Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. gay) anyone considered to be making an excessive fuss or ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’; occas. as v., to lit. or fig. overact; occas. ‘masc.’ as drama king.

1991		D. Gaines Teenage Wasteland 71: Joe was very intense, a real drama queen.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 214: Patrice is a drama queen: she hates not to be the centre of attention.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] Yeah. I think I’m drama queening here just a bit. That’s me, Les Norton aka Bette Davis.
2003		K. Cage Gayle 65/1: DQ (abbr.) drama queen, someone who creates a fuss at the slightest opportunity.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] She [...] looked around the bar with big scared eyes. Drama queen.
2007		B. Coleman Check the Technique 384: ‘In some cases you have to take a certain percentage off whatever Ahmir says about stuff like that. He's a drama king’.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 154: Claire [...] brushed past me into the lounge, being a proper drama queen.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 387: Fucking drama queen.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 96: Dr. Benjamin Rush [...] a prison reformer, and a bit of a drama queen.
2010		W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 65: Queen is often preceded by a noun or adjective that indicates a place of residence, character or preference. Indicative of this are terms like drama queen.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 217: All babies are drama queens.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] ‘She’s a drama queen — everyone round here knows’.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 146: Self-indulgent pansy bourgeois drama queens.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 367: ‘She’s such a focking drama queen’.