A Star in the Making

From RuPaul’s Drag Race to Broadway, Jinkx Monsoon’s star has been on the rise over the past decade. But their rise to stardom picked up steam when they were a student at Cornish College of the Arts.

Monsoon, the stage name of Hera Hoffer, grew up in Portland, Ore., and first performed in drag publicly at age 15. Moving to Seattle, they enrolled at Cornish where Monsoon earned a fine arts degree in 2010. Slowly making a name for themselves, Monsoon appeared in local Seattle theater productions of Spring Awakening in 2012 and later in the 5th Avenue Theatre’s production of Rent.

Then came RuPaul.

In 2012, Monsoon was cast in Season 5 of the popular TV series hosted by perhaps the most famous drag queen. Showing off their singing voice that would eventually take them to Broadway, Monsoon walked away the winner of the reality competition, then continued to act locally, playing Hedwig in the Moore Theater’s production of Hedwig and the Angry Itch and as Velma Von Tussle in the 5th Avenue’s production of Hairspray.

“If there’s one thing I learned at Cornish College of the Arts, it was competition for the sake of creating better art,” Monsoon told KING 5’s New Day in 2023. “And I took that mentality into every time I did Drag Race. I don’t like being cutthroat or super competitive, but if we want to show off whose got certain talents in certain areas, I’m going to show up for it.”

In 2014, Monsoon released their debut album, The Inevitable Album, a mix of blues, jazz, traditional pop and cabaret and a second album, The Ginger Snapped, came in 2018. The same year she voiced a character in an episode of the cartoon Steven Universe and in 2019 New York magazine ranked Monsoon 18^th on its list of the 100 most powerful drag queens in America. In 2022, Monsoon appeared in the Hulu Christmas film, Happiest Season.

It was back to RuPaul in 2022 when Monsoon not only competed in RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, featuring all the show’s past winners, but was once again crowned the winner. Then came Broadway, as Monsoon joined the musical Chicago, becoming just the second drag queen to perform in a major Broadway musical. Next came the role of Audrey in the off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, a headlining concert at Carnegie Hall and a starring role as Ruth in Broadway’s Pirates! The Penzance Musical in which she performed with the company on the Tony Awards. This past August, Monsoon took the lead role of Mary Todd Lincoln in Broadway’s Oh, Mary!

“Cornish, and my career as a drag artist, both things coalesced to teach me how to create your own work and how to explore different avenues to be fulfilling in your art form,” Monsoon told New Day in 2023.