Victoria "Porkchop" Parker
{{Short description|American drag queen and actor}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Victoria "Porkchop" Parker
| image = Victoria Porkchop Parker DSC04233 (33534503681) (cropped).jpg
| alt =
| caption = Victoria "Porkchop" Parker in 2017
| birth_name = Victor Ray Bowling
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1970|1|16}}
| birth_place = Anderson, South Carolina, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| other_names =
| occupation = {{Flatlist|
- Drag queen
- actor
}}
| years_active =
| known_for = {{flatlist|
}}
| notable_works =
}}
Victoria "Porkchop" Parker is the stage name of Victor Ray Bowling (born 16 January 1970),{{cite journal |last1=Ferber |first1=Lawrence |title=The Other White Meat |url=https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2008/12/25/other-white-meat |access-date=February 23, 2019 |journal=The Advocate |date=December 25, 2008}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/146568313:62209 |title=Victor Ray Bowling |website=Ancestry Institute |publisher=Ancestry |access-date=November 12, 2022}}{{Cite web|title=Victoria Porkchop Parker: Exposed (The Full Audio Interview) | website=YouTube |url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AcIWAtZRE5k&feature=youtu.be |language=en|date=January 10, 2023|access-date=July 13, 2023}} an American drag performer and actor who came to international attention on the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race. She is notable in part for being the first contestant ever eliminated in the history of the franchise. Parker has also appeared elsewhere on television in and out of drag, and she has also served as a backup dancer for Miley Cyrus.{{Cite magazine |last=Daw |first=Stephen |date=August 18, 2018 |title=Porkchop Reveals 'Drag Race' Post-Elimination Drama & Hopes for an 'All Stars' Return |magazine=Billboard |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8470556/victoria-porkchop-parker-drag-race-rupaul |access-date=July 18, 2019}}
Parker has been deemed one of the show's most successful and recognizable drag queens.{{Cite magazine |last=Ferber |first=Lawrence |date=December 25, 2008 |title=The Other White Meat |magazine=Advocate |url=https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2008/12/25/other-white-meat |access-date=February 28, 2022}}{{Cite news|url=https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/rupaul-drag-race-most-successful-queens-1202715507/|title='RuPaul's Drag Race' at 10: Launching the Next Wave of Drag Superstars|last=Turchiano|first=Danielle|date=March 16, 2018|work=Variety|access-date=March 24, 2018|language=en-US}} Although finishing last on his season of Drag Race, Parker has won over 100 pageants in her career as a drag queen and has toured internationally. She has frequently appeared as a guest on later seasons of Drag Race as Parker, with RuPaul often explicitly paying her homage due to her position as the first eliminated queen in the show's history.
Early life
Bowling was born in Anderson, South Carolina, and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He attended E.E. Smith High School.{{cite news |last1=Hutson |first1=Beth |title=Victoria "Porkchop" Parker: From Fayetteville to "Drag Race" stardom |url=https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20180623/victoria-porkchop-parker-from-fayetteville-to-drag-race-stardom |access-date=February 23, 2019 |work=The Fayetteville Observer |date=June 23, 2018}} During his childhood, he attended youth theater at Cape Fear Regional Theater, and also partook in show choir. He was kicked out of his parents' home for being gay.{{Cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/drag-race-legend-porkchop-shares-her-words-of-wisdom_us_59364c78e4b033940169cd94|title='Drag Race' Legend Porkchop Shares Her Words of Wisdom|date=June 6, 2017|website=HuffPost|language=en-US|access-date=March 7, 2018}}
Career
= Pageants =
