Wikipedia

Brooke Lynn Hytes

Not to be confused with Brooklyn Heights.

Brooke Lynn Hytes is the stage name of Brock Edward Hayhoe (born March 10, 1986),[1] a Canadian-American drag queen, ballet dancer, and television personality. After working as a dancer with Cape Town City Ballet and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Brooke Lynn Hytes achieved international recognition for competing on the eleventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race; Brooke Lynn Hytes placed second, only to winner Yvie Oddly. Brooke Lynn Hytes is the first Canadian to compete in the series.[2][3] Since 2020, Brooke Lynn Hytes has been a main judge on the spin-off series Canada's Drag Race, and is the first Drag Race contestant to become a full-time judge in the franchise.

Brooke Lynn Hytes
Brooke Lynn Hytes at RuPaul's DragCon LA, 2023
Born
Brock Edward Hayhoe

(1986-03-10) March 10, 1986 (age 38)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Citizenship
EducationNational Ballet School
Occupations
  • Drag queen
  • Ballet dancer
  • Performer
  • Television personality
  • Executive producer
Years active1999–present
Career
Former groupsCape Town City Ballet
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Known forMiss Continental
RuPaul's Drag Race
Canada's Drag Race
1 Queen 5 Queers
Websitebrookelynnhytes.com

Early life

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Hayhoe was born on March 10, 1986,[4] in Toronto. He attended high school at Etobicoke School of the Arts. When he was 15, he was accepted into the National Ballet School of Canada, where he trained for five years. As a student, he worked with the choreographers Jiri Kylian, Toer van Schayk, James Kudelka, and Rudi van Dantzig, who cast him as Death's Angel in a mounting of Four Last Songs.[5] Hayhoe danced this role in Toronto and later in Cape Town.[6]

Career

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In 2006, at 20 years old, Hayhoe moved to South Africa and joined the corps de ballet of the Cape Town City Ballet.[7][8] In 2007, he was promoted to the rank of soloist.[9] While in Cape Town, he danced several of the major classical principal male roles, including the Nutcracker Prince in The Nutcracker, Solor in La Bayadère, and Albrecht in Giselle.[6]

Hayhoe was more interested in dancing en pointe than in the traditional male roles. He moved to New York City in 2008 in order to join the drag ballet troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. He toured internationally with the Trocks for four years under the names 'Andrei Verikose', as a male dancer, and 'Vanya Verikosa', his ballerina alter ego.[10][11][12][13]

 
Brooke Lynn Hytes at RuPaul's DragCon LA in 2019

As a drag queen, Hayhoe initially tried out the names Jackie D, Carmen and Bianca. After moving back to Toronto to pursue drag full-time, he was adopted by local queen Farra N. Hyte, who named her new drag daughter Brooke Lynn Hytes. Shortly after returning to Toronto, Brooke Lynn Hytes won a local drag pageant called Queen of Halloween, and quickly began to attract attention in the Toronto drag scene.[14] Brooke Lynn Hytes began to regularly compete on the drag pageant circuit. In 2013, she won Miss Gay Toronto, Derby City Entertainer of the Year, and Miss Michigan Continental, and placed as first alternate in the National Entertainer of the Year and Miss Continental pageants on first entry. In 2014, Brooke Lynn Hytes won the prestigious Miss Continental title.[15] In 2015, Brooke Lynn Hytes accepted a residency as a performer in PLAY Dance Bar in Nashville, Tennessee.[16] She auditioned for the ninth and tenth seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race, but was unable to join either season as she did not yet have a green card.[17]

 
Brooke Lynn Hytes at RuPaul's DragCon LA, 2019

Brooke Lynn Hytes was announced to be one of fifteen contestants competing on season eleven of Drag Race on January 24, 2019.[18] She won the main challenges in episode one, five and eleven, placing in the top of a challenge a record-breaking nine times throughout the season. This is the most top 3 positions achieved by any contestant in a single season in RuPaul's Drag Race history.[19][20][21] She was in a "double-shantay" alongside Yvie Oddly in the Snatch Game episode after bombing her Celine Dion impersonation; the duo's lip sync to Demi Lovato's "Sorry Not Sorry" was lauded over by critics, and declared by many to be one of the best lip syncs in the history of the series.[22][23]

