American drag performer, singer-songwriter, TV show host and author Trixie Mattel was BOTD in 1989. Born Brian Firkus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he grew up with an abusive stepfather who called him “Trixie” to mock his effeminate behaviour and later threatened him with a shotgun. He left home at 15 to live with his grandparents, both country musicians, who taught him to play the guitar and autoharp. He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he began performing in drag, adopting the name Trixie Mattel as creative revenge against his stepfather and in tribute to his love of Barbie dolls. As Trixie, she rose to fame in 2015 as a contestant in TV reality competition RuPaul‘s Drag Race, surviving two eliminations to finish in sixth place. Trading on her sucess, she toured with a stand-up comedy show, Ages 3 and Up, and appeared with fellow Drag Race contestant Katya Zamolodchikova in the popular YouTube web series UNHhhh and spin-off TV slot The Trixie & Katya Show. Mattel released her first country music album, Two Birds, in 2017, and appeared in Ryan Murphy‘s anthology TV series American Horror Story: Roanoke. Following Katya’s release from rehab, they co-wrote and starred in a drag parody of the film Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion. In 2018, Mattel appeared in the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars, winning the competition. Her successful world tour, Now With Moving Parts, was chronicled in the 2019 documentary Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts, while her third album, Yellow Cloud, earned a GLAAD Media Award nomination for best breakthrough artist. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and Katya launched the web comedy series Trixie & Katya Save the World, and co-wrote the self-help parody manual Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood, which became a New York Times bestseller. The pair also won praise for their Netflix series I Like to Watch, in which they provided live commentaries of TV shows including Kath & Kim and Baby Reindeer. In 2022, Mattel released a fourth album, The Blonde & Pink Albums, and and co-produced and starred in the reality series Trixie Motel, in which she and her partner David Silver renovated a motel in Palm Springs. Mattel’s other ventures include her cosmetics company, co-owning a gay bar in Milwaukee, and collaborating with Mattel to produce a “Trixie” Barbie doll. Mattel lives in Palm Springs (though probably not in a motel). Her current relationship status is unknown.