From a small stage in Portland to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Jinkx Monsoon has worked tirelessly to become one of the biggest names in drag. Now, with Drag Becomes Him, Monsoon pulls back the curtain to offer a look behind the scenes.
Monsoon, born Jerick Hoffer in 1987, comes from a working class family in Portland. Hoffer came out as gay in middle school, while also identifying as genderless. Drag began at the tender age of 15 at an underage nightclub. After moving to Seattle in 2006, Hoffer became involved in Seattle’s arts scene and other productions, then co-created a web series for Funny or Die, Monsoon Season, which first introduced the world to Jinkx Monsoon in 2011.
Of course, most fans today know Jinkx Monsoon from a successful run on the fifth season of Drag Race. After wins in challenges like “Snatch Game” and an unpredecented eight-week streak among the show’s top contestants, Monsoon was named the Season 5 champion.
Now the film Drag Becomes Him serves as the culmination of a years-long project that started with a YouTube series of the same name. That series, which began in June 2011, was started to explore Monsoon’s life in and out of drag by director Alex Berry.
The film, which is one of the two ‘David Night’ features during Out on Film, pulls together the five parts of the web series and includes expanded content exclusive to the film. And yes, the name of the series is inspired by the Meryl Streep classic, Death Becomes Her.
Jinkx Monsoon’s Drag Becomes Him screens Wednesday, Oct. 7, 9:20 p.m., as part of Out on Film’s ‘David Night’ lineup at Midtown Art Cinema.
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Originally published in David Atlanta.