Keith Cole is a queer Canadian performance artist and political activist. Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, he is currently based in Toronto, Ontario. An alumnus of York University's Fine Arts program, Cole has worked in film and video, dance and theatre performance, both as himself and in character as drag queen Pepper Highway. He has produced and hosted live events in Toronto, including Porn-a-Roake, a comedic event which blended karaoke performances with amateur porn videos, and Cheap Queers, an annual performance night of LGBT entertainers at Buddies in Bad Times. In addition to his sometimes controversial drag performances, Cole is perhaps best known for his 2010 campaign to be Mayor of Toronto. Theatre Cole's theatrical work has included the shows Mine, Alma, The Needle Exchange and Dodged Bullets/Missed Opportunities. He also appeared in Maggie MacDonald's play The Rat King, Luis Jacob's A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice and Jim LeFrancois' musical revue Arthouse Cabaret, garnering a Dora Award nomination for Best Male Performance in a Musical in 2008 for Arthouse Cabaret. In 2013, Cole participated in Salvatore Antonio's Truth/Dare: A Satire (With Dance), an interactive audience participation show which featured staged reenactments of scenes from Madonna's 1991 film Truth or Dare, at Buddies in Bad Times during Toronto's Pride Week. The show's cast also included Adamo Ruggiero and Gavin Crawford. In 2014, Cole performed in a solo re-telling of Oscar Wilde's visit and lecture at Toronto's Allan Gardens in 1882 called Wilde in Allan Gardens. The work is immortalised in Michael Alstad's award-winning Queerstory app. Cole had an onstage role in the creation of Box 4901, an ensemble play about personal ads and queer love written by Brian Francis. The work premiered at the Summerworks Festival in Toronto in 2018 and was re-mounted at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in February 2020. Cole, along with the rest of ensemble of Box 4901, was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance in the 2020 Dora Awards Independent Theatre Division. In October 2021, Cole appeared in Sky Gilbert's musical revue, The Little Show alongside Veronica Hurnik and Shaun McComb. Television Cole has had cameos in Queer As Folk, Locker Room for Pride Vision, Colin and Justin's Home Heist, and CBC's Baroness von Sketch Show. In 2006, Cole was a contestant on Canada's Worst Handyman on Discovery Channel Canada. Cole went on to "win"