1987-09-18 · Grant Park, Oregon, U.S. · Female
Hera Lilith Hoffer (born September 18, 1987), best known by the stage name Jinkx Monsoon, is an American drag queen, actress, singer and comedian, best-known for winning the fifth season (2013) of RuPaul's Drag Race, as well as the All-Winners seventh season of All-Stars, becoming the first and only queen to win two crowns on the show. She made her Broadway debut in 2023 and has appeared in character roles on television and in cabaret.
In 2022, nine years after her first win on RuPaul's Drag Race, she returned as part of an all-winners All Stars season, featuring a mixture of crowned queens from several seasons competing against one another for the title of "Queen of All Queens" and a $200,000 prize. Monsoon placed first, becoming the first and only two-time winner of the show across its many global franchises. Throughout her drag career, she has been noted for her wit and comedic timing, her musical theatre-inspired performances, and for celebrity impersonations, including Judy Garland, Edie "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, and Natasha Lyonne.
She has also pursued a career in music, releasing two studio albums titled The Inevitable Album (2014) and The Ginger Snapped (2018). She has appeared in cabaret acts. In film, Monsoon appeared with her collaborative and touring partner BenDeLaCreme in the holiday film The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Special (2021) which was later released on Hulu. On television, Monsoon appears in the WOW Presents Plus original Sketchy Queens, a series she created alongside Liam Krug, and the BBC series Doctor Who as the villain Maestro. In 2023 she made her Broadway debut in Chicago as "Mama" Morton, continued in musical theatre as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors in New York and, in 2025, made a Carnegie Hall debut and returned to Broadway in Pirates! The Penzance Musical. In 2026 she made her West End debut in the lead role of Oh, Mary!.
Early life
Hoffer was born in an Irish Catholic household on September 18, 1987, in Portland, Oregon and raised in an unstable environment. Her father was 17 when Hoffer was born, grew up in a group home and he was absent during her childhood. Her mother Deanne Hoffer, was a heavy alcoholic, leaving Hoffer at age 12 to take on a parental role for her younger siblings. She described her mother as "a woman who wasn't ready to be a mom." Her mother is intersex and has an underdeveloped testicle. She has two younger brothers and a half-sister.
Hoffer attended da Vinci Arts Middle School and Grant High School. She worked as a janitor through college and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theater from Cornish College of the Arts in 2010.
Hoffer learned she was of partial Ashkenazi ancestry as a teenager; after her maternal grandmother, Judith Irwin-Hoffer, died in 2008 from complications of a stroke, she learned Judith was born to Jewish parents of Polish and Finnish descent and had been adopted by an Irish Catholic couple. Hoffer initially told The Times of Israel she was of Russian Jewish ancestry. Hoffer has said that she uses Jinkx Monsoon as a way to connect to her Jewish heritage, describing the character as a "...failed actress [...] every gay boy's favorite cabaret act."
Early career
Hoffer began performing in drag at age 15, two years after coming out as gay. Performing at Portland's all-ages Escape Nightclub under the name Heidi Destruction, Hoffer found an outlet for her creativity through drag. She later adopted the stage surname Monsoon after Edina Monsoon, the central character in the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
After relocating to Seattle, Hoffer became active in the city's theatre and drag communities. In 2011, she and writer-performer Nick Sahoyah created and starred in the Funny or Die web series Monsoon Season, in which Hoffer portrayed Jinkx Monsoon as an overbearing, substance-addled and nearly psychotic mother opposite Sahoyah's character, Kamikaze Monsoon. Later that year, Hoffer appeared in the Wes Hurley film Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel and became the subject of Drag Becomes Him, a documentary web series directed by Alex Berry that explored her life in and out of drag.
The following year, Hoffer expanded into musical theatre. In January 2012, she portrayed Moritz in a Seattle production of Spring Awakening. The performance drew attention after a review in The Seattle Times described Hoffer as "overly flamboyant" for the role, prompting columnist Dan Savage to publicly defend the casting and challenge assumptions about queer actors portraying heterosexual characters. Later that year, she appeared as Angel in Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre production of Rent.
By late 2012, Hoffer had appeared in a web series, a documentary series, an independent film and several theatre productions before being cast on the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, marking the beginning of her national television career.
RuPaul's Drag Race
In November 2012, Logo announced that Jinkx Monsoon was among the 14 contestants selected for the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Hoffer later said she decided to audition after watching drag performer Sharon Needles compete on the show's fourth season.
During the season, Monsoon won the main challenges for "Drama Queens" and the annual "Snatch Game", a challenge in which contestants impersonate celebrities. For Snatch Game, she portrayed socialite Edie "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale. Later in the competition, she impersonated former RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Mimi Imfurst during the "Lip Synch Extravaganza Eleganza" challenge. She went on to win the fifth season in May 2013.
In 2022, nine years after her first victory, Monsoon returned for the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, the franchise's first all-winners season, in which previous champions competed for the title of "Queen of All Queens". She won the Snatch Game with impersonations of actress Natasha Lyonne and entertainer Judy Garland, and also claimed the fourth, fifth, ninth and tenth main challenges. On July 29, 2022, Monsoon won the competition, becoming the first and only contestant to win two RuPaul's Drag Race crowns.
Music
Following her victory on RuPaul's Drag Race in 2013, Jinkx Monsoon expanded her career into music, establishing herself as a recording artist alongside her work in drag, theatre and comedy. Her recordings have drawn on influences including cabaret, jazz, musical theatre, traditional pop, grunge and ska.
Monsoon released her debut studio album, The Inevitable Album, through Sidecar Records on May 6, 2014. Influenced by performers including Bette Midler, Marlene Dietrich, Peggy Lee, Amanda Palmer, and Regina Spektor, the album blended blues, jazz, traditional pop and cabaret. Later that year, Monsoon released the single "The Bacon Shake", featuring Fred Schneider of The B-52s. In 2015, she followed the album with the remix collection ReAnimated and The Inevitable Commentary Album, which featured commentary accompanying the original recordings.
Monsoon's second studio album, The Ginger Snapped, was released through Producer Entertainment Group on January 12, 2018. Marking a stylistic departure from her debut, the album drew inspiration from 1990s grunge, garage rock and ska, and featured guest appearances by Amanda Palmer, Fred Schneider and Lady Rizo. To promote the album, Monsoon released an animated music video for "Cartoons and Vodka", in which her character appeared in the styles of numerous animated series, including Betty Boop, The Jetsons, Sailor Moon, Steven Universe, Adventure Time and Rick and Morty, among others.
Monsoon continued recording with longtime collaborator BenDeLaCreme, releasing the soundtrack album The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special in conjunction with their 2020 holiday film of the same name. A live album, Red Head Redemption, followed in 2023. Monsoon also began the astrology-inspired Virgo Odyssey project with the release of the extended play The Virgo Odyssey: Prologue in 2022, followed by The Virgo…