Parker began performing in drag for the first time on January 16, 1987, her seventeenth birthday. She accompanied her friend to a predominantly African American local gay bar, both of them dressed in an attempt at drag, and watched a drag pageant that was occurring at the bar that night. The next month, she performed in a talent show at the bar while dressed in clothes that she had secretly borrowed from her mother and wore no wig, only showing her natural hair, which was styled "like Jessica Fletcher" (from Murder, She Wrote). Despite receiving boos, she was informed that she had potential as an entertainer. In June 1988, she became the first Caucasian person to win the club's pageant title. She started seriously competing in drag pageants in 1990, with her first being the Miss Gay USofA at Large 1990.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} Her original drag name, Victoria Renee Parker, emerged as a combination of "Victoria", a feminized version of her birth name, Victor, "Renee", a name that she simply found "very pretty" (and shared the same first initial of his birth middle name, Ray), and "Parker", a homage to 1985 Miss North Carolina Joni Bennett Parker, who was a Fayetteville native. She almost selected her name to be "Victoria Renee Bennett", still as an homage to Joni, but didn't want a situation to arise where, after a show, her co-performers would say "Oh, she’s Bennett".{{efn|”Bennett” is pronounced the same as “been it”, an expression that describes someone similar to a "has-been".}} She was known by the aforementioned name until around 1995–96, where her nickname was given to her by her drag mother, Carmella Marcella Garcia, after Parker's ability to cook the entrée of the same name. Garcia "adopted" Parker as her drag daughter after watching her compete for the title of Miss Gay North Carolina America. Parker initially reacted with disdain the first time that Garcia introduced her as "Porkchop Parker", although it eventually grew on her, and she has described it as "more memorable" than her previous drag name, and "a great gimmick". He has won over 100 pageants,{{Cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/2256541/meet-miley-vma-dancers-drag-queens/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150831110139/http://www.mtv.com/news/2256541/meet-miley-vma-dancers-drag-queens/|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 31, 2015|title=Meet All 30 of Miley's Day-Glo Dancers from Her Insane VMA Performance|publisher=MTV News|access-date=March 24, 2018|language=en}} including Miss Continental Plus 2003 and Miss'd America 2013.{{cite news |last1=Landau |first1=Joel |title=Miss Victoria 'Porkchop' Parker is Miss'd America |url=https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/miss-victoria-porkchop-parker-is-miss-d-america/article_b69a100e-2315-11e3-a6c5-0019bb2963f4.html |access-date=February 22, 2019 |work=The Press of Atlantic City |date=September 22, 2013}}{{cite news |last1=Key |first1=Michael |title=Miss'd America |url=https://www.washingtonblade.com/2013/09/26/missd-america/ |access-date=February 22, 2019 |work=Washington Blade |date=September 26, 2013}} At the time of her Miss Continental Plus win, she had been working at The Connection, a gay bar in Louisville, Kentucky, and had previously placed as first runner-up at the 1996 edition of Miss Continental Plus.
= Film and television =
Parker was in the documentary Trantasia, which documented the undergoing of The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest, and was filmed in Las Vegas. Parker was scouted for the competition and competed, despite the fact that she did not identify as transsexual. The documentary debuted in 2006. In 2008, he appeared in the documentary film Pageant with Alyssa Edwards and other queens detailing their experience on Miss Gay America.{{Cite news|url=http://worldofwonder.net/433247-2/|title=Victoria PorkChop Parker and Nina Bonina Brown Spill the T on HEY QWEEN|date=June 5, 2017|work=The WOW Report|access-date=March 7, 2018|language=en-US}}
In 2015, Parker made a minor appearance along with Chad Michaels in an episode of 2 Broke Girls.{{Cite news|url=http://www.newnownext.com/chad-michaels-and-victoria-porkchop-parker-do-primetime-tv-on-2-broke-girls/12/2015/|title=Chad Michaels and Victoria "PorkChop" Parker Do Primetime TV on "2 Broke Girls"|work=LOGO News|access-date=March 7, 2018}} He was a backup dancer with 30 other drag queens for Miley Cyrus's 2015 VMA Awards performance.
