Ginger Johnson (drag queen)

Ginger Johnson is the stage name of Donald Marshall, an English drag queen and winner of series 5 of RuPaul's Drag Race UK.

Drag career
Marshall began performing in drag at university in the late 2000s. As part of his degree, he wrote a radio play about a woman with whom he had grown up. Without the budget to pay an actress to record it, Marshall “put on a voice and did it myself”. He would soon perform the character for live audiences. Marshall also created a child star character called Little Jimmy Johnson, who he described as “a little s**t who’s nine-and-three-quarter years old.”

Early in his drag career Marshall made costumes for the performance artist Scottee. When someone dropped out of one of Scottee’s pageants, Marshall stepped in. Scottee was “so impressed with my clothes that they said they would pay me £100 a week to make outfits. Three days later, I packed up and moved to London.”

Marshall’s drag alter ego Ginger Johnson was inspired by the “amazing, fiery redheaded women from the Golden Age of Hollywood”, including Lucille Ball, Rita Hayworth, Carol Channing and Kay Thompson. As the character has evolved, Marshall thinks of Johnson as a “time traveller” saying “she’s this character that can exist anywhere that I dare drop her.” Other influences include David Hoyle, Dina Martina and Danny La Rue plus Drag Race alumni Jinkx Monsoon, BenDeLaCreme and Tammie Brown. In 2014 Johnson joined the “defunct but game-changing queer nightlife collective Sink the Pink for which she wrote, directed and co-produced six “surreal spins” on panto including: Down the Rabbit Hole, The Queen's Head (for Selfridges), How to Catch a Krampus and Escape from Planet Trash. Johnson also performs at and hosts various club events. Johnson appeared at the UKs first ever drag karaoke bar, The Karaoke Hole in Dalston, London which opened in May 2018. Johnson is a London Associate Artist of the Pleasance Islington, London. In 2020, Johnson co-presented the online breakfast show Wakey! alongside Love Island contestant Chris Taylor. Johnson has written children’s stories, including Glamourous Gran and Other Tall Stories which she has performed at the Southbank Centre. Johnson has also created a puppet video series.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Season 5
In 2023, Ginger Johnson won the fifth series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. She has described herself as "a helium balloon in the shape of a woman" and her drag as "silly" and "camp". During her time on the show, she impersonated Barbara Cartland for the Snatch Game challenge. In preparation for the show, she prepared “roast” jokes in advance for all the queens on the “rumour lists” which circulated before filming started. “I got my hands on one of those lists from the internet and I wrote a load of roast jokes. And not one of them was there.” As at December 2023, Johnson is one of only a few queens who have won three challenges in a row in any of the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchises, alongside Lawrence Chaney, Chad Michaels and Manila Luzon.

Television

 * Bring Back My Girls

Personal life
Marshall was born in Lanchester, County Durham. He attended a catholic secondary school and studied scriptwriting at university in Newcastle. As a child, Marshall wanted to be a pantomime dame, considering Chris Hayward of the Theatre Royal, Newcastle one of the “all-time greats”. Marshall’s first memory of making people laugh as a child was doing “magic shows in my local library”.

Marshall played for the Newcastle Falcons rugby team. In 2017 he said, “I often joke that being a drag queen and being a rugby player are very similar: they involve a lot of physical pain, and it’s quite aggressive.” The flat where Marshall lives with his partner featured in an IKEA article, with design by Ashlyn Gibson.