World touring dancer by day, trailblazing drag queen by night

Sheldon McIntosh, our September cover star, has a busy fall in store. On the heels of hosting her CNE drag debut, his alter ego, Tynomi Banks, is gearing up to host Toronto’s famous Just for Laughs Festival, before flying off to San Fran to perform with Canadian superstar Nelly Furtado, followed by a colourful residency in Mexico. McIntosh, a Toronto native, has made a name for himself as a drag queen through the beloved Tynomi Banks character he so seamlessly and vibrantly becomes. Tynomi Banks has been a celebrated staple in Toronto’s queer nightlife scene for over a decade. Of course, fans of famed reality competition TV series Canada’s Drag Race will recognize her from the show’s first season. 

Smashing stigmas and inspiring open minds, Tynomi Banks has boldly been the face of campaigns for major brands – everything from Hudson’s Bay Company and IKEA, to Crest and Spotify – and even appeared in a widely broadcasted Super Bowl commercial. Known for captivatingly impersonating icons like Whitney Houston and Beyonce, Tynomi Banks brings a full-scale production, with stunning costumes, expert choreography, backup dancers, and high-energy pop numbers for her unforgettable performances. And her shining star is only on the rise. 

The Early Days: Sheldon McIntosh  

Growing up in Toronto and its outskirts, performing was clearly in McIntosh’s blood by high school, whether that meant musical theatre or the school choir. It was in high school when he began to understand and identify his queerness, though he – known solely as a male-identifying Sheldon McIntosh at the time – decided to hold off in officially “coming out” (something that was a much bigger deal then, some 20+ years ago) and letting his family know for a few years. 

“When you’re younger, everything is dramatic,”

Sheldon “Tynomi Banks” McIntosh

“When you’re younger, everything is dramatic,” says McIntosh. “Growing up, I knew something was a bit different for me. In high school, when I was changing in the locker room with guys, I’d do everything I could not to look in their direction. I had my corner locker and just looked straight ahead when I changed. All these hockey jocks are walking around naked and I just wasn’t having it, because I didn’t want to get caught. Puberty hit me so late, so I had a high voice and was friends with all the girls.”

That’s not to say that his high school experience was a bad one. “There was even one year when I got an award for outstanding leadership in our school – I was so shook,” says McIntosh. “They recognized me as someone who always adapts to different groups in the school – from the artistic crowd and drama students, to the jocks. Even though sometimes the jocks were weird with me, it was divided; I was friends with the Black jocks. I had friends in every group, and the school recognized that I managed to bring people together in different ways.”

His high school life, however, wasn’t without its hurdles. “I think I got bullied more because I was Black and closeted gay,” says McIntosh. “When people realized it, I think I got bullied more by my own tribe of people; Black people.” McIntosh recalls an incident in high school that left him in tears, when a male classmate began to heckle him for his perceived queerness. McIntosh’s best friend at the time offered some words of wisdom. “She said, ‘They do this because they’re jealous; you’re friends with everyone, and all the girls love you. They don’t have that,’” says McIntosh. 

After McIntosh approached the said classmate in the school hallway, asking why he felt the need to call him derogatory names, it never happened again. “I said, ‘You don’t have a girlfriend, none of the girls like you; I’m going to tell all the girls about you. Everyone loves me because I’m nice and you’re not, so I’m going to tell them,’” recalls McIntosh with a laugh. 

After high school, McIntosh studied public relations at Durham College, living on campus at the time – “I was the only one on the floor who knew how to press my clothes, vacuum, and cook,” he says – and now embracing his queer identity. He reflects on college pub nights where he could go out dancing and dress up and be himself. “That’s when I really realized; ‘Oh yeah, I’m gay,’” says McIntosh. With a new crowd of friends, he could more easily take on a new identity – one that was truer to his authentic self. “There were new people, and I was like, ‘I don’t know you; I’m meeting you for the first time, and this is how I want to reveal myself,’” he says. 

