Val the Brown Queen: 'I was homeless at 15 - now I'm a movie star'

As a teenager, Val the Brown Queen always knew she was gay - even if she didn’t necessarily know the words to describe it at the time. When her classmates would use homophobic jokes at her expense, it was something Val said she just went with as it gave her the opportunity to be her authentic self, even if it was only at school.

When Val, now 29, was at home, she’d fall back into a closeted version of herself in order to hide who she was to her family - until one moment, towards the end of high school, saw her entire life spiral out of control and led to her leaving the family home for good.

Val, who uses she/her pronouns, is now one of the most prolific south Asian drag performers in Manchester right now. Originally from Levenshulme, she has performed on the Manchester Pride stage, slayed it in productions at Contact Theatre, and even appeared on BBC Three. And she’s now starring in one of the year’s most anticipated movies, Unicorns.

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“Since leaving home at the age of 15, I’ve had to learn how to live independently,” Val tells the Manchester Evening News. “On the first day of high school, other people in my class called me gay and it’s just something I embraced. It was an opportunity for me to live authentically around my friends and not have to hide.

“When I went home, I closed myself off from all of that. I didn’t even worry that my family was ever going to find out as I was just so used to living in two different worlds that I think I was just prepared for that to happen forever.”

But, whilst in Year 11, a teacher overheard some of the homophobic name-calling directed towards Val and questioned her about it. “He was a south