Bianca Del Rio

Roy R. Haylock, known professionally as Bianca Del Rio, is an American drag queen, comedian, actor, and costume designer. Haylock achieved wide public recognition after winning the sixth season of the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race. Beyond television, Haylock has built a career through international stand-up comedy tours, theatrical productions, feature films, and authoring a book.

Haylock was born on June 27, 1975, in Gretna, Louisiana, and raised in a Catholic household as the fourth of five children. His heritage includes Cuban descent on his mother's side and Honduran background on his father's side. While attending West Jefferson High School, Haylock began acting and creating theatrical costumes. Following high school, Haylock briefly relocated to New York City, working at Bloomingdale's for nine months prior to returning to Louisiana.

Haylock's professional career began in New Orleans during his teenage years as a theatrical costume designer. At age 17, his work on Snow Queen earned a Big Easy Entertainment Award, marking the first of six wins out of 13 total career costume design nominations, which included work for the New Orleans Opera. In 1996, after performing in the play Pageant, Haylock entered the drag scene and began appearing at the local nightclub Oz. Haylock earned the title of New Orleans Gay Entertainer of the Year for three consecutive years and served as a co-grand marshal for Southern Decadence in 2001. Relocating to New York City following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Haylock designed costumes for dance, opera, and theatre while establishing a presence in drag, cabaret, and comedy roasts.

In late 2013, Haylock was announced as a contestant on season six of RuPaul's Drag Race. Throughout the competition, Haylock achieved a historic record by never placing in the bottom or low positions in any challenge and never performing a lip sync for elimination. Haylock won the crown in May 2014 over co-finalists Adore Delano and Courtney Act, becoming the first contestant of Hispanic background to win the American series. Following the victory, Haylock returned to the franchise through several guest appearances, video messages, and host roles on associated media.

Haylock's post-Drag Race career encompasses prominent work across live comedy, theatre, and film. Stand-up tours include shows such as The Rolodex of Hate, Not Today Satan, Blame It On Bianca Del Rio, and It's Jester Joke, the latter of which made Haylock the first drag performer to headline Wembley Arena. In theatre, Haylock played retired drag queen Hugo Battersby in London's West End production of Everybody's Talking About Jamie, later reprising the role in UK and North American tours, and was cast as Madame Pernelle in an off-Broadway staging of Tartuffe. In film, Haylock starred as schoolteacher Richard Martinez and Bianca Del Rio in the comedies Hurricane Bianca and its 2018 sequel.

Additional achievements include hosting the international Werq the World tour, publishing the 2018 book Blame It On Bianca Del Rio, serving as a judge on the series Drag Me to Dinner, and co-crafting a bonus crossword puzzle for The New York Times. In 2019, New York magazine ranked Haylock first on its list of the most powerful drag queens in America.