Santino Rice

Santino Quinto Rice (born 1974 or 1975) is an American fashion designer and television personality, best known for appearing on the reality television series Project Runway and RuPaul's Drag Race.

Early life and education Santino Quinto Rice was born and grew up at Fifth Street in St. Charles, Missouri, the city where his ancestors lived in early 1800s. His mother is of African-American and Italian background; his father, of Jewish and Native American background. Rice attended a preschool program at Lindenwood College (now Lindenwood University) and then graduated from the Academy of the Sacred Heart (St. Charles).

With a scholarship offered to him, Rice concurrently attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM; Los Angeles) in 1990s. and an "early " of the season.

Before becoming a finalist, Rice had been one of lowest-scored contestants in seven out of eleven total challenges. In the fourth episode, he was considered for elimination due to his performance in the team lingerie challenge and "his tirade against the judges". A competitor Marla Duran "was disappointed with Rice's catty comments about" Duran's all-female team, which included just Diana Eng and Guadalupe Vidal, for the challenge. Nonetheless, he won two of the season's overall pre-finale challenges, two of which were of its first five. Besides winning the season's first challenge, he further won the season's fifth challenge: designing a party dress for socialite Nicky Hilton. To complete his collection, he was instructed two days before the Fashion Week event to design a thirteenth piece.

On the finale, Rice's lack of "brassiness" in his "sleek" Fashion Week collection, compared to his prior works, was noted. The judges praised Rice's creativity but found his finale collection "too safe (and ill-fitting)", wrote Boston Herald. He was eliminated before two other finalists—first runner-up Daniel Vosovic and crowned winner Chloe Dao—making Rice the second runner-up.

Reception as a villain As the season progressed, Rice further earned his "villain" reputation for his onscreen "" personality. Karla Peterson of The San Diego Union-Tribune noted his "refusal to follow instructions" and imitations of Runway mentor Tim Gunn that had other contestants laughing "until they drool[ed] all over their stretch tweed." Peterson further described Rice as "a towering bundle of ego, skill and hubris".

Rice himself asserted to O'Fallon Journal that he was "confident" rather than "arrogant". On the contrary, he admitted appearing "overconfident and arrogant" throughout most of the season but further asserted that he was more than what he had seemed onscreen.

Clifford Pugh of Toronto Star in October 2006 criticized the series Project Runway for emphasizing more "on brash personalities", like Rice and Wendy Pepper, and less on talent.

Reception as a finalist Before Rice became a finalist, the series's very first winner Jay McCarroll found Rice and other three remaining contestants "kind of boring". Nonetheless, McCarroll enjoyed Rice's "arrogant and funny" personality and his somewhat "weird" works as the only works of the season with "a clear point of view." When Rice became one, Lorilee Craker of The Grand Rapids Press perceived Rice's finalist spot as if the producers intentionally carried Rice into the finale not for "his design ability" but rather "his penchant for drama". However, Runway mentor Tim Gunn said, "Producers weigh in only when the judges are at a stalemate, when we see two people, both of whom can or should be out and [the judges] can't come to a collaborative decision." Furthermore, as Gunn asserted, Rice had "been listening more" since the "inspiration" challenge in the eighth episode. (Tim Gunn thought that the elimination of fan favorite Nick Verreos, who finished fifth, was the right judgment.) Indeed, Gunn factored in "all the puckering and the uneven seams" of Verreos's dress, which exemplified "amateurism", and Daniel Vosovic's immunity earned from the previous challenge for Verreos's elimination.

Neal Zoren of the Delaware County Daily Times noted Rice's "obvious wit, fashion sense, and creativity" but described his works as "never classic enough". Boston Globe concurred with the results and deemed Rice's collection not much of a "showstopper", despite "a couple of gorgeous dresses". The publication further described his overall work as "conception over construction" and "made for the mannequin, not the actual woman" but noted his artistry and creativity.

Timothy Gunatilaka of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Rice should have won the season instead of Chloe Dao, whose her "sleek and sexy" finale collection Gunatilaka found "safe" rather than an exception to her other "safe" works throughout the season. Gunatilaka further found Rice's finale collection "easily the most elegant of the three" but further noted the judges' "reluctan[ce]" to crown "someone who was too much like" Jay McCarroll, the winner of the preceding season.