Climbing the ranks of Toronto’s drag scene

Once college ended, the dancing wasn’t reserved for pub nights. Post-college, McIntosh took on various jobs in Toronto, working at an event-planning company for a few years, along with downtown restaurants, like Oliver and Bonacini and Mr. Greenjeans (RIP). It wasn’t long before he picked up competitive dance, joining a dance team that would ultimately shape his career (he still regularly performs as Sheldon McIntosh, sans the drag attire) and lead to his foray into Toronto’s then-blossoming drag culture.  

A night of clubbing on Church Street would soon alter the course of McIntosh’s life. Partying at Church Street’s former It Club left him in awe after seeing a drag show for the first time. 

“A queen called Sofonda Cox came out dressed as Storm from Xmen,” says McIntosh. “I was blown away; that performance changed my life. It was the first time I’d ever seen drag and I was just inspired by it because I loved the energy. I was like, ‘This is phenomenal.’ Then, I saw this queen Heavenly Heights, just killing it with her dancing. Then, I went a third time, and there was this other performer called Pussy Noir (or Black Cat, when he was a DJ) and she would do these Janet Jackson performances. She did this whole rhythm nation thing with two backup dancers and I was just dancing in the front row, living my life. The two dancers came up to me and told me that I was a good dancer, and were like, ‘We’re starting this dance group; you should come out.’”

They exchanged numbers and it wasn’t long before they were training and competing together. “It was like a dream,” says McIntosh of the course of events. At the time, McIntosh was also dancing for Toronto’s drag queens, being a backup dancer. He recalls joining drag performers to things like Chicago’s Continental drag competition. “It was fun; really fun,” says McIntosh. “Then one day, someone dared me to do drag, and I was like, ‘Hmm, ok, I will if you do my makeup – just once.’ And that’s when it happened. I didn’t realize that, once you put on the wigs, and the clothes, and the makeup and the shoes and it’s, ‘lights, camera, action,’ what that feeling felt like. It felt like I could create my own world, people were eating it up. I loved the attention. And that’s when she was born: Miss Tynomi Banks.” 

From the moment he stepped on the stage as Tynomi Banks, McIntosh knew this is exactly where he wanted to be. “I loved it; any frustration – or even happiness – would come out over song,” says McIntosh. “I would dance and carry on. I couldn’t see myself not wanting to do this anymore.” Luckily, he didn’t have to wait too long to get back into the wigs, costumes, and makeup of Toronto’s drag culture, which was just starting to come into its own at the time.

“There was an international choreographer named Scott Fordham, and before it closed, he was a manager at the Barn [a former club in Toronto’s Church-Wellesley Village],” recalls McIntosh. “And he was asked to fill up the lower level of the space, because it was usually empty compared to the upstairs, where they had hip-hop night. So, he asked me, Divine Darling, and Heavenly Heights to do this show called ‘Girls Gone Wild’ every Wednesday. I wasn’t doing drag, but he asked if I could fill in until he found someone. That’s when I met my drag mother, Nicolette Brown. I was not doing my makeup, it was Divine [who did it] and it sucked. So, Nicolette came over to me and was like, “Baby, your face; I can help you.”

McIntosh said it took about four lessons before he learned to love doing the makeup and stopped asking someone else to do it. “She would do half of my face, and I would copy it,” he says. “And she’d make me write down all the steps.” 

At the time, says McIntosh, the drag world looked a lot different than it does today. “At this time, there was no RuPaul’s Drag Race, there were no tutorials, everything was passed down from the ancestors,” says McIntosh. “I started adding really great dancers to my performances to make them different from other queens. One of my biggest performances of my early career was at Woody’s – the main bar you wanted to be at – on New Year’s Eve. I did this song by a group called Rich Girl and the song was called something like ‘He Ain’t Man Enough.’ It was full-out. In think that’s when people were like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a new girl on the scene.’ I was all skinny, doing splits everywhere.”

