Crystal
Crystal is a gender-bending drag artist and presenter, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 1 contestant, and the host of her celebratory queer podcast The Things That Made Me Queer.
As a broadcast presenter, she has appeared as a judge/mentor on the upcoming OutTV production Call Me Mother, fronted Canadian reality dating show Group Sext and was selected as Canada’s Drag Race official correspondent for BBC Three. She has appeared on the Strictly Come Dancing spinoff series Strictly Frooked Up! and hosted celebrity interviews for Attitude’s social platforms.
With one heeled foot in East London’s colourful queer community and the other in politics, Crystal is a driving force in the new-gen UK drag scene, brandishing a unique drag aesthetic - fantastical, overtly sexualised and beautifully bizarre. Her supervillain persona mixes high fashion, gender play and punk sensibility, which led her to star in the fashion pages of revered fashion titles Hunger and KALTBLUT.
Crystal’s performance style is as fearless as her looks, fusing theatre, circus and aerial play in touring shows across the UK and North America. A self-confessed “stunt queen”, Crystal is never afraid to shock her audience with routines that dazzle and delight, combining art school creativity, high performance and daring techniques, including angle grinding, whip play, and aerial rope and hoop. Crystal co-produces and hosts the iconic East London Drag Circus show MIMIs at Bethnal Green Working Men’s club, known for its pioneering and inclusive performance schedule.
A Canada native, but having lived in London for 12 years, she’s embedded herself within the local LBGTQIA+ community and is a known advocate for queer issues, racial equality and climate change. She has contributed opinion pieces on diversity issues for Metro and was chosen by Attitude magazine and National Student Pride to share her experiences of using drag to challenge gender identity. Throughout her campaigning, she has supported the Labour Party, fundraised for LGBTQIA+ organisations The Outside Project and Colours Youth, and the Minnesota Freedom Fund. Using her platform time and time again to bring awareness of inequality, she admits she’s “a very proud snowflake”.
During LGBT Month 2021, Crystal launched an original podcast with World of Wonder entitled The Things That Made Me Queer. The format explores and celebrates the entire spectrum of queerness through the memories of her esteemed queer guests including MNEK, Detox, Shea Couleé and Juno Dawson. The podcast has been recommended by The Guardian, METRO, Bustle, Great British Podcasts, Gay Times & Attitude and many more.
