Biographie
Indie artist Jeff Kristian, born in Bermondsey, made his television debut at age six in 1970, portraying young Charlie Chaplin in a BBC special featuring Tommy Steele. He is an actor, writer, songwriter, recording artist, producer, and performance artist, widely recognized in recent years for his female impersonations on stage, television, and film.
Throughout the 1970s, Jeff performed in regional theatre productions such as The Monkey's Paw, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, Oh! What A Lovely War, Macbeth, and Jesus Christ Superstar. In the 1980s, he led live bands including Dooyah!, which played at venues like The 100 Club, Dingwalls, The Rock Garden, and The Cliffs Pavilion. After a season with The British Music Hall Society at The Palace of Varieties, he created and starred in his one-man show, The Kinky Hanky Panky Show. In the 1990s, his creation, The Diva Show, earned him the Boyz Magazine Reader's Poll Award for Best Drag Queen. Running from 2001 to 2016, The Jeff Kristian Show at Molly Moggs Theatre Bar in London became Soho's longest-running drag cabaret. He also delivered live singing performances at renowned drag venues such as The Two Brewers, The Black Cap, Brief Encounter, and Madame JoJo's, with weekly residencies at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern and The Father Redcap. In November 2019, Jeff returned to immersive theatre with a ninety-nine performance run of Storytime With Santa in Kent.
Jeff’s songwriting and recording career began in Basildon's vibrant 1982 music scene, known as the genesis of British electronic ambient synth-pop and the launching ground for acts like Depeche Mode, The Assembly, Yazoo, Vince Clarke, and Alison Moyet. These influences are evident in his 1984 debut solo single "Pierrot" and its accompanying album, Circus. He has continued to write and record for himself and other artists ever since. In 2000, Maltese Eurovision star Chaira Siracusa’s album What You Want, featuring four of Jeff's compositions, topped European charts for seven weeks. His songs have also been recorded by Lee Mark Jones (Gypsy Lee Pistolero), Sophia Disgrace, Grace Keegan, Joshua Takacs, Chris Repps, Tiffaney Wells, Berry Lane, and Dooyah!. He headlined at Ronnie Scott’s in London for the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.
In 2015, Jeff composed "You're There" to raise awareness for Cancer Is A Drag, a British registered charity of which he is a patron. He participated in the 2018 fundraising single "Love is the Only Law" for the Albert Kennedy Trust, commemorating the 50th anniversary of homosexuality’s decriminalization. In 2020, he wrote "A Place For Me to Call My Home" for the Rise & Thrive Project, dedicated to ending homelessness in Ireland by 2024.
His leading role in the 2004 film Snow White: My Confidential Drawers received acclaim at the Mexican Film Festival. He also starred in Gsus Lopez’s short film Ephemeral Nature, which won the Grand Prix ASVOFF Barcelona Award for Best Picture in 2012 and was showcased at the Berlin Film Festival, The Museum of Contemporary Art, and Australia’s Vivid Festival. Lopez’s subsequent films featuring Jeff include It Melts, awarded Best Fashion Film at Charleston Fashion Week 2014, and Out, which has garnered numerous accolades and screened at over forty-five international festivals. Additional film credits include Alexander Kaufmann’s Trouble on Earth, premiered at Cannes; Eme Guitron’s Little Red Riding Hood: Uncensored; Omar Ismail’s A Reasonably Good Bloke; Kate Coe’s Baker Street Live; James Crow’s Nightmare on 34th Street and Last Village on the Right; and Wonderland, written and directed by Joshua Baylis. He appeared in Romy Sancto-Alford’s 2010 film Molly Moggs, was featured in Lenard Pink’s 2016 documovie and TV series I’m Still Queer, and was interviewed for Aro Korol’s Battle of Soho in 2017.
Jeff composed the songs and music for Selene Kapsaski’s 2016 horror feature Spidarlings, where he also co-produced and performed three of his own songs in the role of The Diva. His music features in Snow White: My Confidential Drawers, Out, Baker Street Live, Be London, and the upcoming films Artemis of the Wildland, Confiscated from a French Brothel, and Nightmare on 34th Street. He has also composed for US TV shows London Calling and Xandermonium.
As a writer, Jeff contributed features and articles to various publications, including a serial column titled Adventures Of A Drag Queen for Pink Wire Magazine from 2010 to 2015. These stories were later compiled into a book published in autumn 2019. He voiced the characters Lettie and Billy-no-nut in the radio pilot adaptation of his 2012 comedy novel Where D'Ya Put Yer Willy? The sequel, Where’s Yer Willy Now?, was released in July 2019.
As a model, Jeff has been photographed by artists such as Isabelle Sierra-Gomez, John Barlow, Robert Goldstein, Daniel Lilley, and Brian Sturgess, with exhibitions held at London’s National Gallery and Whitfield Fine Art Gallery. His portraits in oils and paint have been created by Stephen B Whatley, Alvar Alcalde Vega, Fran Dibuja, and Pink Lynn.
Jeff was co-owner of London venues Attitude, Brief Encounter, and Molly Moggs. Attitude received Capital Gay awards for Best Pub and Best New Pub/Club in 1995. Molly Moggs won the Pink Paper Readers Poll Award for Best Bar or Pub in 2009 and the Boyz Magazine Reader's Poll Awards for Best Venue For Cabaret & Comedy and Best Bar Night Or Event in 2011 for its involvement in Soho Pink Sunday.
He regularly appeared on Channel 5’s Big Brother's Bit on the Side in 2012 and Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side in 2012 and 2013. Jeff hosted the US television series London Calling from 2015 to 2016 and featured in commercials for Eurostar and The Alzheimer's Society. From January to August 2016, he co-hosted the radio chat show XRad Daily with Xander Gibb.
A committed advocate for vegetarianism, veganism, and animal rights for over thirty years, Jeff celebrated fifty years in show business in 2021.
