Contemporary Beauties

Portrait of Black performer wearing a bright red ruffle dress and red leather gloves, smiling in front of a decorative grey gate.

Le Gateau Chocolat (he/him/they) is one of the only performers in Britain with a significant and concurrent profile in drag, cabaret, opera, musical theatre, children’s theatre and live art. Gateau’s solo theatrical works are centralised around his lived experience and unique perspective of intersectionality and stigma: including ‘BLACK’ (2014 Homotopia commission), which toured with Psappha in 2017; ‘DUCKIE’ (2016) his first family show which explores otherness, and ‘ICONS’ (2017) which has toured globally and with his all-Women-of-Colour “Little Coco Orchestra”. As a technically gifted baritone Gateau has also been invited to perform in Emma Rice’s Twelfth Night, in Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music, and Tannhäuser at Bayreuth Festival, among many others. (Website | Twitter | Instagram)

Le Gateau Chocolat, 2022 © Robert Taylor

Son of a Tutu (He/She/They) is an award-winning drag artist, activist, speaker and actor. The 2011 winner of ‘Drag Idol UK’ and since which they have performed across the UK and Europe in various cabaret venues and settings, at festivals (Pride and others) and for small, medium and multinational corporations. They also appeared at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and hosted or participated in online events for Amnesty International, ParaPride as well as Bingo on Victoria Beckham’s Instagram account. As featured on ‘BBC stories’ Tutu was the face of Primark’s national Pride campaign (2019). They also conceived and directed the #YouCanDoBetter (microaggressions) viral video in the wake of the Black Lives Matter uprisings of 2020 and were featured as one of the Queens in Dan Jones’s book 50 Drag Queens Who Changed The World’ They are also can be seen in the film Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and the upcoming psychological drama Lemon. (Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube)

Portrait of Black performer wearing an African inspired dress and headpiece, laughing in front of a green screen.

Son of a Tutu, 2022 © Robert Taylor

Portrait of Black perfomer wearing a black jumpsuit and silver jewelry smiling on a black background.

Karnage Kills (he/him) is a rapper carving out his own lane with a striking, unapologetic energy. A fierce live performer and lyricist, Karnage pushes the boundaries of genre and challenges norms by addressing issues that have long been ignored in mainstream music. Karnage describes himself as proudly femme and isn’t afraid to take his rightful place in an arena that has been traditionally dominated by masculinity. With his forthcoming releases, Karnage wants to remind the industry that talent isn’t determined by race, gender or sexuality. (Instagram | YouTube | Twitter)

Karnage Kills, 2022 © Robert Taylor

Julius Reuben (he/they) is a Tanzanian British model, actor, artist and a former dancer. He regularly works in TV – Eastenders, Chinese Burn, Famalam, In the Long Run, Bridgerton and film – His House, Bigga than Ben, Stud Life. As a model he has been on the cover and in editorial for numerous magazines as well as fashion campaigns and fashion shows for major brands such as Mountain Warehouse and Next. He is also a multi award winning fashionista with two Fashion Icon Awards under his belt: FF fashion icon 2013 and BEFFTA fashion icon 2014. He is an artist or as he called himself “shapeshifter and self-activist” with his work featured in places including Museum of London, The Smallest Gallery in Soho, Saatchi Art, Today Art Museum Beijing, UAL, I-D VICE and CNN Quest’s World of Wonder. (Instagram)

Portrait of Black model wearing a shimmering suit and a golden crown with jewels, smiling in front of a green screen.

Portrait of Black woman wearing a black dress and chunky jewelry, laughing in front of a green screen.

Winn Austin is a trailblazer, cover girl – nine times and counting – model, actress, stylist and model consultant – helping to shape runway careers for the Squad Model Agency – and a legend of the London nightlife scene as the celebrated MC at Kinky Gerlinky. Winn has graced the runways of major designers including Pam Hogg, Rifat Ozbek and Anthony Price. She volunteers within the LGBTQ + community including Stonewall Housing – and is a supporter and mentor to LGBTQ+ youth. She strives to create the most authentic and positive representation of the Trans community, regularly taking part in media interviews and panel discussions nationally. She was the subject of The Gender Bender, part of the Channel 4 Black Bag series in the 90s and more recently, part of the critically acclaimed documentary, BEYOND “There’s always a Black issue Dear “, and has spoken to UK and European audiences about LGBTQ+ Black history in 80s and 90s London. In 2019, Winn co-created the lingerie brand, Ms A London with Bok Goodall, which is designed and developed for the Transfeminine community. She has also founded the not-for-profit organisation MY SIZE which raises funds for vital research & development to create a global sizing system for the Transfeminine community. (Instagram)

Ebony Rose Dark (any pronouns) is an all singing, all dancing, lip syncing, story-telling, miming V.I.P/ Visually Impaired Cabaret/Performance Artist. She is known for her performances around disability, ableism, racism and relationships within the LGBTQ+ community at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern’s Bar Wotever, where she first started in 2012 and has now become its longest artist in residence. Ebony’s cabaret and dance performance works are a continuous exploration of all that is important to Ebony. Since 2018, Ebony has been researching and developing cabaret works with audio description supported by Tarik Elmoutawaki, producer/artist at Brighton’s The Marlborough Pub and Theatre and Brownton Abbey. Ebony has continued to develop this in projects at Brownton Abbey at Southbank Centre and Quiplash/Unsightly Drag, focusing on accessible Cabaret for LGBTQ+ History for visually impaired people. Femininity and masculinity are embraced and celebrated through recent work with Trans Creative UK/ Trans Vegas UK at HOME Ground Manchester followed by their performance at Trans Filth and Joy at Manchester Pride 2021. Ebony has performed nationally and internationally including at Tate Modern, Edinburgh Fringe, Leeds Art Gallery, Lyric Hammersmith, The Cocoa Butter Club London, Camden Fringe London, Zagreb Cultural Centre Croatia, le Pop Paris, ICA London, Cripping the Arts Disability Cabaret Symposium 2019 in Toronto, Canada, UK Black Pride 2021 at the Roundhouse Camden and at the Black Britain conference at University of Newcastle. Ebony has performed with David Hoyle in A Camp Laff in 2019 and recently at The Spire Church, Brighton in David Hoyle and Friends. (Instagram | Twitter)

Portrait of Black perfomer wearing a blue sequin dress and a red shawl, laughing in front of a green screen.