Jimbo (drag queen)

Originally from London, Ontario, Insell and his brother Jeff were both interested in creative pursuits from childhood, including early drag play.[4] Respecting his father's wishes that he pursue a career-oriented education, he studied biology at the University of Western Ontario; following graduation, however, he opted not to pursue employment in the field and instead moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where he began working as a costume and production designer.[4]

Insell has worked predominantly in local theatre, including productions of James and the Giant Peach[5] and The Rocky Horror Show,[6] but has also had credits on a number of television films produced by Front Street Pictures for the Hallmark Channel,[4] and on the children's television series Pup Academy.

He appeared in the music video for Victoria musician Adrian Chalifour's single "Open Heart".[7] He also appeared as the drag mother to British Columbian rapper bbno$ for the music video for his song "imma".[8]

He appeared on the first season of Canada's Drag Race in 2020, emerging as a popular fan favourite[9] and winning the key Snatch Game challenge for his performance as Joan Rivers,[10] but was eliminated from the competition in fourth place behind finalists Priyanka, Scarlett BoBo and Rita Baga.[11] For Fierté Montréal's special online edition of its annual Drag Superstars show, which featured all of the Canada's Drag Race queens in prerecorded video performances, Jimbo performed a drag recreation of The Buggles' 1979 hit "Video Killed the Radio Star".

Following Canada's Drag Race he toured the United Kingdom as part of the Klub Kids show with Rock M Sakura and Erika Klash,[12] and was the only queen from the season not to appear at any dates on the Canada's Drag Race Live at the Drive-In tour;[13] however, he did participate alongside Priyanka, Scarlett Bobo and Rita Baga in an online panel discussion as part of the Just for Laughs festival.[14]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, he also created a line of face masks through his design studio, with every purchase matched by a donation of a free mask to a homeless or low-income person,[2] and launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of House of Jimbo, a comedy and variety series he hopes to launch in the future.[15] Insell has described House of Jimbo as "the framework of a kids show, but really made for adults", comparable to Pee-wee's Playhouse or The Hilarious House of Frightenstein,[16] and the show reached its Kickstarter goal by the end of October 2020. At the same time the Chemainus-based Riot Brewing Company introduced Jimbo, a boysenberry-flavoured craft beer whose profits will go in part to funding House of Jimbo.[15]

In 2021 he made a return appearance in the second season of Canada's Drag Race, appearing in the third episode as the killer in the slasher film-themed acting challenge "Screech".[17]

In January 2022, he was announced as one of the nine contestants on RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World.[18] After winning the first two episodes of the season,[3] Jimbo landed in the bottom two in the third episode and was eliminated by Pangina Heals after Heals won a lipsync against Dutch contestant Janey Jacké to "We Like to Party! (The Vengabus)" by the Vengaboys.[19] Jimbo's early elimination was dubbed one of the most "controversial" in the history of the franchise.[20]

He returned in the third season of Canada's Drag Race in 2022, appearing as a guest judge in the episode "Bitch Stole My Look".[21]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jimbo (drag queen).

• Jimbo at IMDb
• House of Jimbo