Drag Race star Jinkx Monsoon shares new chosen name following facial feminisation surgery
Drag Race and Doctor Who star Jinkx Monsoon has shared her new personal name. (Getty/ Chelsea Guglielmino)
RuPaul’s Drag Race’s only two-time winner and upcoming star of Doctor Who Jinkx Monsoon has revealed that she’s changed her personal name as she continues on her gender journey.
In a post on X/Twitter, the 36-year-old drag performer and Broadway star revealed that her “chosen name” is now Hera Hoffer, but assured fans that she would always publicly be known as Jinkx Monsoon.
Hera, which is the name of an Ancient Greek goddess, is also the name of Jinkx’s “bewitching” new perfume.
Jinkx’s revelation comes just a few weeks after the actress shared that she had undergone Facial Feminisation Surgery (FFS), a procedure that some trans and non-binary people undertake to change the shape of their face in order to make it appear more feminine.
In a post on social media, she shared several photos of her recovery after undergoing FFS, writing: “Last year, while on tour, a trans elder told me: ‘Jinkx, it’s never too late.’ She was right.
“But let me say, ‘it’s never too late’ means the world to someone still figuring out their path. Also, ‘it’s never too late’ means something different for all of us,” she added.
After sharing the news with her fans in March, she opened up further to Cosmopolitan about how she currently understands her identity.
“What’s changing for me is my life out of drag. I removed all the rules and parameters I had placed on myself,” she shared, adding that as someone who identifies as a “trans feminine non-binary person,” she had felt the need to present androgynously.
“I never allowed myself to wear dresses out of drag in public because I thought it would attract the wrong kind of attention. Sometime at the end of last year, I decided I was done,” she explained.
“I lifted all those rules and took a step forward. I booked my FFS, I reached out about HRT, and every day, I just feel like I’m taking strides toward the person I always saw myself becoming.”
After sharing her new, personal name with the world, the three-time Queerty award winner was inundated with support from fans online.
“Congrats on your chosen name and I appreciate you sharing so much with the public. It fills me with happiness to see you choose yourself and choose joy. You’re glowing,” wrote one fan.
“I’m so happy for you!! Hera suits you very well. Love you, Jinkx,” another added.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 winner and trans icon Kylie Sonique Love simply wrote: “So beautiful.”
From today (2 April), Jinkx Monsoon will star as Audrey in the Off-Broadway production of A Little Shop of Horrors. In June, she will briefly reprise her role as Matron “Mama” Morton in the Broadway version of Chicago, following her pioneering turn in the show last year.
She will also star in Ncuti Gatwa’s upcoming season of Doctor Who this May.
