Drag Race winner Tia Kofi: ‘I’m a member of the Green Party. I have cats. I’m invested in nature’

Most kids have big dreams. They want to be film stars, pop stars, footballers, vets, firemen and writers. Drag star Tia Kofi had a big dream too. From around the age of 10, she wanted to be Davina McCall. She had pictured herself as a contestant in the Big Brother house before then, but she later decided that the presenter had more fun on the show.

“When I first saw Big Brother, when I was too young to watch Big Brother, I told my sister, who is 12 years older than me: ‘When I’m 18, I’m going to apply.’ She said: ‘No, no, no. Get a real job first and then you can apply.’ That turned into: ‘Wait, I don’t want to be a contestant. I want to be Davina. She gets to do all the good bits.’ I think that steered me.

“Eventually I did end up on a reality TV show, so sorry to my sister. I didn’t take her advice.”

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A two-time star of RuPaul’s Drag Race, featuring on the second and “arguably most iconic” season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and winning the second series of RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs. the World, Tia Kofi is now very much in the spotlight. She featured on a string of TV quiz shows over the festive season, winning Celebrity Mastermind and The Finish Line. 

She is among those queens and kings keeping drag firmly in the mainstream, on the screens of millions across Britain, at a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under threat worldwide.

“People have become so polarised. It’s nice to have a few of us drag performers on screens,” Kofi says. “But it has always been there. I feel like people have just deleted the memory of Lily Savage or Dame Edna from their minds. Lily Savage was hosting mainstream BBC television the entire time I was growing up. There is this need to refresh and remind people that all sorts of people exist and it’s fine.”

LGBT History Month, celebrated in February, is a time to commemorate the past lives of people in the community and the changes they have made. It is also a time when corporations slap a rainbow banner on their websites in a way that can feel performative.

“It’s so important to have a focus on marginalised groups. LGBT History Month and Black History Month are so important to me and personal as someone who has intersectional identity. But obviously, for me, that’s the entire year. It’s really interesting to see how things get a spotlight at certain periods of time, particularly from corporate organisations. Sometimes that can slip for the rest of the year.”

Tia Kofi is speaking to the Big Issue to promote a campaign with charity On the Edge, which is helping conservationists protect the endangered giant armadillo. They have partnered with Bob the Drag Queen to create a song and music video about the species, promoted by queens like Kofi in the hope that it will encourage young people to connect with nature.

Is it a random combination? Kofi doesn’t think so. “I’m a member of the Green Party. I have two cats. I’m really invested in the natural world. I was like: this is literally me. This is drag in combination with an important message about the environment.

“There are these amazing creatures out in the world that people don’t know that much about and that do a lot for the ecosystem around them and create their own mini eco-system. It was interesting to learn about them and put that message out there so more people can learn about this animal.”

Drag has always been a force for good, Kofi adds. “People know the story of Stonewall and the drag queens and kings who were heavily involved in that. To me, it is so important. When you have this involvement in a subculture that’s almost outside of the mainstream, it clues your mind into how people perceive marginalised groups. 

“Off the back of RuPaul’s Drag Race, we’ve been given this platform and there is a responsibility to use it for positive change inside the queer community and outside.”

Growing up, Tia Kofi (whose off-stage name is Lawrence Bolton) immersed herself in extracurricular activities. “I was involved in everything. I did model United Nations. I did debating competitions. I was an RAF cadet because my grandad was in the RAF. I was in the first orchestra, even though I couldn’t play an instrument, but I knew rhythm. I can learn percussion on the fly, sure. Two choirs. I did a school play. Everything I could possibly do, I did, and I maybe let the academics slip a little bit in favour of that. 

“It was always my thing to want to get involved in as much as possible and learn as much as I can. And I think that is a wonderful thing about drag is that it isn’t one thing. It’s such a form of entertainment in general. You can be a dancer, a singer, you can lip sync, you can host, you can do all sorts of things. So I’m really glad I found that. I can see the link between me, aged 10 years old, telling my sister that when I grow up I want to be Davina McCall.”

Kofi discovered she loved drag when performing in a musical Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens, in which she played a drag role. She admits that she felt “uneasy” at first because it was out of her comfort zone. “Everyone thought it was amazing. And I looked terrible. Let me tell you for a fact, I looked dreadful, but everyone in the group was like: ‘Wow, this is so amazing.’ It was very empowering,” she recalls.

