Drag Race's Jinkx Monsoon teases Doctor Who role
Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon has opened up about her role in the upcoming season of Doctor Who.
Earlier this month, the star was confirmed for series 14. Though her character has yet to be revealed, she has been described as "The Doctor’s most powerful enemy".
In an interview with Pride, Monsoon said the part was "a dream come true".
"I’m terribly excited," she explained. "It’s not easy to encapsulate how excited I am with words. I was saying to the director yesterday, the role that I’m playing, it’s like everything I ever dreamed about doing as an actor in one character.
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“It’s insane. It’s like all of my actor fantasies have been rolled into one character, and now I get to do it all on a show that I love, written by a prolific writer, a voice of our generation who has written so many astounding things.”
Monsoon also discussed how her casting came about, explaining that showrunner Russell T Davies, was influenced by seeing her in a stage show.
"It was kind of a perfect storm, how we became friends," she shared. "I was dating my now-husband, Michael Abbott, who’s a good friend of Russell’s. So, our holiday show was coming through Manchester at a time that Russell was in Manchester, and my husband reached out and he came and saw the show. And that was maybe four years ago.
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"Russell said that he walked home from the show that night and decided, 'Jinkx is the person I want to have play this role'. So, he advocated for me to play this role, and it’s just one of those moments where everything fell into place at the perfect time.”
Monsoon joins Doctor Who after completing a sell-out run on Broadway, where she made her debut as Matron ‘Mama’ Morton in Chicago. At the time, she became the first drag queen to play that role.
Doctor Who returns later in 2023 on BBC One in the UK and Disney+ elsewhere. Meanwhile, in the US, the show airs on BBC America, with series 1-12 available on HBO Max. Classic Doctor Who streams on Britbox in the UK.
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