Throughout the season, Brooke Lynn Hytes developed an on-show romance with Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, dubbed "Branjie".[24][25][26] The two placed in the bottom two of episode twelve, with Brooke Lynn Hytes emerging victorious in a lip sync battle to Aretha Franklin's "A Deeper Love", making Vanessa Vanjie Mateo the last queen to be eliminated prior to the finale.[27][28][29] Brooke Lynn Hytes finished as a runner-up, ultimately losing to Yvie Oddly in the final lip sync for the crown.[30] In June 2019, Brooke Lynn Hytes was one of 37 queens to be featured on the cover of New York magazine.[31] On November 11, she won a People's Choice Award for "Most Hypeworthy Canadian".[32]

 
Brooke Lynn Hytes performing at the Toronto Drag Ball on June 22, 2019, during Pride weekend in Toronto

On September 26, 2019, Brooke Lynn Hytes was announced as a full-time judge for Canada's Drag Race, the Canadian spin-off of RuPaul's Drag Race.[33] She was the first contestant from any series in the Drag Race franchise to become a full-time judge. As of 2024, Brooke Lynn Hytes is the only judge to have appeared on all four seasons of Canada's Drag Race, as well as its spin-off, Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World. She and her fellow judges have won three Canadian Screen Awards for Best Host or Presenter in a Factual or Reality/Competition Series, in 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively.[34]

On March 25, 2021, Brooke Lynn Hytes released a single featuring Priyanka, the winner of Canada's Drag Race season one, titled "Queen of the North".[35] She has since expressed her dislike of the single, and her reluctance to release any more music.[36] In May 2021, Brooke Lynn Hytes launched a podcast with Priyanka, Famous This Week, and was announced as the host of 1 Queen 5 Queers, a reboot of 1 Girl 5 Gays, for Crave.[37] The second season of 1 Queen 5 Queers premiered in 2022.[38]

In June 2021, Brooke Lynn Hytes appeared as a "lip-sync assassin" on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, and lip-synced to the song "Miss You Much" by Janet Jackson against contestant Ra'Jah O'Hara, one of her former Drag Race competitors. The result of the lip-sync was declared a draw. In May 2022, Brooke Lynn Hytes appeared alongside Vanessa Vanjie Mateo in Bluebella's Pride Month lingerie campaign.[39]

Brooke Lynn Hytes continues to make international club appearances, and regularly tours alongside other Drag Race alumni. In 2019 she joined the Voss Events RuPaul's Drag Race Season Eleven tour, which visited seventeen cities across North America.[40] In 2020 she hosted a tour for the Canada's Drag Race season one queens, which played exclusively in drive-in venues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[41] In 2022 she hosted the Canada's Drag Race Tour again, headlined by the season two queens.[42] In 2024, she is scheduled to co-host the Canada's Drag Race Tour alongside Jaida Essence Hall, headlined by the season three and four queens.[43] In 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, Brooke Lynn Hytes joined the annual Murray & Peter tour A Drag Queen Christmas, branded as the longest-running drag queen tour in America.[44]

Personal life

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Hayhoe came out as gay when he was 18.[45] After his stint on RuPaul's Drag Race, Hayhoe moved first to Los Angeles, where he took over Bianca Del Rio's old apartment, and then to Chicago.[46][47] On May 22, 2023, via his Instagram page, Hayhoe posted a photograph showing both a Canadian and an American passport, thus confirming he had become a naturalized U.S. citizen.[48]

Titles awards

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Year Pageant Placement Ref
2013 Miss Gay Toronto Winner [49][50]
Miss Canada Ultimate Winner [51][52]
Derby City Entertainer of the Year Winner [53]
National Entertainer of the Year 1st Alternate [53]
Miss Michigan Continental Winner [53]
Miss Continental 1st Alternate [53]
2014 Miss All Star Continental Winner [53][54]
Miss Continental Winner [53]
2015 Miss Gay Orlando Winner [53][55]
2016 Miss Sweetheart International Winner [56]
2017 Miss Gay Heart of America 1st Alternate [53]
2018 Miss Gay America 1st Alternate [53]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2014 Seek Drag Queen Movie [57]
2020 The Queens Herself Documentary [58]
2021 The Bitch Who Stole Christmas Kitty Meow Movie

