HoSo Terra Toma’s reign of terror has just begun

When HoSo Terra Toma first graced our screens on Season 4 of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula in 2021, she became the drag competition’s first international contestant — and one of the youngest to ever compete.

Like all the ghouls who’ve competed on Dragula, HoSo’s drag is monstrous, but even among the franchise’s five seasons’ worth of horror-inspired drag artists, her work stands out from the crowd. HoSo’s said her drag is inspired by yokai, or monsters from Japanese folklore, and it shows in everything from her graphic face-warping makeup to her intricate, unsettling fashion.

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“Drag is becoming the character of your dreams that you always wanted to be, that fierce being, that fierce creature, that you always had in you,” HoSo said in a promotional video for her first season of Dragula. “Just to bring that out in makeup and costumes, that’s f*cking fun, you know?”

HoSo, now 22 years old, hails from South Korea, a country unfortunately lagging when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights.

“I would like to change people’s perception of drag, especially in Korea, because drag is only one thing there. I’m one of the only freaks there,” she continued. “I’m here to shatter people’s expectations into pieces.”

HoSo made it to the top four of Dragula on Season 4, and she returned just months later to compete on the show’s first all-stars season, called Dragula: Titans, in 2022. Again, HoSo reached the finale but didn’t bring home the crown. Still, she became one of the series’ most iconic contestants, winning several challenges, making memorable backstage moments (who could forget the Ghostship Glamour cauldron?), and leading with her Korean culture.

“Going into the competition, I knew very well that it was going to be a risk bringing in more niche, foreign, cultural references,” HoSo told Digital Spy about her run on Season 4. “I told myself if you do try to bring in these cultural references into the competition, which I was very adamant about doing, I really wanted to do it, I was well aware that it was going to be a risk. Because even looking at past contestants and stuff, more niche references have not been very well received.”

“I knew that I was going to have to explain myself,” she continued. “I was at times getting frustrated with it. But at the end of the day, I take pride in the fact that I was able to bring it, I was able to show how my drag developed in my culture and my references that came from that. I’m still proud of everything I brought into the competition.”

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Though HoSo used they/them pronouns while competing on both her seasons of Dragula, she’s since come out as a trans woman.

“I don’t use they/them pronouns anymore btw,” HoSo shared in an Instagram story this November. “I get that I went by it while my seasons were on air so it kinda stuck but I go by she/her mostly now. I’m a Tgirl if I wasn’t being clear enough.”

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Since finishing her second run on the show, HoSo’s continued to tour the world, bringing her unique brand of filth, horror, and glamor to audiences everywhere and pushing the limits of what drag can be. Her looks are freaky, frightening, and fabulous — and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

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