Parker was on the E! show Botched (Season 3, episode 4) to fix the silicone problems with his nose, including a point where the skin was starting to decay.{{Cite news|url=http://www.eonline.com/shows/botched/news/768294/the-botched-doctors-help-a-patient-with-a-pork-chop-nose-remove-star-implants-on-a-patient-s-ribs-more-omg-show-moments|title=The Botched Doctors Help a Patient With a Pork Chop Nose, Remove Star Implants on a Patient's Ribs & More OMG Show Moments! on Botched|work=E! Online|access-date=March 7, 2018|language=en-US}}
== ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' ==
File:Victoria Porkchop Parker (cropped).jpg
Parker was announced as one of the nine contestants for the inaugural season of RuPaul's Drag Race on February 2, 2009. Prior to his casting, he had been hosting shows at Legends Nightclub in Raleigh, had just won Miss Gay DC, and had competed in the 2008 edition of Miss Gay America. He has been described as the season's only older and plus-sized queen.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2pjLBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA137|title=The Makeup of RuPaul's Drag Race: Essays on the Queen of Reality Shows|last=Daems|first=Jim|date=October 13, 2014|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476618869|language=en}} Parker was eliminated during the first episode, becoming the very first contestant ever eliminated in the history of the show. He was sent home by Akashia.{{cite news |last1=Megarry |first1=Dainel |title=Remember the first ever RuPaul's Drag Race lip sync for your life? |url=https://www.gaytimes.co.uk/culture/61364/rupaul-drag-race-first-season-episode-one-lip-sync/ |access-date=February 23, 2019 |work=Gay Times |date=February 2, 2017 |archive-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190224063027/https://www.gaytimes.co.uk/culture/61364/rupaul-drag-race-first-season-episode-one-lip-sync/ |url-status=dead }} Because of this, RuPaul always addresses him with "Hey Porkchop" during all of the Drag Race live reunions, starting with season 4.{{Cite magazine|url=http://ew.com/article/2012/04/30/rupauls-drag-race-reunited-rupaul-interview/|title='RuPaul's Drag Race: Reunited': A preview chat with RuPaul|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=March 7, 2018|language=en}}
Parker has been brought back on the show by RuPaul several times, in homage to being the first contestant ever eliminated.{{Cite news|url=https://www.avclub.com/a-middling-drag-race-all-stars-is-elevated-by-the-retur-1798188769|title=A middling Drag Race All Stars is elevated by the return of a fan-favorite|last=Sava|first=Oliver|work=The A.V. Club|access-date=March 24, 2018|language=en-US}} He appeared during the recap episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 2 and was featured in winning queen Alaska's rap.{{Cite news|url=http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2015/11/17/rupaul-et-25-de-ses-drag-queens-pour-son-anniversaire|title=RuPaul et 25 de ses drag queens pour son anniversaire|last=Bourgoin|first=Jean-Maxime|work=Le Journal de Montréal|access-date=March 24, 2018|language=fr-CA}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/a15856351/best-drag-queens-ru-pauls-drag-race/|title=13 "RuPaul's Drag Race" All-Stars Who Aren't in This Season|date=January 26, 2018|work=Seventeen|access-date=March 24, 2018|language=en-US}} Parker was also brought back for the first episode of season 10 of RuPaul's Drag Race to help judge the mini-challenge.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vh1.com/news/fdkyj4/rupaul-brings-back-queens-to-judge-mini-challenge|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515101634/https://www.vh1.com/news/fdkyj4/rupaul-brings-back-queens-to-judge-mini-challenge|url-status=live|archive-date=May 15, 2023|title=RuPaul Brings Back Katya, Porkchop, Kim Chi, Jujubee, Detox, and More to Help Judge the First Mini-Challenge of Season 10|publisher=VH1|access-date=March 24, 2018}} In 2019 she appeared as a guest for the first challenge in the premiere of season eleven of Drag Race posing with Soju.{{Cite web|url=https://www.goldderby.com/article/2019/rupauls-drag-race-season-11-episode-1-recap-live-blog-news/|title='RuPaul's Drag Race' 11 episode 1 recap: Which queen was sent packing on 'Whatcha Unpackin'? [UPDATING LIVE BLOG]|date=February 28, 2019|website=Goldderby|language=en|access-date=March 1, 2019}}
In the first episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 3, Vanessa Hudgens lip synced against "Porkchop", an actual pork chop, which RuPaul said was Parker.{{Cite news|url=http://www.flare.com/tv-movies/drag-race-premiere-recap/|title=The Most Gag-Worthy Moments From the Premiere of 'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 3'|date=January 26, 2018|work=Flare|access-date=March 7, 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=March 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308042948/http://www.flare.com/tv-movies/drag-race-premiere-recap/|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|url=http://instinctmagazine.com/post/rupauls-drag-race-all-stars-3-recap-night-meh-satisfying-end|title='RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 3' Recap: They're Back!|date=January 26, 2018|work=Instinct|access-date=March 24, 2018|language=en|archive-date=March 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324162440/http://instinctmagazine.com/post/rupauls-drag-race-all-stars-3-recap-night-meh-satisfying-end|url-status=dead}}
In March 2018, Variety said that Parker was one of the 10 most successful queens in their careers after the show. He has toured internationally.
