Heklina is the stage name of Stefan Grygelko, who has performed as a drag queen in San Francisco's alternative drag show Trannyshack and beyond from 1996-present.
Heklina is half-Icelandic and named herself after the Icelandic volcano Hekla.[1] Heklina has hosted Trannyshack from the show's inception in 1996 at the STUD bar and continues to host the huge events now taking place at the DNA Lounge, all in San Francisco.[2] It is now the longest running drag event in San Francisco, but has moved from weekly events to larger monthly events. Heklina also acts in local theater productions, most notably the S.F. Golden Girls productions (as Dorothy Zbornak) and emcees a variety of community and charitable events including the Folsom Street Fair (along with Sister Roma) and San Francisco Pride.[3] She also co-produces and co-hosts the Miss Trannyshack Pageant widely considered the premiere annual drag event in San Francisco that has sold out every year since inception.[4][5][6] She was voted Community Grand Marshal of the 2004 San Francisco GLBTQ Pride Parade.[7], and won the 2009 Pride Creativity Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to the LGBT Community. Heklina co-stars in a series of short films, the "Tran-ilogy of Terror", drag queen horror spoofs written and directed by long-time collaborator Peaches Christ.[8], and also starred in the film "Baby Jane?".
I think that drag queens are still the eunuch clown that’s safe to laugh at. It’s definitively not shocking anymore. So I don't know if America’s really embraced it. The early 90s was when RuPaul and it was the first time any drag queen had mainstream exposure. I don’t really see a drag queen breaking out like that [again].”—Heklina on Feast of Fools[9]
Contents |