Nicky Doll is the stage name of Karl Sanchez (born 14 March 1991), a French

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, known for being a competitor on the twelfth season of ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

'' ultimately placing 10th. Since 2022, Nicky Doll has been a judge and the main host of ''

Drag Race France ''Drag Race France'' is a French reality competition television series based on the original American series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and part of the ''Drag Race'' franchise. It airs on the digital channel France.tv Slash in France and on WOW Pre ...

.''

Early life

Sanchez was born in

Marseille, France Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

, but also travelled quite a bit as a child, living in St. Martin and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

Career

Sanchez trained to be a makeup artist. He created his drag persona in 2009 and has modelled extensively as Nicky Doll, appearing on the pages of Féroce Magazine, Cosmopolitan and Volition Magazine among others. Sanchez grew his drag persona by himself, he does not have a drag mother, nor does he belong to any drag family. Her drag name “Nicky” is a tribute to

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated Flow (rapping), flow in her rapping, alter e ...

and “Doll” is because she has different personalities hence she wanted a little bit of versatility to her name. He describes Nicky Doll as a self-described 90’s life-size doll. Sanchez's appearance on season 12 of ''RuPaul’s Drag Race'' was announced on January 23, 2020. He is the first French contestant on the US version of the show. Sanchez was described as a ‘look queen’ and has spoken openly about “deep insecurities when it comes to the language barrier” that he experienced during the show. He made attempts to change that impression by applying silly makeup and hamming it up as the baby in the ''Gay’s Anatomy'' acting challenge. Ultimately it wasn’t enough and he was eliminated at the end of episode 5. During his time on the show, Sanchez was in the top once, and in the bottom two times. He successfully lip-synced for his life against

Dahlia Sin Dahlia Sin is the stage name of Erick Anthony (born May 13, c. 1991), an American drag performer most known for competing on the twelfth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race''. She is a "drag daughter" of fellow ''Drag Race'' contestant Aja and a mem ...

in episode 3, to Problem by Ariana Grande featuring

Iggy Azalea Amethyst Amelia Kelly (born 7 June 1990), known professionally as Iggy Azalea (), is an Australian rapper. At the age of 16, Azalea moved from Australia to the United States in order to pursue a career in music. Azalea earned public recognitio ...

. In episode 5, he was unsuccessful in his performance against

Heidi N Closet Heidi N Closet is the stage name of Trevien Anthonie Cheek, an American drag queen from Ramseur, North Carolina, best known for competing on the twelfth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', where she placed 5th and won the Miss Congeniality award. ...

to the song " Heart to Break" by

Kim Petras Kim Petras (born 27 August 1992) is a German singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Between 2016 and 2020, she released music as an independent artist under her own imprint, BunHead Records, before signing with Amigo and Repub ...

. As a result of his appearance on ''Drag Race'', Sanchez was hand-picked by RuPaul to do

Pete Davidson Peter Michael Davidson (born November 16, 1993) is an American comedian and actor. He was a cast member of the NBC late-night sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL) for eight seasons, running from 2014 to 2022. Davidson's ...

's makeup for a pre-recorded sketch on an episode of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...

'' which was hosted by RuPaul. In March 2022, Nicky Doll was announced as the host of ''

''. The first season of ''

'' premiered on June 25, 2022.

Personal life

Sanchez came out as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

at the age of 18. He relocated from Paris to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, before moving to New York in 2015.

Filmography

Television

Web series

Discography

Featured singles

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, LGBT, Television, United States 1991 births Living people Drag Race France Entertainers from Marseille French drag queens French LGBT artists French make-up artists Gay entertainers People from New York City Nicky Doll