Q & A: Meet Kyne Santos, the UW student vying to win Canada's Drag Race

The second episode of Canada's Drag Race airs Thursday night and University of Waterloo's Kyne Santos is in the running.

The 22-year-old has been a drag performer for the past three years and is currently a mathematical finance major student at UW.

Santos has been posting on YouTube videos on sewing, wig styling and makeup for the past seven years and recently has been treating TikTok viewers with her math videos.

She shares her experience with CBC K-W's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo: What motivated you to audition for Canada's Drag Race? 

Kyne: I have been such a fan of the U.S. show, Ru Paul's Drag Race, for so long. It's one of the things that really inspired me to take up this art form.

So when I found out it was coming to Canada I had to do it.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo:  You've been doing drag for the past three years. What first sparked your interest?

Kyne: When I was in high school I used to kind of experiment with makeup and play with it on my face and I sort of started being interested in the artistry of it all.

It was when I first saw a drag show in person at my school actually that I was like, "Oh my God these people are kind of doing something similar to what I do with makeup", but just elevated to the next level and I was so inspired by it.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo: The second episode airs tonight, but last week there was tension between you and the other queens and even some of the judges. How much of that will we see through the season?

Kyne: I think when you put a bunch of drag queens in a room, you put them in a high stress situation, you put a big crown on the line, you're going to get chaos and you're going get drama you're going to get madness.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo: Do you feel like you're getting the "villian edit"?

Kyne: I think I am. Listen, when I was there in the moment I was being unfiltered.

I was speaking my truth and I think my sense of humour is a little bit dry and sarcastic and maybe, to some people, it came across as just me being very shady. But, I guess I'm the villain if that's what it means.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo: You have thousands of followers on social media. On TikTok you've been combining your math expertise with drag to help people understand stats, common miscalculations. Why did you want to do that? 

Kyne: Underneath all the drag, I am a math student at Waterloo and I'm the friend in the friend group that is calculating the total on the bill before it comes.

I'm always just thinking of the numbers and I'm very passionate about getting people to enjoy math as much as I do because so many people come out of school hating their math class.

I think that drag is a great way to package it and a really interesting way that gets people to want to click on it. And then once they're in, I trap them.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo: When you think about the future of K-W's drag scene, what does it look like?

Kyne: I think we have so much more that we can bring to our community. I think there's lots more that we can do in terms of the nightlife scene because we don't have a really thriving bustling drag scene here and I would love to see some clubs and venues open up in the future.