Retrospective reception Before the fourth season premiered in November 2007, host Heidi Klum and mentor Tim Gunn named Rice "their all-time favorite contestant." Dionne Walker of Associated Press in October 2008 perceived Rice to be "surpassed only by" the "resident villain" and finalist Kenley Collins of the fifth season. Ji Hyun Lee of Examiner.com then in late October of the following year perceived him and Wendy Pepper (season 1) to be surpassed by eventual winner Irina Shabayeva of the sixth season for "her verbal assaults". Rebecca Tamel of Examiner.com in mid-October 2009 named Rice a "token reincarnation of Satan". (Rebecca Tamel of Examiner.com listed also Jeffrey Sebelia (season 3) and Kenley Collins (season 5) as examples of the "token reincarnation of Satan" trope.) Then, to complete it, the fourth one made from materials of a restaurant that the returnees dined in. (The first runner-up Daniel Vosovic from the second season also competed in the All-Star Challenge special.) Vosovic was crowned the winner, earning him $100,000. Out of 2,029 users taking survey, Rice received 0% votes of the "Who Should Have Won the Project Runway All-Stars?" poll alongside two other returnees—winner Jeffrey Sebelia and third runner-up Mychael Knight, both of the third season. (The first runner-up Korto Momolu of the fifth season received 56% of the votes.) and Brooke Cain of The News & Observer were please to see Rice eliminated and unable to become one of the final four.

Judging in RuPaul's Drag Race (2009–14) Rice had been a permanent judge for the first six seasons (2009–14) of RuPaul's Drag Race and a guest judge for its seventh season (2015). Many fans of the Drag Race franchise considered him "integral", while others noted "his divisive critiques of the [drag] queens regarding their fashion choices on the main stage." In a 2023 YouTube interview, Tammie Brown (season 1) noted Rice "saying these rude things", and Pandora Boxx (season 2) said:He was terrible and he made me feel horrible and did not relent. Maybe said a couple of nice things but, yeah I'm glad he's not a judge anymore. Rice told Los Angeles Times in the same period:We're looking for someone who can fill Ru's shoes, who can be the next drag superstar and carry forward the art of drag, and it's a tough one because, still to this day, society and people marginalize gay culture and gay people marginalize drag culture.

As a permanent judge, Rice was succeeded by Ross Matthews and Carson Kressley in the seventh season (2015). However, Rice served as only a guest judge that season. He also designed a red carpet dress for SuChin Pak to wear at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards. He then also was briefly among the judging panel alongside Tim Gunn in Los Angeles on casting auditions for the third season of Project Runway. He also was one of judges of the Miss Universe 2006 pageant.

Rice competed in a short-lived 2008 Fox Reality Channel series Gimme My Reality Show! He also portrayed a cameo non-porn role of a homeless man in a 2010 gay pornographic film L.A. Zombie. Rice designed his own costume for that role. Also, he and Runway alumni Austin Scarlett (season 1) hosted a short-lived 2010 Lifetime reality television series On the Road with Austin & Santino in which the unlikely pair with contrasting personalities traveled around the country helping women, especially ones in rural towns, receive fashion makeovers.

Rice attended the 22nd GLAAD Media Awards (2011) as one of its guests. He also appeared in a 2017 episode of The Doctors talk show discussing his 111-day fasting.

Personal life In a 2010 interview, when Windy City Times asked him whether he is bisexual, Rice responded:You can just call me gay but I like men and I am attracted to beautiful women. I didn't like the negativity that was attached to being gay growing up so that is why I have problems with the label.

On social media On the COVID-19 pandemic Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, more than fifteen reported tweets making vaccines akin to injecting disinfectants, i.e. finding no difference between both types, were posted on Rice's official Twitter account. Rice pinned the tweets on hackers since he lost his iPhone. Furthermore, the tweets "were exaggerated versions of his drafts, likely meant to have fun at his expense," reported Mikelle Street of the Out magazine. Rice further said, I've tweeted about vaccines and health-related things in the past. [...] The tweets I'm reading that were posted were obviously trying to piss people off. I don't think people should drink bleach or whatever else was insinuated. I understand that it relates to something Trump said but I also see that someone was having fun making people mad today.

Them magazine reported Rice's tweet on Trump receiving "41 likes" and "89 replies". Them further reported his account having by then "more than 69,000 followers" and a blue check. Rice's Trump tweet, however, received negative responses from other users of the X social network. When the tweet was reposted in response, Drag Race UK contestants The Vivienne wrote "Sashay away", and Lawrence Chaney wrote "You're really unhinged". Them reported their own reposts receiving "much more engagement than the former judge."