Courtney Act (born Shane Jenek; February 18, 1982) is an Australian drag queen and singer.
Prior to competing on RuPaul's Drag Race, she appeared on a contestant (in drag) on the first season of Australian Idol, where she placed thirteenth. Following her turn on the show, she became the third Australian Idol contestant —following Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll— to release a single ("Rub Me Wrong"), which peaked at #29 on the ARIA Singles Chart. Since then, she's performed all over the world in her drag persona, becoming one of the more recognizable faces of the medium.
In 2014, she competed on season six of RuPaul's Drag Race, where she finished as co-runner up with fellow Idol franchise alumnus Adore Delano. In 2018, she entered the UK Celebrity Big Brother house, ultimately emerging as that season's winner. As a result of her newfound popularity in the UK, she was then tapped to host E!'s The Bi Life, a bisexual reality dating show.
Alongside drag, she's a prolific recording artist, and released her first EP, Kaleidoscope, in 2015. She also performs frequently with Drag Race sisters Willam and Alaska Thunderfuck.
In 2019, Courtney competed in Australia's first-ever national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, with the song "Fight for Love", ultimately finishing fourth to winner Kate Miller-Heidke.
Shane Jenek is also a co-host of the BBC Sounds podcast Building Queertopia
, alongside fellow music artist Chelcee Grimes, in which they interview guests to find what that guest would bring to a queer utopia (and what they think could be improved in the real world).
Selected filmography:
- Australian Idol (2003) as herself
- Are You There, Chelsea? (2012) as herself
- Rupauls Drag Race (2014) as herself
- Celebrity Big Brother (2018) as herself
- The Bi Life (2018) as herself (host)
- Dancing with the Stars Australia (2019) as herself
Discography:
as Courtney Act
- Kaleidoscope EP (2015)
with The AAA Girls
- Christmas Queens EP (2015)
- Access All Areas (2017)
Courtney Act provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accent Depundent / Punny Name: When pronounced correctly with an Australian Accent, her name is meant to sound like "caught in the act." This often falls on deaf American ears.
- The Cameo: Along with her fellow AAA Girls Willam Belli and Alaska Thunderfuck, Courtney appears in the music video for "Power" by Little Mix, since band member Jade Thirlwall is a massive fangirl of drag.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady / Even the Guys Want Him: Her drag is so convincing that she's picked up (heterosexual) men and convinced them she's a cisgender woman.
- Drag Queen: Of the "fishy" variety, with moments of camp.