Music videos

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Year Title Artist Role
2016 "Receiver" Ice Cream Herself
2020 "Good as Hell (Brazilian version)" Lizzo
2020 "Always (Drag Star Official Video)" George Michael, Mary J. Blige, Waze & Odyssey, Tommy Theo
2020 "Hype" Yvie Oddly (ft. Vanessa Vanjie Mateo)
2020 "Drag Queens" Monique Samuels
2021 "G.A.P (Official Video)" Heidi N Closet (ft. Widow Von Du)
2021 "Queen of the North" Brooke Lynn Hytes (ft. Priyanka)

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
2015 OUTspoken Biography Herself Guest (Episode: "Snow Queen: An Exposé of Drag in Canada")
2018 Ozzy & Jack's World Detour Herself Guest (Episode: "Grand Ole Osbournes")
2019 RuPaul's Drag Race Contestant Season 11, Runner-up (14 episodes)
RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked Herself Season 10 (12 episodes)
2020–present Canada's Drag Race Host Season 1 – present; also Main judge
2021 RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Herself Season 6, Guest/"Lip Sync Assassin" (Episode 2: "The Blue Ball")
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars: Untucked Herself Season 3 (Episode 2)
2021–2022 1 Queen 5 Queers Host Also Executive producer
2022 Trixie Motel Herself Guest (Episode 8: "Pride Grand Opening")
RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race[59] Herself Season 2, Mentor/"Queen Supreme" (8 episodes)
2022–present Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World[60] Host Season 1 – present; also Main judge

Web series

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Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2016 US of Aurora Herself Episodes 1, 3, 4, 6 [61]
2019 Follow Me Episode: "Mayhem Miller" [62]
Whatcha Packin' Guest [63]
Countdown to the Crown Season 11 [64]
Queen to Queen With Yvie Oddly, Nina West [65]
Ca$tmate$ for Ca$h Guest with A'keria Davenport [66]
2020–23 The Pit Stop Guest [67][68]
2020 TERRELL: Drunk Games with Brooke Lynn Hytes! Guest [69]
2021 Out of the Closet Episode: "Home of the Queen of the North" [47]

Discography

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Singles

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Year Title
2021 "Queen of the North" (featuring Priyanka or The Cast of Canada's Drag Race Season 2)

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Work Results Ref.
2019 People's Choice Awards Most Hypeworthy Canadian Herself Won [32]
2020 The Queerties Future All-Star Herself Nominated [70]
2021 Canadian Screen Awards Best Host or Presenter, Factual or Reality/Competition Canada's Drag Race Won [71]
2022 Canadian Screen Awards Best Host or Presenter, Factual or Reality/Competition Canada's Drag Race Won [72]
2023 Canadian Screen Awards Best Host or Presenter, Factual or Reality/Competition Canada's Drag Race Won [73]
2024 Canadian Screen Awards Best Host or Presenter, Factual or Reality/Competition Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World Won [74]

References

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  3. ^ Entertainment, P. M. N. (January 24, 2019). "Brooke Lynn Hytes becomes first Canadian 'RuPaul's Drag Race' competitor | National Post". National Post. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  4. ^ "Brooke Lynn Hytes on Instagram: "Birthday girl in that @fashionnova fit ❤️"". Instagram. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  5. ^ "Hayhoe's certainly not dragging his feet". IOL. October 3, 2006. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
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  48. ^ Instagram: I've waited a really long time for this. 🇨🇦🥹🇺🇸
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  66. ^ CA$TMATE$ FOR CA$H: Brooke Lynn Hytes and A'Keria C. Davenport, August 28, 2019, retrieved February 6, 2020
  67. ^ "The Pit Stop S1 E10 | Trixie & Brooke Lynn Hytes Recap the Finale | Canada's Drag Race". YouTube. September 23, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
  68. ^ "The Pit Stop S15 E08 🏁 | Bianca Del Rio & Brooke Lynn Hytes Judge! | RuPaul's Drag Race S15". YouTube. February 18, 2023. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  69. ^ "Drunk Game with Brooke Lynn Hytes !". Youtube. October 15, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
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  74. ^ Mullen, Pat (May 30, 2024). "Mr. Dressup Leads Canadian Screen Awards Documentary TV Winners". Point of View Magazine. Retrieved June 10, 2024.
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