Victoria "Porkchop" Parker, stage name of Victor Bowling, is an American drag performer and actor who came to international attention on the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race, and for being the first contestant eliminated from the series. Parker has been called one of the most successful drag queens in their post-RuPaul's Drag Race careers, and has been brought back to the show by RuPaul several times in homage to being the first elimination in the show's history. Bowling has appeared on television as both himself and Porkchop, and as a backup dancer for Miley Cyrus. Parker has also won over 100 pageants and toured internationally as a drag queen.
Parker was in the documentary Trantasia, which debuted in 2006. In 2008, he appeared in the documentary filmPageant with Alyssa Edwards and other queens detailing their experience on Miss Gay America. In 2015, Parker made a minor appearance along with Chad Michaels in an episode of 2 Broke Girls. She was a backup dancer with 30 other drag queens for Miley Cyrus's 2015 VMA Awards performance. Parker was on the E! show Botchedto fix the silicone problems with his nose, including a point where the skin was starting to decay.
''RuPaul's Drag Race''
Parker was announced as one of the nine contestants for the inaugural season of RuPaul's Drag Race on February 2, 2009. She has been described as the season's only older and plus-sized queen. Parker was eliminated during the first episode, becoming the very first contestant ever eliminated in the history of the show. She was sent home by Akashia. Because of this, RuPaul always addresses her with "Hey Porkchop" during all of the Drag Race live reunions, starting with season 4. Parker has been brought back on the show by RuPaul several times, in homage to being the first contestant ever eliminated. She appeared during the recap episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 2 and was featured in winning queen Alaska's rap. Parker was also brought back for the first episode of season 10 of RuPaul's Drag Race to help judge the mini-challenge. In 2019 she appeared as a guest for the first challenge in the premiere of season eleven of Drag Race posing with Soju. In the first episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 3,Vanessa Hudgens lip synced against "Porkchop", an actual pork chop, which RuPaul said was Parker. In March 2018, Variety said that Parker was one of the 10 most successful queens in their careers after the show. She has toured internationally. As of 2018, Parker was still publicly vying for a spot on . Daniel Welsh of Huffington Post wrote "we're surprised contestants like Jessica Wild, Ongina and even Victoria "Porkchop" Parker are still sitting on the shelf, waiting to be plucked up for All Stars."
