Mark “Suki” Suknanan never won the French award in school.
The science award eluded him, too.
So when the Broadcasting — Radio, Television and Film alumnus won Canada’s Drag Race last September, performing as Priyanka and becoming the country’s first winner of the reality television show based on RuPaul’s Drag Race, it made up for all those other times he was overlooked.
“I was never chosen for sports teams or I came in sixth or seventh in track,” Suknanan said. “Even when I was on YTV, although I was the favourite for some kids, it wasn’t until I started doing (drag) that I won.”
Still, to the outsider looking in, it might appear that Suknanan, who gave a moving address at last fall’s virtual convocation, was winning all along. Even before he graduated from Niagara College in 2012, Suknanan landed a job working with specialty channel YTV, eventually becoming a host and writer for the children’s series The Zone Weekend on the network.
He spent more than five years doing that when Canada’s Drag Race became the opportunity knocking. It was a chance for Suknanan to make Priyanka a household name and take him in a direction he only started considering three years prior.
It was Suknanan’s 26th birthday and he hired a drag queen to help him and his friends celebrate. The experience convinced him that he didn’t just want to watch such performances. He wanted to do them.
“I was already going out and watching drag queens and seeing how free and confident they were. I just so enjoyed it,” Suknanan said. “It was being in the audience and feeling like all your problems went away and I wanted to be that person for someone else.”
Soon after, Priyanka was born. Suknanan worked hard to get his alter ego known and it paid off when she was voted Toronto’s best queen in Now’s 2019 reader poll.
There were other accolades, too. But the people Suknanan was most worried about convincing of Priyanka’s merits weren’t the audiences for which she performed. It was his family.
Suknanan said he “lucked out” with a mother who supported her son when he came out as gay at 23.
“You never know how parents will react and it made me think how great some parents are until you come out and then it’s ‘Sorry, never talk to me again,’ ” Suknanan said.
But when he came out as Priyanka at 26, Suknanan recalled a conversation that took some time for the family matriarch to absorb. She figured it was just a phase. Still, she kept silent because she didn’t want her son to be afraid to express himself, Suknanan explained.
After seeing performances, though, “she started getting on Team Priyanka,” he said.
These days, Suknanan’s mother is in charge of mailing Priyanka merchandise to fans.
Through it all, though, Suknanan kept his sexual orientation and Priyanka a secret from his father. It wasn’t until she scored a coveted spot on Canada’s Drag Race, which aired on national television last summer, that Suknanan came out with his mom’s unyielding support and the cameras rolling.
“As a gay kid, it’s very normal to keep secrets because growing up, you’re so unsure of your sexuality, of who you are and how you’re attracted to people,” Suknanan said. “I would say hiding it from my dad was easy because I didn’t know better.
“When I came out to him, it was a big weight off my shoulders. It’s amazing how conditioned people in the LGBT community are to hiding things. So when I came out, he had to accept me.”
The episode struck an emotional chord with viewers. But there were other moments in the series that left audiences wondering if Priyanka would survive another week of challenges, including lip synching performances and makeovers.
One week, Priyanka would finish on top. The next?
“It messes with your head because you’re doing well and then all of a sudden you do something and you’re in the bottom.”
Still, Suknanan didn’t give up — he worked harder, in fact — and Priyanka would earn her crown. The win is notable not just because she was the show’s first victor.
“I get to be this person of colour who gets to be a representation of what (drag queens) do,” Suknanan said.
The win comes with a $100,000 prize that Suknanan isn’t sure how he’ll spend. It also comes with opportunities that would have taken much longer without the chance to perform for a national television audience, he said.
As far as Suknanan has come in his career, however, he hasn’t forgotten his time at Niagara College, including teachers Peter VandenBerg and Tom Otto. Both instructors supported and encouraged him to chase his dreams, he said.
The practical elements of the program also set Suknanan up for success.
“The thing I loved about Niagara College that I’ll say until the day I die is, I love how hands-on the experience was,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I was getting up for school. I felt like I was going to work.”
As such, his advice to others focuses on doing the work, too.
“This applies to anything. You have to work so hard that you give your dreams no chance but to come true,” Suknanan said. “You have to work hard. It’s not just going to land in your lap. You have to fight for it.”