As of 2018, Parker was still publicly vying for a spot on RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars.{{cite magazine |last1=Daw |first1=Stephen |title=Porkchop Reveals 'Drag Race' Post-Elimination Drama & Hopes for an 'All Stars' Return |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8470556/victoria-porkchop-parker-drag-race-rupaul |access-date=February 23, 2019 |magazine=Billboard |date=August 16, 2018}} Daniel Welsh of Huffington Post wrote "we're surprised contestants like Jessica Wild, Ongina and even Victoria "Porkchop" Parker are still sitting on the shelf, waiting to be plucked up for All Stars."{{cite news |last1=Welsh |first1=Daniel |title='RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 4' Line-Up: 6 Things To Note |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/rupauls-drag-race-all-stars-4-line-up_uk_5be59f52e4b0e84388970c1a?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=4wFNDYkvt6MuPJEvZrQKKw |access-date=February 23, 2019 |work=HuffPost |date=September 11, 2018}} Since then, both Ongina and Jessica Wild have been featured on the fifth and eighth seasons of All Stars, respectively, although Parker is yet to appear back on the show.
Personal life
Bowling was attacked at a gay bar which resulted in a gunshot wound and acid damage on his face, requiring surgery. He had silicone injections done by an unlicensed nurse in 1999, resulting in granuloma.{{Cite news|url=https://www.eonline.com/shows/botched/news/768294/the-botched-doctors-help-a-patient-with-a-pork-chop-nose-remove-star-implants-on-a-patient-s-ribs-more-omg-show-moments|title=The Botched Doctors Help a Patient With a Pork Chop Nose, Remove Star Implants on a Patient's Ribs & More OMG Show Moments!|last=Cohen|first=Jess|date=May 31, 2016|work=E! News|access-date=April 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419153532/https://www.eonline.com/shows/botched/news/768294/the-botched-doctors-help-a-patient-with-a-pork-chop-nose-remove-star-implants-on-a-patient-s-ribs-more-omg-show-moments|archive-date=April 19, 2019}} After her appearance on Drag Race, she moved to Lumberton, North Carolina, and then to Los Angeles, California.
His father died in 1993 of cancer.
Filmography
= Film =
=Television=
= Music videos =
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Title ! Artist !Ref. |
|---|
| 2020
| style="text-align: center;" | {{Citation|last=Chappell Roan|title=Chappell Roan – Pink Pony Club [Official Music Video] |date=April 3, 2020 | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR3Liudev18|access-date=April 6, 2020}} |
=Web series=
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes ! {{Tooltip|Ref.|Reference}} |
|---|
| rowspan="3" |2013
|RuPaul Drives | rowspan="7" |Herself | Guest | style="text-align: center;" | {{cite web|url=https://worldofwonder.net/rupaul-drives-victoria-porkchop-parker/|title=RuPaul Drives… Victoria PorkChop Parker|last=Asea|first=Adam|date=October 7, 2013|publisher=Worldofwonder.net}} |
| Ring My Bell
|Guest |style="text-align: center;"|{{Cite news|url=https://worldofwonder.net/victoria-porkchop-parker-on-ring-my-bell/|title=Victoria Porkchop Parker on Ring My Bell|last=Asea|first=Adam|date=August 8, 2013|work=worldofwonder.net|access-date=April 4, 2020}} |
| WOW Shopping Network
|Recurring guest |style="text-align: center;"|{{Cite news|url=https://worldofwonder.net/victoria-porkchop-parker-wow-shopping-network/|title=Victoria PorkChop Parker on WOW Shopping Network|last=Asea|first=Adam|date=November 1, 2013|work=worldofwonder.net|access-date=April 4, 2020}} |
| 2016
|The Pit Stop |Guest |
Awards and nominations
| class="wikitable sortable" |
|
! Year ! Award-giving body ! Category ! Work ! Results ! Ref. |
| style="text-align:center"|2022
| style="text-align:center"|The Queerties | style="text-align:center"|Future All-Star | style="text-align:center"|Herself | {{Nominated}} |
References
{{notelist}}
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Victoria "Porkchop" Parker}}
- {{IMDb name|3384959|Victor Bowling}}
{{RuPaul's Drag Race}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Victoria}}
Category:Miss Continental Plus winners
Category:Miss'd America winners
Category:People from Anderson, South Carolina
Category:People from Fayetteville, North Carolina
Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people
Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people
Category:People from Raleigh, North Carolina
Category:People from Lumberton, North Carolina
Category:Drag performers from Los Angeles