Charlie Hides

Charlie Hides (born July 12, 1964)[1] is an American-born drag queen, impersonator, actor, and comedian. Hides is known for his YouTube channel, and his participation in the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Following live performances in London clubs, Hides started a YouTube channel in March 2011. He has produced hundreds of videos satirizing popular culture, and impersonating celebrities such as Cher, Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Lana Del Rey.[2][3][1]

Charlie Hides
Charlie Hides, circa 2017
Born	(1964-07-12) July 12, 1964 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Citizenship	British American Irish
Education	Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Occupation	Drag queen actor comedian impersonator
Known for	YouTube RuPaul's Drag Race
Spouse(s)	James Hides ( m. 2004)
YouTube information
Channel	Charlie Hides TV
Years active	2011–present
Genre	Comedy
Subscribers	102 thousand
Total views	23.88 million
Associated acts	Courtney Act Bianca Del Rio Kylie Minogue Lorraine Kelly
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2017
Updated July 12, 2020
Website	charliehidestv.com

Personal life

Hides was born in Boston, Massachusetts[4] on July 12, 1964.[3] He attended the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He currently lives in London and has multiple citizenship, being a citizen of the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland.[5][6]

Hides is gay, and in 2004 married his partner James Hides in the town of Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Career

Hides began as a successful drag act in Provincetown, Massachusetts in the 1990s. There he would incorporate live singing as well as comedic skits into his act. This success continued when he moved to London in the 2000s where he began performing on the London cabaret circuit in gay-venues, and legendary drag/cabaret venues, such as The Two Brewers and The Royal Vauxhall Tavern. As his success grew, he became a sensation across the United Kingdom and would regularly tour the UK.

Hides started a YouTube channel after high-definition video uploading became available on the website. Following the creation of his channel, he uploaded some of the videos that he used in live performances and comedy routines. Since Hides created the Charlie Hides TV YouTube channel in March 2011, he has uploaded over 200 videos. These include series such as Madonna/Lady Gaga Nightmares and Shit ____ Says.[7]

In 2013, Hides uploaded a sketch that starred Australian singer and actress Kylie Minogue. He impersonated Cher during a telephone call with Minogue. In 2015, Hides starred on the TV show Big Brother's Bit on the Side, where he impersonated celebrities whilst commenting on Celebrity Big Brother contestants. Hides also had a cameo role in the film Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, as a drag performer. In 2014, The Charlie Hides Show aired on London Live as a pilot show, incorporating elements from his live performances and YouTube channel.[8][9][10][11]

Hides has occasionally drawn the attention of some of the acts that he impersonates. In a 2013 interview with the Herald Sun, Cher said that Hides was her "favourite Cher impersonator". When Lady Gaga was in London, she sent flowers to Hides, alongside a note. Hides has also stated that Liza Minnelli, Elton John and Kris Jenner have been "very kind".[12][13]

In 2019, Hides' began regularly performing and hosting 'Drag Queen Bingo' and saw instant success with every show selling out that he began taking it across the United Kingdom. 'Drag Queen Bingo' would become Hides' regular show, taking over from his evening cabaret shows, and in 2020 he set up the company dragqueen.bingo.

RuPaul's Drag Race

Main article: RuPaul's Drag Race (season 9)

On February 2, 2017, Logo TV announced that Hides would participate as a contestant in the ninth season of American reality competition RuPaul's Drag Race. As of 2017, Hides is the oldest contestant to participate on Drag Race. The season premiered on March 24, 2017 on VH1.[14] In an interview with BBC News Newsbeat, Hides said:

The label drag queen is not just a cookie cutter, one-size fits all type of label. There's pageant girls, there's comics, there's celebrity impersonators. There's every different type of queen under the sun. That's one of the things that Drag Race has definitely shown over the course of nine seasons. That there's so many different ways to express yourself using this art form. You'd think it's just gay men, but it's got a huge following of women who are watching for the fashion. They're watching for the colourful sense of humour and then they're identifying with us. The contestants are human beings and not just seen as some dancing clowns or as freaks. We are definitely in need of laughter, sunshine, brightness and colour. Drag queens are defiant. We are the counter culture, the opposition party. We are everything that the moral majority and small-minded bigots fear.[15]

On the fourth episode of the show, entitled "Good Morning Bitches", Hides was eliminated from the competition. He was placed in the bottom two by the judges, and therefore had to participate in a "Lip-Sync for Your Life" to Britney Spears' "I Wanna Go" against fellow contestant Trinity Taylor. Hides commented on the lip-sync, saying that the self-described "disaster" was a result of having a fractured rib, due to a cheerleading challenge several episodes prior. In the episode's challenge, Hides was critiqued for his performance in the talk show segment of the episode. The morning after his elimination, Hides uploaded a music video for his new single, "The Dame".[16][17][18]

