From Drag King to Indie Filmmaker: A Day in the Life of Bex Wallace

Bex Wallace is already on their second coffee at 9am when we meet at a cafe near their flat in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. They have a shoot this afternoon, a location scout tomorrow, and a drag performance on Friday night. This is a light week, they say, with the tone of someone who has forgotten what a heavy week feels like.

Bex, 34, is a drag king, independent filmmaker, and general force of nature who has been making things in Manchester for the better part of a decade. Their short film Soft Butch screened at three festivals last year. Their drag persona, Rex Vanguard, has a devoted following in the city’s queer arts scene. The two identities are more connected than they might seem.

The Drag Years

Bex started doing drag at 22, “mostly on a dare,” they say, though the details of the dare have shifted in every telling. What’s consistent is what happened after: they got on stage, and something clicked.

“Drag gave me a way to explore masculinity that wasn’t about performing straightness,” Bex explains. “Rex Vanguard is this heightened version of something I was already working out in myself. It was safe to experiment there first.”

For several years, drag was the main thing. Bex performed two or three nights a week, ran a monthly showcase called King’s Cross that became one of Manchester’s most beloved queer nights, and mentored newer performers coming up through the scene.

The Shift to Film

The crossover to filmmaking was gradual. Bex started shooting behind-the-scenes footage at their shows, then short documentary pieces about the community, then original narrative work. They enrolled in a part-time filmmaking program at a Manchester arts centre at 28 and haven’t really stopped since.

“Drag and film use the same muscles,” they say. “Character. Visual language. How you tell a story with a body in space. I just moved from the stage to the screen.”

Soft Butch, their breakout short, follows a non-binary performer over 24 hours on the day of a big show. It’s funny, anxious, and achingly tender. Bex shot it in four days with a crew of friends and a budget they describe as “aggressively optimistic.”

A Day in the Life

A typical day for Bex shifts depending on which hat is on. Film days mean early calls, location logistics, editing sessions that run late. Drag days mean afternoon rehearsals, costume checks, the ritual of transformation that Bex says they will never stop finding meaningful.

“There’s something about putting Rex on that still feels like magic,” they say. “Even after all these years. The makeup, the costume, the walk out. It’s its own thing.”

They keep a notebook with them always. Story ideas, costume concepts, overheard dialogue. The drag world feeds the films. The films feed the drag. It’s a loop they’re not trying to break.

What They’re Making Now

Bex is currently in pre-production on their first feature, a queer found-family story set in Manchester across three decades. They have partial funding from a regional arts body and are pursuing more. It is, they say, the most ambitious thing they’ve ever attempted and the most important story they’ve ever needed to tell.

“I want queer kids in this city to watch it and see their home,” Bex says. “Not a sanitised version. The real one. The messy, brilliant, alive one.”

Main character energy, fully earned.

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