Meet: Banksie
Interview: Ella Kenneally
Banksie @therealbanksie
Photography: Nathan Selighini @edith_fiak @nathanselighini Dress: Paul Aaron @paulaaronknitwear
Wig: @florencias_wigs
Banksie isn’t just a drag artist, they’re a force of nature. With a background in fine art and filmmaking, they bring a striking blend of fashion, storytelling, and community to everything they do. From that unforgettable Drag Race UK lip-sync to curating runway nights that have championed hundreds of Northern designers, Banksie has built a platform that uplifts others as muchas it celebrates their own artistry. After overcoming setbacks and taking charge with a self-made Australian tour, they’re now stepping into a new chapter with their own production company - proof that resilience, vision, and a lot of nerve can turn drag into destiny.
Can you remember the moment you first felt that drag was more than just a passion - that it could become your career and your life’s path?
I think that the first time I recognised it being more than just a passion and more of a career was probably when I saw other people doing it. I watched people in my life who had, you know, brought me up in the world of drag, brought me up in the partysphere, really do more with their platform and create more. It wasn’t just in club land anymore, people were doing things at the science industry museum in Manchester or they were doing stuff at theatres and all those places and drag wasn’t just something to be seen in the dark, and I thought, ‘oh this can be sort of played out to be something that really sticks with my identity as an artist’.
Standing at around seven feet in heels, and with a background in fine art from Manchester School of Art, how did your stature and education shape the creation of your iconic drag and supermodel persona?
So first, I actually went to the fine arts school but I did filmmaking as my degree. I’m a very much a visual medium kind of person. I always have been. I was already doing drag when I went to art school in Manchester. I remember, oh, before we went in for that first ever sort of lecture at uni, they asked us to like create a piece over the summer about what we wanted to make or what was our art. I remember I took in a film, it was me painted in greyscale and covered in purple smoke - it was me and Drag, and I played it for all these people and I loved doing it, but it was a really interesting thing to see how like, I think from the moment I did school, you know, my art was always linked to drag and linked to gender identity and linked to the issues facing our community as queer people. Um the height was just something that I had to combat [laughs]. Everyone comments on the height but l l love being tall, I manage to get really nice things off really big shelves [laughs].
You’ve worked alongside some incredible drag artists, including Cheddar Gorgeous. How have those creative relationships influenced your evolution as a performer and the way you approach your art?
A lot of artists or like drag queens in general will usually say that ‘oh, I did it myself, I did this all by myself’, but really it has taken a village to make Banksie, well, make Banksie into what Banksie is now. I think that, what I used to be, would never have reached these heights, unless I had such amazing influences from a great collective of artists. I always say, I actually said this on my drag race tape, that I’m not just one drag queen, I am, you know, 20 drag queens inside one body. And I still think that - because those people have all influenced the things I do, whether that’s just through tips or through morals in my identity. For example, Anna Phylactic, Cheddar Gorgeous and Liquorice Black and Lill, as well as Narcissa Nightshade, all welcomed me into the drag lab when I was 19 years old, and the drag lab was a space - an art curated studio space for drag queens in Salford - and it was really just them and it took a lot of risk to invite this nineteen year old in. And they did. And I learned so much and I made so many mistakes. I annoyed them - it was like having an annoying puppy around probably half the time. But you really learn from the example of how they behave artistically and professionally, of how I’m supposed to do the same and l’ve definitely taken that on and I do think I’m wiser past my years and more educated past my years due to my influence from other artists. I’m very very grateful.
You’ve hosted runway events at Manchester’s Firehouse, and your recent shows are described as unforgettable spectacles. What’s your secret to turning a drag performance into a full-blown fashion runway experience?
Runway was an amazing way to start my curation career. Runway was a vision that we had about bringing back the the form of observational fashion that was in the 2000s where, you know, you’d have a runway walk met with a tight roper, met with a circus entertainer, met with a fire breather, with every fashion inbetween everything. The famous John Galliano show for Dior in I think 2002, where there was a child on top of an umbrella, balancing right between the runway - it’s one of my favourite runways of all time and it’s kind of what inspired the show itself. Since doing it at Firehouse, we’ve been able to showcase, I think, 200 designers over the 2 years we were working there, and then from that, we showed the Vivian Westwood archive, we showed some people who have now gone on to do amazing things and we’ve built the event up into what it is now, which is you know, a once a year, huge runway event where we created the Manchester Fashion Fund to basically invest in new and up and coming Northern designers to create their amazing collections. Those collections then get showcased at Manchester Pride on the stage and it’s a beautiful, beautiful experience, one of my favourite nights at pride. So, I think it’s about seeing something that you want to showcase and finding any way to make it happen. That’s what makes a good events curator and that’s what makes an amazing event - when you feel the soul in it.