Tynomi’s star slowly started to rise on Toronto’s drag scene. “My friend Scott wanted to do this production called ‘Bombshell’ at a bar that used to exist called Zippers, so I think I was one of the first queens in Toronto with a big, ticketed show,” recalls McIntosh. “It was all these incredible dance numbers. My first show had six dancers and major appearances by major queens in the neighbourhood. It wasn’t just gay people who came – straight people, friends of friends.”

On her second ticketed show, Nelly Furtado came in disguise and praised Tynomi for her performance backstage post-show. It wasn’t long before the two would become friends. After stints performing for Deborah Cox as a backup dancer, McIntosh began to join Furtado on stage in the Grammy-winner’s high-energy shows. Now, when he’s not touring the country as Miss Tynomi Banks, McIntosh performs regularly with Furtado as a backup dancer, joining the famed Canadian singer on stages around the world.

Blazing the trail, one campaign at a time 

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when you’d never see a drag performer in any sort of campaign for a mainstream brand. Well, times have changed in Canada and beyond – and McIntosh is a trailblazer on this front. During Pride 2018, he became the first drag entertainer to work with Hudson’s Bay Company and the only one to partner with Spotify for a featured playlist, which included a splashy billboard that towered over Yonge-Dundas Square, with Miss Tynomi Banks front and centre. At the same time, another billboard – this one for Crest – also featured Tynomi Banks. 

“I was hosting a Pride event at Yonge-Dundas Square,” recalls McIntosh.  “I was welcoming everyone and wishing them a happy pride. Then, I looked up and saw myself on a Twitter billboard, then looked across and saw my face on a Spotify billboard, and was like, ‘What am I?!’”

By 2019, Tynomi Banks’ star had risen so high that she graced the stage at the Canadian Screen Awards (CSAs) as a trophy bearer. The next year, she became the spokesperson for the Spanish jewellery company Carrera y Carrera. Proving his talents lay beyond performing, in 2021, McIntosh released a Black Lives Matter-themed clothing line.

In 2022, McIntosh’s body of work and growing popularity resulted in him becoming the first Canadian drag performer to sign with a major talent agency, APA. The agency represents artists like The Arkells, Nickelback, and Lights. Continuing his trailblazing trend of “firsts,” just last month, McIntosh was part of the first-ever drag show at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE).

From the stage to the screen 

While Tynomi Banks shines on the stage, she’s also made a name for herself on the screen. Back in 2012, McIntosh revisited his high school acting days when he appeared as a drag queen on an episode of Canadian cult favourite TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation. “I had speaking lines and had to dance and sing,” says McIntosh. In 2019, Tynomi also appeared in the second season of the documentary series Canada’s a Drag. 

Of course, fans of Canada’s Drag Race can’t forget Tynomi Banks’ appearance on the show in its first season. “I think I had hit a ceiling in Toronto, where I didn’t know how to get more out there,” says McIntosh. “It didn’t matter if I finished first or last, I just wanted to get on the show to show the world that I was there and I existed. So, I got on the show and it was amazing.”

But getting on the show is one thing, competing in a reality series is another. While the audience may have had high hopes for the popular contestant, she was eliminated during the fourth episode after placing in the bottom and lip synching for her life three weeks in a row.

“It was really hard because it revealed stuff about me,” says McIntosh of the series. “It’s not scripted, but they have a story in mind. They wanted to create an arch for me, because all of the other girls on the show started drag because of me. So, I had to just bite my lip and be like, ‘Ok, this is what is going to happen, and I have to pivot from here, survive it, and move on – move on from that type of rejection.’ You’d think I would get to the end at least, so it wasn’t what I expected.” For this reason, McIntosh called Drag Race a mixed experience. “But a lot of positive came out of it,” says McIntosh.

For example, not long after her Drag Race, Tynomi appeared in a 2021 commercial for online financial management platform Wealthsimple, which premiered during Super Bowl LV. “A lot of people saw it, and I follow the RuPaul’s Drag Race girls and always wanted to dance with them,” says McIntosh. “So, Aquaria [a contestant on the show] saw it, and sent me the nicest message. She was like, ‘I love seeing queens making a change.’ And she said it was such a big deal for a queen like me from Canada to get on a Super Bowl commercial. I was only told it was going to air here, but it was broadcast around the world.” 

