Jiggly Caliente

Jiggly Caliente was born Bianca Castro-Arabejo in San Pedro, Laguna, in the Philippines. Her parents divorced when she was a child, and at ten she emigrated with her mother and brother to New York, where she grew up in Queens. As a teenager she came out to her mother as gay. She studied illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology but left.

Around 2004 she created her drag persona on a dare, naming herself after the Pokémon Jigglypuff and the Spanish word for “hot”. She won pageants such as Ms. Asia America and in 2012 became known worldwide as a contestant on the fourth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race”. In 2018 she released “T.H.O.T. Process”, the first hip-hop album by a Drag Race contestant.

She acted in series such as “Broad City” and played Veronica Ferocity in “Pose”, the series about New York’s ballroom culture with many trans actresses. In 2016 she came out publicly as a trans woman, saying that letters from fans struggling with their own gender identity had helped her understand herself, and called on fans to stand up for trans rights. In 2020 she co-hosted “Translation”, the first talk show on a major network with an all-trans cast. From 2022 she was a judge on “Drag Race Philippines”.

In April 2025 her family announced that her leg had been amputated because of a severe infection. She died three days later, aged 44. In June 2025 she was added to the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall Inn.