“I think that probably the biggest misconception about me is that I am quite a confident person. Particularly on TV appearances, I’m winning a quiz show or I’m on Drag Race and I’m chatting back to the judges and making them laugh. Mama, that all comes from a place of constant anxiety. I need to fill the silence. Or I’ve got to do well at this quiz because I enjoy a little game of Trivial Pursuit. Not all drag performers are really confident and over the top.

“Sometimes it is a little bit of a disguise. It’s sort of like, Clark Kent takes off his glasses and suddenly he’s Superman, although I never really understood how Lois Lane didn’t figure that out, cause it’s not a very good design. It’s a pair of glasses. It is that sort of shift. A lot of people say it’s like armour, but I think it’s more of a superhero costume.”

After her first stint in a drag role, Kofi entered a national competition Drag Idol. Too nervous to do it alone, she convinced friends from the musical Pixie Polite (who also went on to star in Drag Race UK) and Woe Addams to join her and create a group called The Vixens. That year of Drag Idol, Sum Ting Wong from season one of Drag Race UK came third, The Vixens came second, and Danny Beard, who won season four of Drag Race UK, came first.

That propelled Kofi to continue with the pursuit of drag stardom. She admits her audition tape for season one of Drag Race UK was “terrible” because it was what she thought producers wanted to see instead of reflecting her true personality. So she spent a year working hard convincing bars to have viewing parties which she could host, in the hope of being noticed by producers, and she secured a spot on the second season with an audition tape in which she wore a Beanie Baby from a McDonald’s Happy Meal on her head.

But Drag Race was a difficult experience at times. It was the pandemic and they had to have a seven month break during filming. “It was really hard, especially as my mum was shielding at that point because she was very unwell. But I was like: ‘I have to go back and finish it.’ And the season was so well received. I think we were very fortunate with the timing and fortunate to have an incredible cast of people.”

Kofi’s mother died in June 2022, and she has struggled with grief over the last few years.

“It’s such a difficult thing to go through. And I feel like people always get that advice that like the grief is always there, but the jar around the ball gets bigger and you build a life around it. Sometimes it crops up in different ways. I cried over an Instagram reel from the Rugrats the other day because it just reminded me of my mum,” Kofi says.

“She was a great person. Growing up, I never got the sense of sort of any difficulties that she’d been through or any pain. She was very positive and uplifting and caring about other people. She was always involved in sort of charitable things and worked with homeless people in the area that we grew up in,” she adds.

“But then later , I realised that she had lived through a genocide in Nigeria. And never once did I catch a glimpse of that growing up. And I find that so inspiring, to live through something so awful and still have that care and compassion for others. It’s something I want to carry with me and I hope I’m able to continue.”

If she could relive a day in her life again, Kofi says she would spend a day with her mum, dad and sister. It wouldn’t have to be a particular day. Perhaps when something fun happened at school or they went on holiday in the UK. There was one time she remembers when they went to a pancake place by a lake, and she had her first ever savoury pancake filled with ham and cheese. It was an exciting experience, although she is keen to stress she is now vegan.

Kofi has also experienced the loss of close friends and fellow queens in recent years. “We lost Cherry Valentine from my original season of Drag Race and a year ago lost The Vivienne who’s a very close friend and just an incredible person. I think it is very true that you build around it and find your ways to remind yourself of those people. I think I’m fortunate that the people that I’ve lost were so impactful in my life and such incredible people that I can carry them with me throughout and bring that into my drag.”

In the final lip sync of UK vs the World, Kofi recreated a favourite picture of her mum from when she was around 20. She borrowed a wig from her drag sister Woe Addams, and she felt as though her biological family and queer family were with her in that moment.

“I worked so hard in between the two seasons to improve what I needed to to get back and win it. And I did go back and win. But the second time was very difficult because the vibe had shifted. You could sense this difference in how people were on social media. It was much more aggressive, much more negative. There were death threats and racist comments. 

“So it was different. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m so proud of myself for being able to make these adjustments and receive the criticism and improve and win that season. It’s great because it means that I get to work hard and use my platforms for all sorts of things that I advocate for, including the giant armadillo and many other things. I’m really proud of myself to be able to have this platform and use my voice.”

Giant Armadillo is available to stream on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music. To find out more, visit On the Edge.

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