--- title: RuPaul's Drag Race: Meet Bob the Drag Queen description: The reigning champ of RuPaul's Drag Race speaks canonical: https://time.com/4476523/rupauls-drag-race-bob-the-drag-queen/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-13T18:26:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:09.118Z og:title: Meet Bob the Drag Queen, the Reigning Champ of RuPaul's Drag Race og:description: "Drag Race is giving a real name and a real face to real people." og:url: https://time.com/4476523/rupauls-drag-race-bob-the-drag-queen/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c2b4b45d61cd703/6988a49b8e0601516e467546/bob-the-drag-queen-rupaul-drag-race.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Drag Race Season 8 Finale Party og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet Bob the Drag Queen, the Reigning Champ of RuPaul's Drag Race twitter:description: "Drag Race is giving a real name and a real face to real people." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c2b4b45d61cd703/6988a49b8e0601516e467546/bob-the-drag-queen-rupaul-drag-race.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bob the Drag Queen Knew He Was Going to Win _RuPaul's Drag Race_ the Moment He Was Cast > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2a432c1b-488d-4d7b-b0a8-f870c8497e8a&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 13, 2016 6:26 PM UTC  Bob The Drag Queen (C) onstage being crowned winner of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 8 by Shangela Laquifa Wadly and Violet Chachki during RuPaul's Drag Race Season 8 Finale Party at Stage 48 on May 16, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images) Bob The Drag Queen (C) onstage being crowned winner of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 8 by Shangela Laquifa Wadly and Violet Chachki during RuPaul's Drag Race Season 8 Finale Party at Stage 48 on May 16, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images) Santiago Felipe—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 13, 2016 6:26 PM UTC Before Bob the Drag Queen became the reigning champion of [_RuPaul’s Drag Race_](http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/03/rupauls-drag-race-contestant-sahara-davenport-dead-at-27/), this drag queen extraordinaire was a stand-up comedian and actor known as Christopher Caldwell. The season eight winner is defined by his unapologetically political and high-energy drag performances, and recently released a single called “[Purse First](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuogbfF6VR8).” His win on _Drag Race_ comes full circle, since the premiere season of the show was what inspired Bob to pursue drag in the first place. Here, he discusses performance and how drag helps create art and [blur gender lines](http://time.com/tag/gender/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4476523/rupauls-drag-race-bob-the-drag-queen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4476523/rupauls-drag-race-bob-the-drag-queen/"},"headline":"Bob the Drag Queen Knew He Was Going to Win RuPaul's Drag Race the Moment He Was Cast","datePublished":"2016-09-13T18:26:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:09.118Z","description":"The reigning champ of RuPaul's Drag Race speaks","url":"https://time.com/4476523/rupauls-drag-race-bob-the-drag-queen/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","entertainment","celebrity","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c2b4b45d61cd703/6988a49b8e0601516e467546/bob-the-drag-queen-rupaul-drag-race.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c2b4b45d61cd703/6988a49b8e0601516e467546/bob-the-drag-queen-rupaul-drag-race.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Drag Race Season 8 Finale Party","caption":"Drag Race Season 8 Finale Party","creditText":"Santiago Felipe—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4476523/rupauls-drag-race-bob-the-drag-queen/","name":"Bob the Drag Queen Knew He Was Going to Win RuPaul's Drag Race the Moment He Was Cast"}}]}] ```