Drag legend Murray Hill has been at the cutting edge of queer culture since the mid-1990s. In 2005, a profile in The New York Times called him “the leader of the downtown world,” noting that Hill’s performances regularly attracted celebrity guests like John Waters, Liza Minnelli, Alan Cumming, Joan Rivers, Boy George, and Fran Drescher.
It took nearly 30 years for Hill, an actor, entertainer, host, and comedian, to star in mainstream projects such as Hulu’s Life & Beth, Prime Video’s Jackpot!, HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, and CBS’s Elsbeth. The latter, Hill says, was his broadcast TV debut as an actor. “It’s exciting, especially in our current climate, that I just played a man named Henry who’s an Italian tour guide.”
As “Mr. Showbiz” gears up to host and judge the inaugural season of King of Drag — a drag king reality competition series on Revry — he gets candid about the challenges that came with pitching the project.
“I wanted to do the show for a long time, but producers and executives just didn’t understand it,” Hill says. “They understood the global phenomenon of [RuPaul’s Drag Race], but when it came to drag kings, it’s like they never had any point of reference. ‘What’s a drag king?’ they’d ask. ‘What is this even like?’”
“You’ve got to love show business,” Hill chuckles. “Over the last 20 years, twice a year, I’d hear, ‘Oh, we want to do this show.’ But it never materialized into anything, even as Drag Race gained momentum. My initial approach for this show with drag kings was never about me being on it. I could be a guest judge or a celebrity step-in, maybe.”
So, what changed?
Hill says, “I’ve personally known RuPaul and the guys that run World of Wonder for a long time. They’ve made it clear that [Drag Race] is a show for drag queens, and I just didn’t want the kings to be clamoring to get crumbs to be on a show that, first of all, doesn’t book them. I’ve always told myself, ‘If you don’t see yourself represented, then go out and represent yourself.’”
“I’m empowered enough in my 50s, after being on all these shows, to now do our own show. To create a platform for drag kings to feel empowered,” he notes. “We’re not going to crawl and tell internet blogs how pissed we are about this or that. Let’s make our own thing. Let’s show kings in their glorious, diverse, expansive representation.”
He recalls getting an email from Revry CEO and cofounder Damian Pelliccione announcing that Hill had won the 2023 QueerX Award for Drag Artist of the Year. They eventually scheduled a meeting in which Hill pitched this idea of a competition series featuring drag kings. And to Hill’s surprise, Pelliccione had also set up that meeting to discuss making a drag king competition show.
King of Drag is a series “25 years in the making,” Hill says, proudly boasting that “several hundred people” applied to be in season 1. “This isn’t just a passion project,” he explains. “I feel a personal responsibility to push myself through, to keep going, and to deal with all the obstacles and rejections along the way so I can then bring everyone up with me. It’s my social responsibility to the community to be this senior person.”
Hill says that even in the best of circumstances, the kings “can be the token of a drag queen lineup.”
“They might get into a live show, but there’ll only be one. I don’t know if the drag king community has felt empowered to make our own show with us as the stars,” he says. “If you feel disenfranchised and no one says that you can do this, then you stay underground.”
The King of Drag contestants will be judged on different kinds of talents, “and that includes lip-synching, singing, acting, comedy,” Hill says. “But it’s not just lip-synching — we’re crafting challenges for kings to showcase a performance element and a presentation.”
The series will feature 10 kings tested on “kingly skills,” including performance, craftiness, comedy, makeup, and more, according to Revry. The challenges have been created “from elements of the drag king community. So not a lip-synch battle, but something else,” Hill says. King of Drag will also feature interview segments that draw on Hill’s experiences hosting pageants like the Miss Lez Pageant and Mr. Transman.
Though King of Drag and RuPaul’s Drag Race are different shows, it stands out that RuPaul was on the verge of turning 50 when the first season of Drag Race aired. Hill, in his early 50s, is also getting started with King of Drag as a brand-new project. “They say that RuPaul is the mother of drag, but I don’t think I can say that I’m the daddy of drag,” Hill says, laughing. “Maybe I’m the granddaddy or the father?”
Hill is aware of his position in the LGBTQ+ community and the responsibility that this show will carry for drag kings who “don’t have an ‘economy’ yet.” Nonetheless, he won’t “beg for a seat at the table.”
“I’ll make my own table,” Hill declares.”
This article is part of The Advocate's July/Aug 2025 issue, which hits newsstands July 1. Support queer media and subscribe— or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting June 19.
