Heklina
Encyclopedia
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
in San Francisco's alternative drag show Trannyshack
Trannyshack
Trannyshack is a monthly drag club taking place at DNA Lounge in San Francisco. It was started by drag queen Heklina in 1996 as an offshoot of Klubstitute, and was a weekly fixture at The Stud bar in San Francisco for 12 years, drawing large crowds on a regular basis...
and beyond from 1996-present.
Heklina is half-Icelandic and named herself after the Icelandic volcano Hekla
Hekla
Hekla is a stratovolcano located in the south of Iceland with a height of . Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes; over 20 eruptions have occurred in and around the volcano since 874. During the Middle Ages, Icelanders called the volcano the "Gateway to Hell."Hekla is part of a volcanic...
. Heklina has hosted Trannyshack from the show's inception in 1996 at the STUD bar and continues to host the huge events now taking place at the DNA Lounge, all in San Francisco. It is now the longest running drag event in San Francisco, but has moved from weekly events to larger monthly events. Heklina also acts in local theater productions, most notably the S.F. Golden Girls productions (as Dorothy Zbornak) and emcees a variety of community and charitable events including the Folsom Street Fair
Folsom Street Fair
The Folsom Street Fair is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held on the last Sunday in September and caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week"...
(along with Sister Roma
Sister Roma
Sister Roma is the stage name of Michael Williams , an American drag queen and art director of gay pornography. She is a twenty-year member of San Francisco's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Inc.-Career:...
) and San Francisco Pride
San Francisco Pride
The San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a parade and festival held in June each year in San Francisco to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies...
. She also co-produces and co-hosts the Miss Trannyshack Pageant widely considered the premiere annual drag event in San Francisco that has sold out every year since inception. She was voted Community Grand Marshal of the 2004 San Francisco GLBTQ Pride Parade., and won the 2009 Pride Creativity Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to the LGBT Community. Heklina co-stars in a series of short films, the "Tran-ilogy of Terror", drag queen horror spoofs written and directed by long-time collaborator Peaches Christ
Peaches Christ
Peaches Christ is an American underground drag performer, emcee, filmmaker, and actor. Peaches currently resides in San Francisco where his Backlash Production Company and Midnight Mass movie series are based....
., and also starred in the film "Baby Jane?".
Filmography
- Filthy Gorgeous: The Trannyshack Story (2005)
- The House of Venus Show" (2006)
- Spin the Bottle (2005)
- Season of the Troll (2001)
- A Nightmare on Castro Street (2002)
- Whatever Happened to Peaches Christ? (2004)
- "Baby Jane?"
Television
- "The Cho Show" with Margaret Cho http://www.logotv.com/video/episode-7-cho-place-like-home/1651948/playlist.jhtml
- "Trauma" (2009) http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi935265561/
- "The Daily Show"
- "Playing It Straight"
- The Ricki Lake Show
- Jerry Springer
Further notes
- Sister Dana Van Iquity, "Saints Alive! Heklina and Peaches Christ Join Mother Teresa" (interview), San Francisco Bay Times, July 26, 2007. Retrieved 20 September 2009.