Xiaohongshu
Since Cranktina entered the scene, she has transformed the UCL Drag Society - selling out shows and creating more inclusive arts spaces for students to explore identity, humour, and resilience.
Since arriving at UCL in 2022, Jack Probert – better known as Cranktina - has been an integral part of the drag and queer community.
Theatricality has always come naturally to her. As a child, she loved acting and improvising. “I was deeply passionate about lying,” she jokes, recalling when she fell off a wall while playing a witch in Rapunzel at age 11 and masterfully styling it out. That unscripted, offbeat energy would eventually lead her to drag, where she could fully embrace the chaos and her love of “being a crone”.
That’s not to say she wasn’t academic. A self-described “try-hard” at school, she excelled in English, History, and Latin at A-level and loves to learn, enrolling to study English at UCL before switching to Social Sciences.
Yet it wasn’t until her second year, when she joined Drag Society, that Cranktina found a true sense of belonging: “I often call it my first year, as it was when I really found my community”. Wanting new students to feel the same, she helped transform Drag Soc from a monthly showcase into a hub of weekly events, workshops, and mentorship. Despite being a fairly new society, shows have consistently sold out under her leadership.
Cranktina speaks affectionately about her drag family: mothers, children, and siblings made through glitter, rehearsals, and late-night vulnerability. Helping freshers draw those “stupid lines” on their faces is really about helping them explore identity, humour, and resilience. She beams with pride when describing her drag kids - once anxious and unsure, now confident performers who recently “knocked it out of the park” at a freshers show.
If she can help ignite that spark - whether it appears in a dressing room, a lecture theatre, or onstage - that’s something to be proud of.
Drag, for me, is the moment someone realises they’re funny and interesting because they’re different.
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