Michelle Visage
Visage in 2018
Born	Michelle Lynn Shupack (1968-09-20)September 20, 1968 (age 57) Perth Amboy, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupations	Singer television personality broadcaster producer actress
Years active	1988–present
Television	RuPaul's Drag Race Celebrity Big Brother Ireland's Got Talent Strictly Come Dancing Queen of the Universe RuPaul's Drag Race UK Drag Race Down Under
Spouse	David Case ​ (m. 1997)​
Children	2
Musical career
Genres	R&B dance pop
Instrument	Vocals
Formerly of	Seduction The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M.
Website	michellevisage.com
Musical artist

Michelle Visage (bornMichelle Lynn Shupack, September 20, 1968) is an American television personality, singer, broadcaster, producer, and actress. She gained recognition as a member of thedance-pop groupSeduction, who charted five singles on theBillboard Hot 100 between 1989 and 1990. She later served as lead vocalist of theR&B anddance groupThe S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M., who reached the top of the dance charts with the single "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day" in 1993.

In 2011, Visage joined the Americanreality competition seriesRuPaul's Drag Race, and has served as a permanent judge sinceseason three. She is also a permanent judge on its spin-off seriesRuPaul's Drag Race All Stars,RuPaul's Drag Race UK,RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs. the World, andDrag Race Down Under, also hosting the latter. Visage has won 3Primetime Emmy Awards as a producer ofRuPaul's Drag Race.

Visage was a contestant on the British reality showsCelebrity Big Brother (2015) andStrictly Come Dancing (2019), and was a judge on the talent competition showIreland's Got Talent (2018–2019).

Visage grew up inNew Jersey. She was adopted and was aware of this from an early age.^[1][2] Visage, adopted by twoJewish parents, was raised Jewish.^[3] Her biological father was also Jewish, while her biological mother wasIrish andItalianCatholic.^[3] Despite living in a lower middle class town without many Jewish people, her parents worked to make sure she could attendHebrew school and have abat mitzvah, as well as having a Catholicconfirmation.^[3] She attendedSouth Plainfield High School inSouth Plainfield, New Jersey, graduating in 1986.^[4]

When Visage was 16, she won aMadonna lookalike competition.^[5] She then moved to New York and attended theAmerican Musical and Dramatic Academy inManhattan for two years.^[1] Growing up, Visage looked up to Madonna,Belinda Carlisle,Pat Benatar,Stevie Nicks,Cyndi Lauper andDale Bozzio. After finishing her studies she stayed in New York City to pursue a career as an actress.^[6]

In New York she was active in theclub scene. Her mother Arlene gave her afake ID so she could make connections to help further her career.^[7] Visage's mother died when she was 30. Visage became prominent in the New Yorkdrag ball scene and learnedvoguing from various people includingWilli Ninja.^[7] She also became involved with Cesar Valentino and the pair appeared voguing together on the television showThe Latin Connection in 1988, which they said was the first time voguing had appeared on national TV.^[8]

Michelle adopted her surname, Visage, after gaining the nickname "cara" ("face" in Spanish) from walking the face category while in the New York ball scene. However, because people pronounced it incorrectly she decided to change it to "visage" ("face" in French).^[9] She has kept the name since that time.^[10] Visage also met her future friend and co-starRuPaul for the first time in the late 1980s, when she attended club nights and parties hosted bySusanne Bartsch.^[11] In 1989, Visage performed at "The Love Ball", which was organized by Bartsch as a benefit for the Design Industries Foundation For AIDS. It is said that The Love Ball is where Madonna first witnessed voguing, the inspiration for her song "Vogue".^[1][12][13] During the day she worked as a receptionist at the shop Casablanca and Fundamental Things in the New Yorkgarment district.^[7]

Visage auditioned and won a place forSeduction, anR&B and dance vocal trio assembled byRobert Clivilles andDavid Cole that signed withA&M Records in 1990.^[6][14] The group had several hits, the most famous being "Two to Make It Right". After the group's breakup, Visage collaborated with thefreestyle dance actTKA as a guest vocalist on the song "Crash (Have Some Fun)".^[15] Visage provided lead vocals and was the recording artist of another dance act assembled by Clivilles and Cole,The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. The song "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day", which was a cover version of theBill Withers song "Lovely Day", was included on the soundtrack toThe Bodyguard.^[14] "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day" became a number-one dance single and peaked at number 34 on theBillboard Hot 100 in January 1993.^[16]

Visage has also been featured on several of RuPaul's music albums, and appears in the music videos for "New York City Beat"^[17] and "From Your Heart", which originally premiered onRuPaul's Green Screen Christmas Special (2015), and were later uploaded to World of Wonder's YouTube channel.^[18] Visage has also made guest appearances in the videos for RuPaul's songs "Glamazon",^[19] "Responsitrannity",^[20] "The Beginning"^[21] and "Nothing for Christmas".^[22]

In February 2021, it was confirmed that Visage had teamed up withSteps on a reworked version of "Heartbreak in This City".^[23][24]

Visage was the co-host of the morning show on WKTU in NYC from 1996 to 2002 where she and co-host RuPaul started working together professionally. When RuPaul left radio, Visage continued on to many morning shows including: Hot 92 Jamz (KHHT) in Los Angeles between 2002 and 2005.^[25] In 2005, Visage returned to New York City, where she served as co-host ofThe Morning Mix onWNEW-FM until December 2006. She also hosted onSirius Satellite Radio's The Beat 66 from 2003 to 2006^[26] On March 12, 2007, she became a co-host of the morning show onSUNNY 104.3 inWest Palm Beach, Florida.^[27] On January 10, 2011, she joined93.9 MIA in Miami as the host of the newMIA Morning Show.^[1] She left Miami and MIA in December 2011, moving back to Los Angeles.^[28]

