Jerick Roman Lamar Hoffer (born September 18, 1987), better known by the stage name Jinkx Monsoon, is an American drag performer, actor, comedian and singer best known for winning the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, becoming the first person to win two seasons of the show across its iterations. Their first studio album, The Inevitable Album, was released in 2014, followed by their second studio album, The Ginger Snapped, in 2018. Jinkx appears in the WOW Presents Plus original, Sketchy Queens, a series they created alongside Liam Krug.
Jerick Hoffer was born in Portland, Oregon, and first performed in drag at age 15 at the all-ages Escape Nightclub. Their original drag name was going to be "Heidi Destruction" before settling on Jinkx Monsoon. They attended da Vinci Arts Middle School and Grant High School. Hoffer was raised Catholic, and discovered Russian-Jewish ancestry on their mother's side at the age of 18. Their drag character, Jinkx, is characterized as Jewish as a way of reconnecting with this part of their heritage. Hoffer worked as a custodian through college and graduated with a BFA in theater from Cornish College of the Arts in 2010. They have lived in Seattle, Washington since 2006. By October 2018, they moved back to Portland and lived in a house named Monsoon Manor.
After moving to Seattle from Portland, Hoffer and creative partner Nick Sahoyah wrote and starred in multiple Funny or Die webisodes titled Monsoon Season in which they played Jinkx Monsoon as an overbearing, substance addled, near-psychotic mother to Nick Sahoyah's character, Kamikaze Monsoon. In 2011, Hoffer appeared in the Wes Hurley film Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel. In June 2011, Hoffer became the subject of a YouTube docu-series by Alex Berry, a Seattle videographer. Named after Death Becomes Her, one of Jinkx's favorite movies, Drag Becomes Him explores Hoffer's life in and out of drag. The series has continued since the finale of RuPaul's Drag Race and offers insight into their life since the show. On February 28, 2013, the first screening at Seattle's Central Cinema was hosted by Monsoon and Waxie Moon.

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