RuPaul's Drag Race fans are probably familiar with Marko Monroe and Hunter Crenshaw as members of the House of Avalon — a creative collective based in Los Angeles that's been referenced on the show by season 12 finalist Gigi Goode and season 13 winner Symone. But as of 2023, the group itself landed its own original show, Avalon TV, on WOW Presents Plus — allowing fans to learn even more about Monroe, Crenshaw, and other Avalon members like Rylie, Grant Vanderbilt, and Caleb.
The grand finale of Avalon TV season 2 features adorable, powerful, and emotional scenes of Crenshaw and Monroe getting married in Las Vegas while surrounded by their fellow House of Avalon members. And while we do learn more about their romantic relationship in the series, Out got to kiki with the newlyweds (full video interview above!) and spilled even more tea on their relationship, the origins of the House of Avalon, and how they see this collective evolving in the near future.
"So, my friend Grant [Vanderbilt], who's obviously on the show, was friends with Mark in college," Crenshaw tells Out. "I was in college in Chicago, at the time, in [another] relationship. I came down to visit Grant and my family. Grant was like, 'This boy, he's really interested.' And I was like, 'Okay.' Things weren't going great in Chicago for me at the time, so I ended it in Chicago and came directly back to Arkansas… and that's what happened."
"Yeah, we met in a Sonic drive-in," Monroe adds. "Wasn't it in July?"
Crenshaw replies, "I mean, all of our f*cking anniversaries and sh*t… it's so weird and corny. We met on the 4th of July and started dating on February 14th of the next year [which is Valentine's Day]."
The Vegas wedding scenes shown in the season 2 finale of Avalon TV were filmed in April 2024. While the couple estimates that they've been together for 13 years, there was actually a clear reason behind the decision to not get legally married for so long.
"I have this thing… I'm so anti-establishment and weird," Crenshaw says. Monroe agrees, noting that they see things similarly and weren't in any rush to get through this legal union. "I just didn't think that marriage was for me, and I didn't want to change anything. We had such a good thing together," Crenshaw explains, "But then these past couple years I've been like, 'Let's do it. Let's figure it out.'"
Monroe tells Out, "I just look at it as… it's almost, like, a recommitment. It's really just for us. We would love to have a huge party and celebrate it with all of our friends and stuff… but in that moment, we were in Vegas, hungover, and I thought it was going to be a great idea. It's kind of iconic to do a fly in, fly out wedding."
Crenshaw says, "And I was so happy, at the end of it; I was so glad that we got to share those moments with everybody — the people that love us. There are some solid emotional moments in there, and I hope, when you watch it, it's like you can see the real emotion behind the whole thing."
"Being together for 13 years is pretty difficult, I'm not going to lie," Crenshaw remarks, and Monroe agrees. "And everybody around [us at the wedding], we all live together on the same plot of land, basically." Monroe adds, "They know when we argue, they know everything."
"They can hear me screaming across the street," Crenshaw notes. "And I truly believe that that is what a healthy relationship is. I grew up that way. You just yell it out, and you figure it out, and you move on about your day."
Monroe and Crenshaw were already together when they started the House of Avalon, in 2014, back in Arkansas — a story briefly featured during Symone's run on Drag Race season 13.
"We started it in Arkansas; it was me, Grant, Caleb, Symone, and Marko," Crenshaw recalls when asked about the origins of the House of Avalon. "We kept saying to each other, 'We're going to stick it out. We're going to change the state. We're going to do this.' And I truly believe that we made a dent in the can in Arkansas… in the community, anyway. But it's going to take generations to solve that problem. I was like, 'We've got to think for ourselves.'"
Crenshaw continues, "So we just decided one day that it wasn't fulfilling anymore [to stay] in Arkansas, and it was really after the Trump election. It's one of the most conservative, one of the most red states. It's just brutal. And it's a beautiful state, and we love it, and it's great. But it was just brutal on us, and we were like, 'Okay, we have to move together to make this work.'"
Upon moving to Los Angeles around March 2017, the House of Avalon continued doing what it had been doing in Arkansas, but quickly realized that they needed to expand their horizons. Or, as Monroe describes, "We might as well chase what we want to do, you know?"
And that, they did!
After gaining a global audience through Goode's and Symone's respective Drag Race runs, the House of Avalon has become an incredibly well-respected creative collective admired not only by the talented people within it, but by the very close (and very real) bonds they have with one another.
"If you haven't learned by now, you're really not paying attention, because we're all so close-knit, and I am such a protector of everybody," Crenshaw says. "I want everyone to be good and feel good. It's just so ingrained in my soul to do that for these people."
Thanks to this Avalon TV original series on WOW Presents Plus, fans can literally watch this group working on projects, celebrating achievements, and going through both professional and personal milestones (as a group and as individuals). Namely, Avalon TV has given us actual footage of Gigi Goode getting gender-affirming care, of Symone attending the "camp"-themed Met Gala in 2021, and now Monroe and Crenshaw tying the knot in Las Vegas.
It's been a long journey for these queer creatives to establish themselves in Arkansas, make it out to Los Angeles, start from ground zero, and turn the House of Avalon into what it is today. But now that the house is so successful and well-known, one has to wonder: do Monroe and Crenshaw get flooded with requests of people wanting to join the prestigious Avalon echelon?
"I feel like, in passing, [yes]," Monroe says. "I've had the sort of privilege to travel with Symone and Gigi at different times, like when they've gone out to perform and get to meet fans, which is so much fun and exciting for me as I'm celebrating them. I have heard some, 'How do I join?' but I think it's not even about that."
Monroe elaborates, "The House of Avalon in general is more of an idea. We would much rather see as you in your space, finding your tribe, and building your own extension of [a house]. That is really the thesis of the House of Avalon. So, if you want to join, [my advice is to] find your people."
"And I think, as we get more mature, this is turning into more of a creative operation, a creative directive, a creative house," Crenshaw highlights. "We can help you, or we can talk, and we can do this. I feel like us moving away from nightlife recently has kind of opened up our brains in that way. We can do quite a bit of other things as well."
"Yeah, that's has been a goal for the whole house," Monroe adds. "We do want to be that source of creative outlets; people can come to us and we'll help build them a music video project, or a campaign, or help you conceptualize an outfit."
Crenshaw says, "We've built such a creative space [where] we get together and we just start brainstorming… we come up with the best sh*t. Anything we know, we can come up with. And if we can't, we have a bookshelf, we have a f*cking library, [and] a video closet. We have all this stuff. We can just go pick it right off the shelf and figure it out."
When asked about the future of the House of Avalon, these two love birds — and creative partners — share a similar vision, too.
"We want to be creative. That's what we want to do. That's our ultimate goal," Crenshaw declares. Monroe says, "Yeah, that is the ultimate goal. Right now, as a house, we're kind of collecting more things for the next chapter; that's when I know something else is coming, because everyone's kind of absorbing what they need to absorb… and then we can put our rings together and take over the world."
"We're in this period of 'nightlife has ended' and things are changing in Hollywood," Crenshaw observes. "And we're just like, 'What's going to happen next?' I think that we're gathering all of these things right now, and we're figuring it out."
This writer thinks that "figuring it out" sounds like a massive understatement for a group of people so clearly destined for superstardom — each of them in their own respective lanes, while keeping together this collective that is already taking over Hollywood, starring in one of the very best original shows in the WOW Presents Plus catalog, and slowly proving people wrong about what they can and cannot do. Here's to celebrating queer talent!
The grand finale of Avalon TV season 2 is now streaming on WOW Presents Plus.