Tackling the challenges and coming out on top

McIntosh’s time on Canada’s Drag Race was a rough patch, but he is no stranger to challenges — and overcoming them. Back in the early days, for example, when he needed a part-time job, he convinced Victoria’s Secret to hire him, despite them not hiring males at the time. He even convinced an upscale restaurant that “only hired women” to hire him (“they needed a gay boy,” he says) and created his own uniform to match those of the females employees. “I would go to Moore’s and colour match the outfit to match the girls,” said McIntosh. 

It wasn’t long before McIntosh would quit his part-time jobs to focus on dancing and drag full-time. “Once RuPaul’s Drag Race started picking up, I started getting a lot more gigs,” said McIntosh. Still, he cites a challenge of his early career as simply being seen in all of his glory as a drag performer in Toronto. So, one summer, he packed his bags and headed to Montreal, where the celebrated drag scene offered a more inspiring vibe than Toronto’s at the time.

“I didn’t feel like I was getting the opportunities I thought I should get in Toronto, so I picked up and moved to Montreal for two months,” says McIntosh. “Their scene there is very different. When you perform in Montreal, they really see your potential. If you have talent, you’ll get booked; if you don’t you won’t. They don’t have time to waste. It’s very community. So, if you go to a club, everyone will know the queen. They want to get to know the character. A lot of that type of support was lacking in Toronto.”

McIntosh got a gig working at Montreal’s main drag bar, Caberet Mado, on the weekends. “It was more like dinner theatre; they crowd is there for the show,” he says of the experience. “So, it got me to really think about my numbers and how I wanted to preform them. I could home in on my training and connect with people in a different way.”

Not only was his time in Montreal enriching in terms of career development, it also made people in Toronto miss McIntosh and the beloved Miss Tynomi Banks. So, when she returned to the Toronto scene, they couldn’t get enough.

Advice for up-and-coming drag performers

Being a drag performer in today’s competitive climate means you need to have the actual talent for it – plain and simple, says McIntosh. Essentially, it’s like any other performance art: open doors only take you so far if you lack the talent.

“Realize your talents, and make sure you have them,”

Sheldon “Tynomi Banks” McIntosh

“Realize your talents, and make sure you have them,” says McIntosh. “For me, when I go out, I don’t want to see people falling on the floor. I’m over that. I need you to perform. They fall and move all over the place like the Tasmanian Devil – like a tornado. It’s not always about dancing either. It can be funny, it can be theatrical. Tell a story when you’re on stage. It’s not all about falling on your knees and acrobatics. You can look crazy, but look crazy good. I want to see people put more thought into performances. Not everyone can do drag.”

McIntosh also advises up-and-coming drag performers to create their own spaces. “Meaning, if Woody’s doesn’t book you, you can create a safe space in the city and people will come and support,” he says. 

Next steps

Naturally, McIntosh — more specifically, Miss Tynomi Banks — is in hot demand. In addition to upcoming gigs hosting Toronto’s Just For Laughs festival (September 21-30), performing with Nelly Furtado, and a residency in Mexico, McIntosh says he wants to focus on his singing and (finally) sharing it.

“Singing is so deep and personal and I realized I didn’t want to share that with people for so long because I didn’t want to hear their opinions,” says McIntosh. “It’s scary to share that with people. But one day I woke up and was like, ‘What am I doing?; I’m 42 and I have a really great voice, I should share that.’ I have great songs that I’m making.” 

One thing is certain, whatever is in store, McIntosh will continue marching (or dancing) to the beat of his own drum. “I’m very independent,” says McIntosh. “If you’re not on the train with me, it’s leaving without you.”

Credits

Shot by, Nick Merzetti; Creative/Fashion Direction and Production by, Steven Branco; Wardrobe assistant, Sharad Mohan; Lighting assistant, Alejandro Silva Cortez. A Stamina Group production.

Originally published February 13,