As a drag performer, La Voix can do just about anything from comedy to singing and dancing — and, apparently, disguise jewel thieves.
La Voix, the drag persona of 45-year-old Englishman Chris Dennis, was a runner-up and fan favourite on the sixth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K. and is currently winning hearts on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, the British counterpart to Dancing With the Stars.
But before he was a TV star, Dennis worked as a makeup artist in London — where, in 2009, he unwittingly played a role in one of the biggest robberies in British history.
“I did the make-up for two robbers in the biggest jewelry heist in the U.K,” said Dennis, who first made the revelation in a 2021 episode of the Little Did You Know podcast.
The story resurfaced in the past week following an article by the Daily Mail.
On Aug. 6, 2009, two handgun-wielding men in suits walked into Graff Diamonds’ flagship store in London’s West End and stole around £40 million ($73 million at the time) worth of rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches.
The men were disguised in prosthetics and makeup — and that’s where Dennis comes into the story.
‘Nothing out of the ordinary’
Then 29, Dennis was working as a freelance makeup artist at the Charles Fox of Covent Garden makeup studio, a well known supplier for film and theatre productions.
“I was booked to do makeup for two men who wanted to have ageing makeup,” Dennis told podcast host David McGillivray. “I was told it was for a music video.”
He said there was “nothing out of the ordinary” about the men other than they were “a bit standoffish and a bit rude.”
He recounted how he and a friend, who was assisting, applied latex and makeup and “tweaked” it all to the clients’ liking — they reportedly thought the prosthetics were too unrealistic — before the two men paid in cash and got into a taxi.
The Daily Mail reported the men paid him £450 pounds (approximately $810 at the time) for four hours of work.
Dennis said he went home after the job was done and “thought nothing of it” — until he picked up a free newspaper the next morning.
On the front page was a CCTV image of the same two men from the day before.
Dennis and the makeup studio immediately contacted London Metropolitan Police and Scotland Yard.
He told McGillivray he was whisked away by plain-clothed officers to be interviewed. He also handed over makeup brushes, gowns, rubber masks and cash for DNA testing.
He would later have to testify after the men were caught and eventually convicted along with three accomplices in 2010.
Dennis said the ordeal was “frightening” at the time.
But he shared an anecdote that suggested he shouldn’t have worried too much.
He said a police officer told him they were able to track down the suspects at their homes.
“So, they’re not the brightest bulbs in the box,” Dennis joked.
WATCH | Chris Dennis, a.k.a. La Voix, describes his unwitting role in the heist:
According to The Guardian, a chain of events and missteps led to their arrests.
The two thieves hit a cab while speeding away in their getaway car — in which they left a cellphone, a shotgun and four cartridges when they attempted to change vehicles.
It’s unclear what ultimately happened to the jewels, but the Guardian reported in 2010 that they had likely been broken up and resold in other markets.
It wasn’t the first time the makeup studio had been reportedly tied to a high-profile robbery.
In February 2006, armed thieves carried out the largest cash heist in U.K. history, stealing £53 million ($105 million at the time) from a Securitas cash depository in Tonbridge, Kent.
They, too, hired a makeup artist to unknowingly make disguises for them — and she got the materials at Charles Fox studio.
Dennis doesn’t appear to have commented on the resurfaced tale of his role in the Graff Diamonds heist, but he’s clearly loving the limelight on Strictly Come Dancing.
In a post on La Voix’s Instagram account on Wednesday, the drag queen said she’s having the “time of my life” dancing on the show.
