Roy R. Haylock (born June 27, 1975), better known by the

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Bianca Del Rio, is an American

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses Drag (entertainment), drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate Femininity, female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have ...

, comedian, actor, and costume designer. She is known for winning the sixth season of ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the Drag Race (franchise), ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder (company), World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, ...

''. Since her time on ''Drag Race'', Del Rio has written and toured several stand-up shows, including ''It's Jester Joke'' (2019), which also made her the first drag queen to headline at

Wembley Arena Wembley Arena () (originally the Empire Pool, currently known as OVO Energy, OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, Greater London, England. The 12,500-seat facility is Greater Lond ...

. She has also performed as a host for various international tours, most notably Werq the World. In 2018, she published her first book, ''Blame It On Bianca Del Rio: The Expert On Nothing With An Opinion On Everything''.

Early life

Haylock grew up in

Gretna, Louisiana Gretna is the second-largest city in, and parish seat of, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Jefferson Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. "Gretna, Louisiana (LA) Detailed Profile" (notes), ''City Data'', 2007, webpage: C-Gretna "Census ...

. He is of Cuban descent on his mother's side and Honduran descent on his father's side. He is the fourth of five children. He started acting and designing costumes for plays at West Jefferson High School. After high school, he decided to move to

Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, or Midtown West on real estate listings, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, ...

, where he worked at

Bloomingdale's Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain founded in 1861 by Joseph Bloomingdale and Lyman Bloomingdale. It was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1930, which purchased the Macy's department store chain in 1994, ...

for nine months before returning to Louisiana.

Career

Haylock has primarily worked as a costume designer. In 1993, he won a Big Easy Entertainment Award for Best Costume Design for ''Snow Queen'' at the age of 17. He has been nominated for 13 Big Easy Entertainment Awards for costume design, winning six. Haylock has also made costumes for New Orleans Opera. In New Orleans, Haylock started performing as a drag artist in 1996 in the play ''Pageant''. The local drag queen Lisa Beaumann saw him in the play and later cast him in shows at the nightclub Oz. Haylock won the New Orleans Gay Entertainer of the Year for three years as drag queen Bianca Del Rio. In 2001, Bianca Del Rio was selected as co-grand marshal, with Pat "Estelle" Ritter and Rick Thomas, for

Southern Decadence Southern Decadence is an annual, five-day (Thur - Mon), LGBTQ-based event held in New Orleans, Louisiana during Labor Day weekend, culminating in a parade through the French Quarter on the Sunday before Labor Day. History The event traces its ...

XXIX. Haylock moved to New York City after

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

and worked as a costumer for different shows, including ballet and opera, having worked for Barbara Matera, Ltd. He also performed in drag as Bianca Del Rio, including in cabaret with Lady Bunny at XL Nightclub. Notable events included a roast of Patricia Krentcil, better known as "Tan Mom". Haylock starred in the first regional production of ''

Rent Rent may refer to: Economics *Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property *Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production *Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...

'' (following its initial Broadway closing) at Le Petit Theatre in New Orleans, playing the role of Angel opposite Christopher Bentivegna as Collins. Del Rio was featured in the web series ''Queens of Drag: NYC'' by

gay.com Gay.com was a chat, personals, and social networking website catering to the LGBT community. The site was a digital brand of Here Media Inc. In addition to community features, the site featured LGBT-related news and features. As of September 20 ...

in 2010. The series featured fellow New York drag queens Dallas DuBois,

Hedda Lettuce Hedda Lettuce is the stage name of Steven Polito, an American drag queen, comedian and singer who lives and works in New York City. Polito debuted his character Hedda Lettuce in 1991 on the Manhattan Cable TV show ''The Brenda and Glennda Show''. ...

, Lady Bunny, Mimi Imfurst,

Peppermint Peppermint (''Mentha'' × ''piperita'') is a Hybrid (biology), hybrid species of Mentha, mint, a cross between Mentha aquatica, watermint and spearmint. Indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, the plant is now widely spread and cultivated in m ...

, and

Sherry Vine Keith Levy, known professionally as Sherry Vine, is an American actor, drag queen, and musician. Vine is the creator and host of ''She's Living for This'', a variety series on Here TV. Vine works primarily in New York City and on Fire Island, Lo ...

. In 2011, Del Rio appeared on ''One Night Stand Up: Dragtastic! NYC'' by

Logo TV Logo TV (often shortened to Logo, and stylized as Logo.) is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched in 2005, Logo was originally dedicated to lifestyle and entertainment progra ...

. The episode was filmed live at the

Bowery Ballroom The Bowery Ballroom is a New York City live music venue located at 6 Delancey Street in Manhattan's Bowery neighborhood. The venue has enjoyed a fabled reputation among musicians as well as audiences. In 2013, industry insiders polled by ''Roll ...

and was hosted by

Pandora Boxx Michael Steck (born May 2, 1972), better known by the stage name Pandora Boxx, is an American drag queen, comedian, reality television personality, and singer. Hailing from Rochester, New York, Boxx competed in the second season of ''RuPaul's D ...

