway, Danny sports an 80s-inspired look featuring a massive, bright red hair-metal 'do and a ball of red fluff on a silver dog lead, which she cheekily christens 'Dogina De Campo' after UK Series 1 alumna, Divina De Campo.
  Danny: A red wig and a silver lead? I do think.
• Chewing the Scenery:
  • Her outrageous performance and physical comedy skills in the Catty Man Improv challenge, in which she portrays a heavily Scouse pet psychic, is a masterclass in chaotic British drag, and she snags her second RuPeter Badge of the competition.
  • Her performance as Lairy Poppins, a dark, Lower-Class Lout take on the practically perfect British nanny in the Lairy Poppins Rusical, is a masterclass in mad-eyed, gurning mayhem, and her bite marks are left all over the set by the time she's done.
• Club Kid: For the BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway, she portrays a darkly reimagined, club kid version of the already-disturbing Noel's House Party mascot, Mr. Blobby, complete with a deeply unsettling gimp mouth-brace.
• Dresses the Same:
  • There's a minor kerfuffle in the Werk Room prior to the BBC 100th Anniversary Tribute runway when both her and Peppa find out that they've both planned to portray Mr. Blobby. Ultimately, whilst Danny's club kid version is disturbingly cool, Peppa's just manages to nudge into the lead with a more elevated, high-fashion take on the heinous blob monster.
  • Happens again for the Queen for a Day makeover challenge, where both Danny and Peppa use heavy white foundation and facial hair for their assigned drag sisters. Danny’s concept receives the most praise for its pastel colours coming together to form a stronger, more cohesive family resemblance.
• Experienced Protagonist: Danny is perhaps the best-known queen of the group this series in terms of mainstream audiences, as she’s no stranger to reality TV, having made it to the semifinals of Britain's Got Talent in 2016 with her live singing act. In 2021, Danny also competed on Celebrity Karaoke Club: Drag Edition alongside prominent Drag Race alumnae including Trinity The Tuck, Crystal, Manila Luzon, Vinegar Strokes and fellow Liverpudlian, The Vivienne.
• Hairy Girl: She’s a proud bearded queen and amongst the most prominent in the UK drag community. 
• Improv: As seasoned queens, it comes as no surprise that Danny, Pixie and Cheddar absolutely smash the Catty Man improv challenge, and Danny deservedly inches her way to the win, playing a heavily Scouse pet psychic trying to make contact with Cheddar's back-from-the-dead sister.
• Insult Comic: Danny, up first in the running order, aces the politically-themed General Erection Roast, breezing out of '69 Downing Street' to the lectern and roasting her fellow final queens, the judges, and the returning Series 4 queens with an easy confidence and swagger. She also evens things up by bunging in a few Self-Deprecation gags too, with this cheeky little quip concerning a drug den found behind Liverpool public library:
  Danny: I know, I was just as shocked as the rest of you....that we had a library in Liverpool.
• Karmic Jackpot: When Pixie realizes that she's miscast herself in the lead role for the Lairy Poppins Rusical, Danny volunteers to swap roles with her. This ends up working well for both of them, with Pixie placing high and Danny winning the challenge.
• Large Ham: Danny's a loud and proud queen in the Werk Room, but she really gets to flex her comedy chops in the Catty Man Improv challenge, managing to out-ham even Pixie and Cheddar, and riffing off of Alan and her teammates with magnificent aplomb. She then immediately tops that with her performance in the Lairy Poppins, where her performance as the titular Lairy wins her second RuPeter badge in a row.
• Magical Nanny: For the Lairy Poppins Rusical, Danny takes on the lead role of the eponymous Lairy, A Darker Me version of the usually prim and proper British nanny who inhabits the Dark World of 'Bin Land' and encourages her young charges, the Prude twins, to gorge on sugar, chug bin-juice and plan a bank robbery. Her performance is a masterpiece, serving fractured insanity to such a high standard that it prompts guest judge and West End veteran Hannah Waddingham to note "you and you alone would have been worth my visit", and Danny deservedly wins her third RuPeter badge of the competition.
• Prone to Tears: Doesn't take much to get her sobbing — she's cried when safe and after being in the top.
• Renaissance Woman: By the finale, it's abundantly clear that Danny is a highly accomplished all-rounder who can turn her hand to any form of challenge presented and do well to exceptional. She's also amongst the select few queens across the franchise to make it to their finale never placing below safe, let alone landing in the bottom throughout the competition, and joins an illustrious group of queens across the franchise who never place below safe, comprising of Bianca del Rio (US S6), Scarlett Bobo (Canada S1), Envy Peru (Holland S1), Kitty Scott-Claus (UK S3), Ella Vaday (UK S3), Farida Kant (Italy S1), Elecktra Bionic (Italy S1), and Sharonne (Spain S2).
• Sad Clown: In the first episode's Untucked segment, she's fully up front about how she hides behind humor to mask her own insecurity. It's no surprise that she quickly clocked this same insecurity in Just May, but at least Danny's better at hiding it.
• Shout-Out: Her femmebot-style Alien Princess Neon Nights look, complete with a towering Beehive Hairdo, is a fond tribute to UK drag institution Juno Birch — a queen eagerly anticipated to appear on the show whenever a new UK series is announced.
• Signature Style: Her beard aside, Danny also favours a pierrot clown style, bone-white foundation in almost every look she presents in a similar manner to US Season 13 alumna, Gottmik.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Danny is easily the foulest-mouthed queen, and hilariously she keeps bellowing "mother-fucking!" — on the BBC(!) — instead of "mother-tucking" when rehearsing for the Yass-tonbury girl groups challenge.
• Strong Family Resemblance: For the Queen for a Day makeover challenge, in which the queens are tasked with making over members of the 'Queen Team' (the backstage production and wellbeing crew), Danny is teamed with Mystique, who initially harbours reservations about sporting Danny's signature facial hair, explaining that due to her relatively masculine features, she's often mistaken for being male, to her chagrin. However, when the pair hit the runway, with Mystique now dubbed 'Mizzy Mustache', it's immediately clear she's taken the plunge, as both she and Danny sport complementary lilac and mint beards as part of a beautiful 60s themed look, topped off with a pair of very syrupy matching lilac and mint pageboy wigs. Danny places high, narrowly missing out on the win overall to Cheddar.
• Whole Costume Reference:
  • Bit of an obscure one but Danny’s leather-queen entrance look is actually in tribute to Dawn Gerrard, an apprentice jockey from nearby Cheshire, whose audition for the The X Factor soon went memetic when judges Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh couldn’t stop cracking up at her spectacularly awful, whispered rendition of Madonna’s “Cherish”.
  • For the West End Wonders runway, she pays tribute to Audrey II, the Man-Eating Plant from Little Shop of Horrors in a ensemble that comes complete with a working plant puppet on her head and is so expertly put together that it could easily belong on the West End stage.