James Lee Williams (born 12 April 1992), known professionally as The Vivienne, is a British drag performer known for being appointed as the UK Drag Ambassador in 2015 for American reality television series RuPaul's Drag Race. She later competed and won the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2019, and competed again in the seventh series of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars in 2022.
Williams was given the name The Vivienne, because she was known for wearing Vivienne Westwood clothing, adding the definite article to make it unique. Her first drag show was located in Liverpool and has worked in various bars such as Superstar Boudoir.[1] The Vivienne competed in a one-day event judged by RuPaul, Katie Price, and Jonathan Ross, taking place at Café de Paris. She placed in the top two alongside drag performer La Voix, and was crowned as the UK Ambassador for RuPaul's Drag Race on 28 May 2015.[2] The Vivienne was later flown to Los Angeles and made a cameo appearance for the eight series of RuPaul's Drag Race (2016).[3]
2019–2021: Drag Race UK and Donald Trump impersonation
On 21 August 2019, The Vivienne was announced as one of the ten contestants to be competing in the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK.[4] In September 2019, she participated in Jag Race, a racing competition in collaboration with Jaguar Cars, and raced for Sahir House, a charity based in her hometown of Liverpool that provides a space in which people can speak freely without fear of prejudice, stigma, abuse or exploitation in relation to HIV.[5] In November 2019, she was crowned the first winner of RuPaul's Drag Race UK. In November to December 2019, The Vivienne, alongside the cast of the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK embarked on a tour hosted by Drag Race alum Alyssa Edwards.[6]
The show saw The Vivienne and Baga Chipz reprise their Snatch Game impersonations of Donald Trump and Margaret Thatcher respectively, to host a fictional television news show, and consisted of six episodes as of January 2020.[7] At DragCon UK in January 2020 an additional episode was filmed with The Vivienne and Baga appearing as themselves.[8] Guests on the web series included fellow Drag Race UK alumni Sum Ting Wong as Queen Elizabeth II and Cheryl Hole as Gemma Collins.[9][10]
In March 2020, World of Wonder announced six-part series The Vivienne Takes on Hollywood, documenting The Vivienne travelling to Los Angeles in order to make a music video. The show premiered on BBC Three on 9 April, and simultaneously started streaming on WOW Presents Plus.[11][12] The same month, The Vivienne, once again alongside Baga Chipz, started presenting the UK version of I Like to Watch, a web series produced by Netflix in which they humorously review Netflix programming.[13]
In January 2022, The Vivienne starred in Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted, in aid of Stand Up to Cancer.[17]
In April 2022, The Vivienne was announced as part of the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, whereby former winners of the franchise returned for the title of "Queen of All Queens".[18] In October 2022, she was announced to be competing in the fifteenth series of ITV ice-skating reality show, Dancing on Ice, setting her to be the first drag artist to participate in the show.[19] On 12 March 2023, The Vivienne finished in third place.[20]
Williams was born and raised in North Wales and moved to Liverpool at 16 years old. He is of Welsh and Romani heritage.[22]
Williams married David Ludford in 2019.[23][24] In April 2023, the couple announced their separation.[25]
In June 2023, The Vivienne fell victim to a homophobic attack in a McDonald's restaurant in Liverpool.[26] In a statement, Merseyside Police confirmed that "a man made homophobic comments towards him [The Vivienne] and then proceeded to punch him in the face before fleeing the scene".[27] The Vivienne utilised the attack as a way of highlighting the fact that homophobia still exists in 2023 and for members of the LGBT+ community to remain vigilant when out in public.[28] In December 2023, Alan Whitfield, 51, of Tom Mann Close, Everton, was found guilty of assault motivated by homophobia.[29] He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison with an 18-month suspended sentence on 5 January 2024.[30]
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