DARRIN HAGEN is an award-winning writer, composer, actor, television host, as well as Canada’s most notorious drag performer. For 9 years he was the co-host of Help!TV, seen nationally on Canadian Learning Television, and his next series, Who’s On Top?, debuted in January, 2003 on the Life Channel. With that, he became the first Drag Artiste in Canada to host a national television series. Hagen was honoured with the Rosie Award (Alberta Motion Picture Association) for best Male Host, for his work on the show. He was nominated again for Best Male Host for season 2, now being shown in Belgium and New Zealand.
Hagen’s first one-man/woman play, The Edmonton Queen: Not A Riverboat Story, was awarded an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding New Work in 1997. It has since been reworked and published in book form (now in an expanded and revised Anniversary Edition, Brindle & Glass Publishing), and is being taught in gender studies and QueerLit programs across Canada. He has become a regular speaker at universities and colleges, delivering keynote addresses at several international conferences on gender diversity and sexual health.
Since The Queen set sail, Hagen has wowed audiences with a string of hugely popular comedies: Tranny Get Your Gun!, Li’l Orphan Tranny, Tranne of Green Gables, and Men Are Stoopid, Women Are Cra-azy (all co-written with Chris Craddock); and PileDriver! (co-written with Wes Borg). BitchSlap!, Hagen’s tribute to the feud between Hollywood divas Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, was a monster hit at 2005’s Edmonton and Winnipeg Fringe Festivals, followed by The Neo Nancies: Hitler's Kickline at the 2006 Edmonton Fringe, and Planes, Trans & Automobiles (created with Dana Andersen) at the 2007 Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringes.
Tornado Magnet: A Salute to Trailer Court Women, his follow-up to the Queen, outsold all the competition at the 1997 Edmonton Fringe, received raves at the 2001 Winnipeg Fringe, and has since stolen the hearts of audiences in Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Whitehorse, Winnipeg (2006) Red Deer and Ottawa. It has been adapted into a short film (Blue Sky Communications) directed by Norm Fassbender. It has since been published by Brindle & Glass Publishing.
Hagen's work has been published not just in book form, but in anthologies as well, including Quickies 2 & 3 (Arsenal Pulp Press), I Could Not Speak My Heart (University of Regina Press), torquere, and Prairie Fire: Flaming the Prairies.
In the fall of 2005 Hagen was named as one of 100 Edmontonians of the Century for the city’s centennial anniversary celebrations. His name came alphabetically right after Wayne Gretzky’s. To the best of his knowledge, he’s the only Drag Queen on that list.
About Darrin Hagen