Controversy

In December 2015, Hides was accused of using blackface and ethnic stereotypes to represent one of his characters, Laquisha Jonz. An activist, Chardine Taylor-Stone, launched a petition on the website Change.org, calling for the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, and other venues, to cancel Hides' performances. Taylor-Stone claimed that the character was "a racist act based on misogynist stereotypes of black working class women, it is outdated, offensive, shameful and has no place in the LGBT Community". As a result, Hides stated that he will no longer use the character in his performances.[19][20]

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2014	The Charlie Hides Show	Self	Pilot show on London Live	[11]
2015	Big Brother's Bit on the Side	Various	Multiple impersonation sketches	[9]
2017	RuPaul's Drag Race	Self (contestant)	Season nine Contestant- 12th Place	[21]
	RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked		Spin-off series on WOWPresents	[22]

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2016	Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie	Drag queen	Cameo role	[10]

Discography and parodies

Title	Year
"The Edge of Glory"	2011
"MILF Gone Wild"	2012
"Boyfriend"
"Turn Up the Radio"
"Woman's World"	2013
"Roar"/"Wrecking Ball"
"Applause"
"Judas"
"Venus"
"Adore You"	2014
"Booty"
"All About That Bass"
"Welcome to New York"
"Living for Love"	2015
"You Fucked a Bad Gay"
"Don't Call Us"	2017
"The Dame"

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2014	Royal Television Society Awards	Best Low Budget Programme	Won	[23]
2016	Boyz Awards	Best Cabaret Act	Won	[24]

References

1. Bryant, Christopher (February 1, 2012). "An Interview with Charlie Hides". Polari. Archived from the original on September 20, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
2. Domingo, Reg (March 4, 2014). "The Many Faces of Youtube Parody Star Charlie Hides". Gay News Network. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
3. Jankuloska, Maggie (March 13, 2013). "From Boy to Diva: An Interview with Charlie Hides". HelloGiggles. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
4. "Why RuPaul's Drag Race is more than just a TV show". BBC Newsbeat. 2017-03-24. Archived from the original on 2019-04-26. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
5. "10 Things About Me". YouTube. February 25, 2017. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
6. Watts, Laurence (January 30, 2013). "Charlie Hides on becoming a YouTube drag sensation". Pink News. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
7. "Charlie Hides TV". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2019-03-09. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
8. Hernandez, Greg (July 30, 2013). "He may not really be Cher, but Charlie Hides got the real Kylie Minogue to be in new video". Gay Star News. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
9. "Tonight on Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Stateside". Channel 5. September 19, 2015. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
10. Stroude, Will (November 16, 2015). "Ab Fab Movie Shoots Scenes at Royal Vauxhall Tavern With Over 90 Drag Queens". Attitude. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
11. "The Charlie Hides Show". British Comedy Guide. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
12. Alexander, David (February 13, 2015). "Charlie Hides Takes on Australia (but Not Kylie Minogue, He's Too Tall)". Star Observer. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
13. Adams, Cameron (October 2, 2013). "19 things Cher wants to share". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on May 10, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
14. Carey-Mahoney, Ryan (February 2, 2017). "Your guide to the new queens vying for the 'RuPaul's Drag Race' crown". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 16, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
15. "Why RuPaul's Drag Race is more than just a TV show". Newsbeat. BBC News. March 24, 2017. Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
16. Guerra, Joey (April 14, 2017). "Charlie Hides talks cracked ribs and that disastrous 'Drag Race' lip sync". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on April 15, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
17. Reynolds, Daniel (April 15, 2017). "Last Words With Drag Race's Charlie Hides". The Advocate. Archived from the original on April 16, 2017. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
18. "Good Morning Bitches". RuPaul's Drag Race. Season 9. April 14, 2017. VH1.
19. Patrick McCormick, Joseph (December 14, 2015). "Cabaret act accused of 'blackface' retires from performing at London venue". Pink News. Archived from the original on February 18, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
20. Lyell, Carrie (December 14, 2015). "Drag Act Accused of Racism Will No Longer Perform at London's RVT". Diva. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
21. Nolfi, Joey (February 2, 2017). "TV Logo reveals RuPaul's Drag Race season 9 cast". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
22. Voss, Brandon (March 25, 2017). ""RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked" Season 9, Episode 1: "Oh. My. Gaga."". NewNowNext. Logo TV. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
23. Brinnand, Alex (November 18, 2014). "Charlie Hides Wins TV Award". TenEighty. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
24. Duke, Simon (April 6, 2016). "UK drag royalty Charlie Hides stepping into the Shade in Newcastle". Chronicle Live. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2017.

External links

• Official website
• Charlie Hides on IMDb