Katya Zamolodchikova

Katya Zamolodchikova

Katya on stage
Born Brian McCook
(1982-05-01) May 1, 1982
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation
Years active 2006–present
Known for
Awards RuPaul's Drag Race Miss Congeniality 2015
Website Official website

Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova (Russian: Екатерина Петро́вна Замоло́дчикова), also known as Katya (Russian: Катя) or Katya Zamolodchikova, is the stage persona of Brian McCook (born May 1, 1982), an American drag queen and actor from Boston, Massachusetts, known as a contestant and Miss Congeniality on the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race and a finalist on the second season of Rupaul's Drag Race All Stars.

Early life

A native of Marlborough, Massachusetts, McCook graduated from Marlborough High School and attended Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he studied video and performance art in the Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM) program, where he first became interested in drag.[1]

McCook created the Russian drag character Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova in 2006, creating the stage name from a combination of Russian names and one of his favorite gymnasts, Elena Zamolodchikova.[2] When creating his drag character, McCook stated that he was inspired by "female comedians and just funny interesting women like Tracy Ullman, Maria Bamford [and] Amy Sedaris." The Russian-based aspect of his persona, however, was inspired by a professor McCook had in college. In episode one of McCook's respective RuPaul's Drag Race season, McCook said that this professor "never left the house without a full face of makeup [with] six inch stilettos in the snow."[3] Since then, McCook went on to take several Russian courses and mastered the harsh accent of most Russians using a cassette tape called "Pronounce It Perfectly." McCook is not Russian, himself. [4]

As Katya, McCook hosted a monthly drag show called Perestroika at the Jacques Cabaret.[5]

Career

RuPaul's Drag Race

Katya had auditioned for RuPaul's Drag Race on Logo TV four times before being chosen to participate in season 7.[6] Katya won two challenges in episodes six and ten, however, was eliminated in episode 11. The decision to eliminate Katya was controversial among fans of the show.[7] During the Season 7 reunion, Katya was voted fan favorite and won the title of Miss Congeniality.

On June 17, 2016, Katya was announced as one of the cast members on the second season of RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race.[8] She lost the title to Alaska Thunderfuck, coming in as a runner-up along with Detox.

Life After Drag Race

Katya regularly performs in her hometown of Boston in several gay nightclubs. She typically performs songs of many popular Russian singers and bands, such as Alla Pugacheva, TATU, Glukoza and The Same Parts by Tatianna. Because of her performances, these songs have drawn a lot of attention in these clubs.[2] When asked what she planned on doing after the show, Katya stated that she will be doing a one-woman show, traveling the world and continuing creating new web series on her YouTube page. The one-woman show entitled, "Love Stories From My Vagina", is currently being written by Zamolodchikova and will more than likely focus on her life and daily occurrences as a drag queen. Once she finishes with this project, Katya is hoping to start a short drag-based comedy sketch show inspired by "The Kids In the Hall", but with a more "Adult Swim" background.[2] For now, Katya continues to travel the world and has had tours in Brazil and Australia with other drag queens such as Trixie Mattel and Willam Belli.

Katya has created several web series on her YouTube channel, "welovekatya", including "RuGRETs," "RuFLECTIONS", "Drag 101", and "Irregardlessly Trish", the last of which is about a Bostonian hairdresser who lives in a dumpster. Katya improvises some of her material and also writes with a creative partner, Avi Paul Weinstein.

In November 2015, Katya appeared on the Christmas Queens album, singing a modified version of the song "12 Days of Christmas".[9] Katya also has a show on YouTube with fellow Drag Race contestant Trixie Mattel called "UNHhhh".[10]

Filmography

Television

Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2015 RuPaul's Drag Race Herself (contestant) Season 7 – placed 5th, won Miss Congeniality [11]
2016 RuPaul's Drag Race Herself (in drag) Season 8, Episode 10, "Grand Finale" [12]
Gay for Play Game Show Starring RuPaul Herself (panelist) Episode 2 [13]
RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race Herself (contestant) Season 2 – Runner-Up [14]

Web series

Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2015 Untucked Herself (in drag) [15]
RuFLECTIONS Chronicling her time on RuPaul's Drag Race season 7 [16]
RuGRETS [17]
Irregardlessly Trish Trish Series following one of her alter-egos, Trish [18]
2016 I'm Not a Doctor, with Dr. Katya Herself (in drag) Produced by World of Wonder [19]
Drag 101 [20]
UNHhhh Produced by World of Wonder, with Trixie Mattel [10]
Total RuCall Chronicling her time on RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race season 2 [21]

Discography

Other appearances

Title Year Other artist(s) Album Ref.
"12 Days of Christmas" 2015 Other RuPaul's Drag Race contestants Christmas Queens [22]
"Read U Wrote U" 2016 RuPaul featuring Katya, Alaska, Detox & Roxxxy Andrews Non-album single [23]

References

  1. ↑ Infante, Victor D. "Marlboro-born performer Katya shoots for 'Drag Race' fame". telegram.com. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Andre Akimov. "His name is Katya". RUSSIAN CHICAGO MAGAZINE. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  3. ↑ "Katya Gets To Work - Video Clip from RuPaul's Drag Race | S7, E1 | LOGOTV.com". Logo TV. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  4. ↑ "'RuPaul's Drag Race': Miss Congeniality winner Katya speaks!". Entertainment Weekly's EW.com. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  5. ↑ Oliver, Maria (29 April 2011). "Night Watch: Perestroika". Boston Globe. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Juengling, Konrad (6 Mar 2015). "PQ MONTHLY GRILLS KATYA OF "RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE" SEASON 7". PQ Monthly. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  7. ↑ Fallon, Kevin. "Justice for Katya: Inside the 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 7 Finale". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  8. ↑ "RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race season 2 cast revealed — exclusive". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2016-06-27.
  9. ↑ "Queens from RuPaul's Drag Race to Release a Holiday Album: Hear One of the Tracks". People Magazine. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  10. 1 2 "Trixie Mattel And Katya Are A Laugh Riot In Their New Web Series, "UNHhhh"". Next. 25 March 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  11. ↑ "RuPaul's Drag Race recap: season seven, episode one – the devil wears nada". The Guardian. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  12. ↑ "Red Carpet Fashion: RuPaul's Drag Race Season 8 Los Angeles Finale". Qweerty. 11 May 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  13. ↑ "Gay For Play Game Show Starring RuPaul Featuring Amber Rose". Logo. 12 April 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  14. ↑ "RuPaul All Stars Announcement". Twitter. 17 June 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  15. ↑ "Untucked: RuPaul's Drag Race Episode 1 Born Naked". WOWPresents on Youtube. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  16. ↑ "RuFLECTIONS with Katya". welovekatya on YouTube. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  17. ↑ "RuGRETS with Katya". welovekatya on YouTube. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  18. ↑ "Irregardlessly Trish". welovekatya on YouTube. 20 May 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  19. ↑ "I'm Not A Doctor". WOWPresents on YouTube. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  20. ↑ "Drag 101 with Katya". welovekatya on YouTube. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  21. ↑ "Total RuCall - Episode 01 - We Love Katya". welovekatya on YouTube. 26 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  22. ↑ "Christmas Queens". iTunes. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  23. ↑ "RuPaul Announces New Single "Read U Wrote U"". Idolator. Retrieved 14 October 2016.

External links

Preceded by
BenDeLaCreme		 RuPaul's Drag Race Miss Congeniality
Season 7 (2015) 		Succeeded by
Cynthia Lee Fontaine
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.