. Del Rio appeared on the cover of ''

Next NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

'' for their Summer Yearbook 2012 issue. She appeared on the variety show ''

She's Living for This ''She's Living for This'' is an American television comedy and variety series created by Keith Levy and Josh Rosenzweig. The show currently airs on LGBT cable network here!. The series stars drag performer Sherry Vine. The series premiered on Feb ...

'', hosted by

, in 2012. In December 2013, Logo announced that Bianca Del Rio was among 14 drag queens who would be competing on the sixth season of ''

''. She quickly became a front-runner among the contestants and a fan favorite, eventually reaching the top three. On May 19, 2014, Del Rio was crowned the winner of the sixth season over runners-up

Adore Delano Adore Delano (formerly Dani Noriega; born September 29, 1989) is an American drag queen, singer-songwriter, and television personality. She first appeared as a contestant on the seventh season of ''American Idol'' in 2008 before competing on ''R ...

and

Courtney Act Shane Gilberto Jenek (born 18 February 1982), better known under the stage name Courtney Act, is an Australian drag queen, singer and television personality. Courtney first came to prominence competing on the first season of ''Australian Idol' ...

. She was the second winner and fourth contestant to reach the finale without having to

lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , like the word ''sink'', despite the Hard and soft C, spelling of the participial forms ''synced'' and ''syncing''), short for lip synchronization, is a technical term for matching a Speech, speaking or singin ...

for her life, and is the first contestant in the history of the series to make it through the entire competition without ever placing low or in the bottom of a challenge. Del Rio is also the first winner of

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

descent of ''RuPaul's Drag Race''. In 2013, Del Rio was announced as the lead in the independent film '' Hurricane Bianca'', written and directed by Matt Kugelman. An

Indiegogo Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...

campaign was created to finance the film and was sponsored by

Fractured Atlas Fractured Atlas is a non-profit technology company that provides business tools for artists. History Fractured Atlas was founded in 1998 by Executive Director Adam Huttler as a theater production company. Between 1998 and 2001, the company p ...

, a non-profit art services organization in New York City; the campaign raised over $30,000. A sequel, '' Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate'', was released in 2018. As of February 2019, a third film titled ''Hurricane Bianca 3'' is in the works and will include Sykes, Dratch and several ''Drag Race'' performers in its cast. Following her success on ''Drag Race'', Del Rio has written and toured several stand-up shows, including ''The Rolodex of Hate'' (2014), ''Not Today Satan'' (2015–16), ''Blame It On Bianca Del Rio'' (2017–2018), ''It's Jester Joke'' (2019), which also made her the first drag queen to headline

, and ''Unsanitized'' (2021-2022). She has also performed as a host on the Werq the World tour alongside other ''Drag Race'' queens. In 2019, Del Rio starred as retired drag queen Hugo Battersby/Loco Chanelle in the hit West End musical ''

Everybody's Talking About Jamie ''Everybody's Talking About Jamie'' is a Musical theatre, stage musical centred around a coming-of-age story, with score by Dan Gillespie Sells and book and lyrics by Tom MacRae. The musical is inspired by the 2011 British television documentar ...

''. In June 2019, a panel of judges from ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

'' magazine placed Del Rio first on their list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 former ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' contestants. In November that year, it was announced that she would reprise the role for 12 weeks starting December 9. She also reprised the role on selected dates in 2021-22 during the UK tour of the musical. Del Rio also appeared in the movie adaptation of ''

'' in a cameo role as Miss Haylock, whose name was based on Del Rio's actual last name. On June 16, 2025, it was revealed that del Rio would star as Madame Pernelle alongside

Matthew Broderick Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American actor. He starred in ''WarGames'' (1983) as a teen government hacker, and ''Ladyhawke (film), Ladyhawke'' (1985), a medieval fantasy alongside Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer. He play ...

, Francis Jue, and

Amber Gray Amber Gray is an American actress and singer. She is known for originating the role of Hélène Kuragina, Hélène Bezukhova in the musical ''Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812'' and the role of ...

in an

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

production of ''

Tartuffe ''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; , ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy (or more specifically, a farce) by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theat ...

'' at

New York Theatre Workshop __NOTOC__ New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) is an Off-Broadway theater noted for its productions of new works. Located at 79 East 4th Street between Second Avenue and Bowery in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it h ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Web series

Music videos

Theatre

Comedy tours

* The Rolodex of Hate Tour (2014) * Not Today Satan Tour (2016–2017) * Blame It On Bianca Del Rio Tour (2017–18) * It's Jester Joke Tour (2019) * Unsanitized Tour (2021-2022) * Dead Inside Tour (2024-2025)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * *
Trailer for ''Hurricane Bianca''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Del Rio, Bianca 1975 births Living people 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians 20th-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people American costume designers American gay actors American LGBTQ comedians American entertainers of Cuban descent American people of Honduran descent Comedians from Louisiana Comedians from New Orleans Comedians from New York City Drag performers from New York City Gay comedians Hispanic and Latino American drag queens American drag queens LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino American people LGBTQ people from Louisiana Nightlife in New York City Bianca Del Rio West Jefferson High School (Louisiana) alumni RuPaul's Drag Race contestants Drag performers from Louisiana