Nicky Doll

Karlize Zaitane Sanchez (born 14 March 1991), known by the stage name Nicky Doll, is a French drag queen, television personality, and musician based in New York City. He is best known as the main host of Drag Race France and a competitor on the twelfth season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

Sanchez co-created, co-wrote, and stars in Les Voyages de Nicky, a documentary that explores gender expression, the art of drag, and LGBT activism in different countries.

Early life

Sanchez was born on March 14, 1991, in Marseille, France, but also travelled quite a bit as a child, living in St. Martin and Morocco. His mother is Spanish.

Career

Sanchez trained to be a make-up artist. He created his drag persona in 2009 and has modeled extensively as Nicky Doll, appearing on the pages of Féroce Magazine, Cosmopolitan and Volition Magazine among others. Sanchez developed his drag persona by himself. He does not have a drag mother, nor does he belong to any drag family. The name Nicky Doll is a tribute to Nicki Minaj and is meant to evoke versatility and reflect the different personalities Sanchez's drag persona exhibits. Sanchez self-describes Nicky Doll as a 90's life-size doll.

Nicky Doll's participation on season 12 of RuPaul’s Drag Race was announced on January 23, 2020. She is the first French contestant on the US version of the show. She was described as a ‘look queen’ and has spoken openly about “deep insecurities when it comes to the language barrier” that she experienced during the show.

Nicky Doll was eliminated at the end of episode 5 and placed eleventh overall. During her time on the show, Nicky Doll was in the top once, and in the bottom two times. She successfully lip-synced "for her life" against Dahlia Sin in episode 3, to Problem by Ariana Grande featuring Iggy Azalea. In episode 5, she was unsuccessful in her performance against Heidi N Closet to the song "Heart to Break" by Kim Petras. As a result of his appearance on Drag Race, Nicky Doll was hand-picked by RuPaul to do Pete Davidson's makeup for a pre-recorded sketch on an episode of Saturday Night Live which was hosted by RuPaul.

In March 2022, Nicky Doll was announced as the host of Drag Race France. The first season of Drag Race France premiered on June 25, 2022. Nicky Doll provided commentary for the French broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 semi-finals on Culturebox. On July 26, 2024, Nicky Doll was a part of the fashion runway and dance segment for the televised opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics. Following remarks made by Laurence Fox calling Nicky Doll and other drag performers "deviant little pedos" on Twitter during the opening ceremonies Sanchez filed a complaint in defamation towards Fox and other social media users on August 2nd. Sanchez commented "I’m about to sue you again for defamation – the same exact topic that you were sued on and lost," in reference to a case won by Canadian-British drag performer Crystal against Fox for similar remarks.

Personal life

Sanchez came out as gay at the age of 18. He relocated from Paris to San Francisco in 2015, before moving to New York in 2017.

Sanchez identifies as non-binary and uses both he/him and she/her pronouns.

Filmography

Discography

Accolades