Kalup Linzy was born in 1977 in Stuckey, Florida. He received a BFA in 2000 and an MFA in 2003, both from the University of South Florida in Tampa. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In a multidisciplinary practice that includes videos, performances and music, Kalup Linzy creates satirical narratives inspired by television soap operas, telenovelas and Hollywood melodramas. Bringing an irreverent approach to stereotypes of race, gender and sexuality, Linzy performs, most often in drag, in a series of memorable recurring roles. The artist serves as writer, director, cinematographer, editor, and actor—and, in a distinctive strategy, also voices and overdubs the dialogue of multiple characters. At once comic, raunchy and poignant, Linzy's unique narrative videos fuse dramatic intensity with melodramatic irony. Linzy's low-tech narratives embody a DIY sensibility, an approach that extends to the multiple contexts and formats in which he presents his works: Linzy has released his short videos episodically on YouTube, and they are also widely seen in artworld venues. Linzy also performs live in the guise of his recurring characters.