Kim Lee (drag queen)
Kim Lee (born Andy Nguyen; December 28, 1963 – December 18, 2020) was a Polish drag queen of Vietnamese origin and a queer activist. He was born in Hanoi and moved to Poland on a scholarship to study nuclear physics at the University of Warsaw, later becoming a Polish citizen in 1998. From 2002 he performed as Kim Lee, a character inspired by music and stage legends like Violetta Villas and Marilyn Monroe. By 2015 he had about 200 songs in his repertoire, and his wardrobe included around 700 outfits, 60 pairs of shoes, and many wigs. He performed in gay clubs all over Poland.
Kim Lee was also active in theatre and activism. He acted in plays at the Powszechny Theatre and TR Warszawa, and performed in the Boylesque show at Second Strefa Theatre. He worked with LGBT groups such as Campaign Against Homophobia and Love Does Not Exclude, taught drag workshops, and helped organize the Kim Lee Drag Queen Festival and the Miss Trans contest. In 2014, after the Eurovision Song Contest, he appeared in a music video produced with Krytyka Polityczna in response to Donatan and Cleo’s “My Słowianie.”
He died on December 18, 2020, in Warsaw from COVID-19 after being in a medically induced coma on a ventilator for over a month. His life inspired documentaries, a magazine cover in 2012, and mentions in books and novels. In 2023, the Wola Museum in Warsaw held an exhibition titled Kim Lee. Queen of Warsaw to celebrate his legacy, featuring costumes, photos, and films.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:40 (CET).