Visage started co-hosting the weekly podcastRuPaul: What's the Tee? on April 9, 2014.^[29] The pair interview celebrities and discuss many topics ranging from their personal lives toRuPaul's Drag Race.^[30] The podcast won a 2018Webby Award.^[31] Visage also presentedMichelle Visage's Fabulous Divas onBBC Radio 2, with episodes broadcast in December 2019 and August 2020.^[32] In October and November 2020, she covered forRylan Clark on his BBC Radio 2 show and in February 2022 she covered forDermot O'Leary on his Saturday weekend breakfast show. As of 15 July 2022, she has begun presenting her own show each Friday night from 7 until 9pm on BBC Radio 2.^[33] In February and March 2025 Michelle covered forElaine Paige on Sunday.

Visage has worked with RuPaul on a variety of television shows throughout her career. In 1996, she became the co-host of RuPaul'sVH1 talk showThe RuPaul Show.^[34] She also co-hostedWKTU's morning show with RuPaul from 1996 to 2002. When RuPaul began casting judges forseason one ofRuPaul's Drag Race, he invited Visage to become a permanent member of the show. At the time she was on a five-year contract with aCBS radio station in West Palm Beach; after asking her boss if she could join the show he said no, which Visage put down to the show's links with theLGBTQ community.^[11][35]

Two years later, Visage was contacted again by RuPaul and invited to appear onseason three of the show. After her boss once again said she was not able to appear, she was persuaded by her friendLeah Remini to contact CBS officials who allowed her to join the show as a judge.^[36] On January 24, 2011, Visage debuted as a permanent judge, along withSantino Rice and Billy B, on season three ofRuPaul's Drag Race, replacing Merle Ginsberg. She has also appeared on all ten seasons of the spin-off show,RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.

In 2019, she received her firstPrimetime Emmy Award forOutstanding Competition Program, having been a producer ofDrag Race since itseleventh season.^[37] That same year, she became a judge onRuPaul's Drag Race UK, which airs onBBC Three.^[38] In 2021, Visage served as a judge onRuPaul's Drag Race Down Under.^[39]

In 2024, it was confirmed that Visage would be the permanent host on thefourth season ofDrag Race Down Under, taking over for RuPaul who had hosted the first three seasons.^[40][41]

On January 7, 2015, Visage became one of the contestants on thefifteenth series of the British reality seriesCelebrity Big Brother onChannel 5. On February 6, 2015, Visage left the house in fifth place.^[42] Since leaving the house she has appeared on some episodes ofCelebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side, a companion show that airs straight afterCelebrity Big Brother.^[43]

Visage has made several other TV appearances including hosting VH1's red carpet coverage of the 1998 Grammys and in 2002,Grease's 25th-anniversary re-release party.^[44] On May 13, 2017, she andRoss Mathews were the commentators forLogo TV's coverage of the Live Grand Final of theEurovision Song Contest.^[45] More recently she has appeared as a judge on the first two seasons ofIreland's Got Talent, the first of which began airing onTV3 in February 2018.^[46][47] And in 2020, Visage joined fellowIreland's Got Talent judgeLouis Walsh on the judging panel of teen recycled-fashion competitionJunk Kouture.^[48] She appeared on the televised Grand Final in February 2021, after the plans for the original live Grand Final were scuppered byCOVID-19.

On August 5, 2019, it was announced that Visage would be taking part in theseventeenth series ofStrictly Come Dancing in the UK onBBC.^[49] On September 7, it was confirmed that she was partnered withGiovanni Pernice.

• Green number indicates Michelle & Giovanni were at the top of the leaderboard.
• Red number indicates Michelle & Giovanni were at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Visage performed in herWest End debut as "Miss Hedge" inEverybody's Talking About Jamie between October 18, 2018, and January 26, 2019.^[50]

She played Morticia in the West End premiere ofThe Addams Family in concert oppositeRamin Karimloo as Gomez in February 2024.^[51]

In her early years, Visage hadanorexia, which she says began when she was around 13 years old and continued into her adult life.^[1][52] Visage isvegan.^[53]

She lives in California with her husband, David Case, who she has been with for 28 years, and her two children.^[54] On November 10, 2015, she published her first book,The Diva Rules.^[55]

OnWhat's the Tee?, her podcast with RuPaul, Visage said that as an adult, she has had sex with men and women. "I've been with women; I've had sex with women... But I realized I never wanted to have a relationship [with them]."^[56]

In April 2019, Visage revealed she hadHashimoto's disease, and so had her breast implants removed.^[57]

• List of Celebrity Big Brother (British TV series) housemates
• List of Strictly Come Dancing contestants

Wikiquote has quotations related toMichelle Visage.

• Official website
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• Michelle Visage atIMDb
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• RuPaul: What's The Tee? With Michelle Visage
• Michelle Visage (BBC Radio 2)
• Michelle Visage's Rule Breakers (BBC Radio 2)

• 1968 births
• Living people
• American women television personalities
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• American television personalities
• American adoptees
• 21st-century American Jews
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• BBC Radio 2 presenters
• People from South Plainfield, New Jersey
• Primetime Emmy Award winners
• Singers from New Jersey
• South Plainfield High School alumni
• 21st-century American women singers
• American Musical and Dramatic Academy alumni
• Judges in American reality television series
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