Photography: Banksie @therealbanksie
Wearing: BELLADONIS @belladonis_oek & Punkture @punkture_design
On Drag Race UK, you left a lasting impression - especially with that iconic lip‑sync to “I Dreamed a Dream.” How did it feel to step onto that stage, and did it reveal anything new about your artistic ambitions?
Oh, good question. Drag Race was really a moment in time, I think, where I went in thinking I knew everything about myself and then came out really with so many more questions and so many more things to say about myself. I discovered more about myself while I was there. That famous, I dreamed the dream number, felt amazing to do. It’s still one of my favourite numbers that l’ve ever done. It was just raw. It felt raw to me to perform that kind of number in front of RuPaul, a number that is about standing still, and even if I didn’t go through, I know it left that lasting impression which is amazing. I think coming out of Drag Race, the one thing that really stuck was the fact that the charisma and nerve and talent is real. You do need that to win the show, and at the time of my life, I think I did have charisma, I did have uniqueness, I did have talent but the nerve was lacking. I think there were opportunities where I could have shown my nerve more and if I ever had the opportunity to go back, that would be the thing that I would go into more is, you know, confidence, nerve, showing who I am on a much larger scale.
In April, you shared a powerful reflection on taking control of your own destiny - organising your own tour in Australia just two years after facing health challenges and personal struggles. What did that journey teach you about resilience and self-worth, and how has stepping into your own power reshaped your outlook on success in the drag world and beyond?
Thank you that’s a lovely question. I probably would answer that by saying, if you didn’t know, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK would usually, in the April following your season release, get like a tour and that had happened for like 4 years, and our season five didn’t. We were the first season not to get that tour. And it was quite crushing you know, you thought you were about to go and travel the UK and and do that amazing tour. Luckily I ended up doing one with a panto instead, but I remember sitting there thinking and waiting and being like oh when’s the tour coming? When’s this coming? when’s the event coming? When’s all the opportunities coming? I’ve just been on Drag Race and l’ve done quite well, and then nothing And I had this sort of big light bulb moment where I went ‘I can’t allow someone else to control my life or another company or another person to make my career what I want it to be’. And so through my amazing cabaret collective and a cabaret show that l’ve been running for the last four years - Misschief Cabaret, which is @misschief_cabaret on Instagram for when you want to tag that [laughs] - it made me realise that I could put on my own shows and make my own money and create my own career in events curation.
Then it turned out that I could go to Australia and I luckily met an Australian person, an amazing person in my life and was like, you know what, I want to go and experience this on that side the world. It all lined up and with the help of some amazing people in Australia, other performers, who were able to help me, I had the ability to write my own story, create my own tour. If you look at the poster, it says, ‘Banksie did this all on her own’, or whatever I put, but I did do it on my own. I didn’t have any help from agents, I didn’t have any help from, you know, any corporate side of the entertainment industry. It was all done with people one on one to make this happen with me. I think that was amazing to be in charge, and decide my own destiny. And I love doing that. I loved that tour. It was one of the best, best experiences of my life. I’ll write it in the diary one day. In the memoirs! I think the journey really taught me about myself in terms of, I have control to make my own destiny. I have control to make my own opportunities. No one’s going to be out there handing you stuff. Manifestation is real. And you know manifestation is two terms; you can either say it enough that it happens or you say it enough to make it happen for yourself. And I think that’s incredibly important.
You’ve already carved such a bold and original path - what’s next for you? Are there any upcoming projects, dream collaborations, or creative territories you’re excited to explore?
What’s next? Well, in October, we’re releasing something really, really exciting. I’ll be releasing my new production and entertainment company which l’m really excited about. I think you’re getting the exclusive [laughs], but it’s called Cobra Entertainment, and it’s going to basically create so many more opportunities for artists hopefully. What I found working in industry for so many years, you know it’s nearly a decade now, is that agencies, although are brilliant and they get opportunities, but no one works better for an artist in a corporate capacity than another artist. I think that I have worked some of the best jobs of my life when the managers of those jobs have been other artists who have worked as artists. I just wanted to create a company that was about artists providing for other artists in a co-op system. So l don’t ask for exclusivity. I don’t ask you to give me any of your money, you know, everything that is my agency fee is on top of what you already get. So, we’re not slicing people’s fees to pay off agencies. It’s about being a part of something that gets you more work and maybe leaving it, maybe coming back and nothing’s permanent and you know, it’s a really exciting opportunity to be making more events and more art and I don’t really know what it’s going to look like and that’s the exciting thing, and maybe I’ll be doing residency in the New Year somewhere, exciting as well, so that’s also on the cards. So a lot’s happening!
I’m going to need a holiday! [laughs]
Photography: Jody Hartley @jodyhartley_photos for Homobloc 2024
