Michelle Lynn Case (nee Shupack), better known as Michelle Visage (born September 20, 1968), is an American

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

television host A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garne ...

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

, radio DJ and producer. She first gained recognition as a member of the musical group

Seduction Seduction has multiple meanings. Platonically, it can mean "to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty", or "to lead astray, usually by persuasion or false promises". Strategies of seduction include conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual ...

which charted five singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. She later served as lead vocalist of another group

The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. was an American R&B and dance music group, assembled by Robert Clivillés and David Cole of C&C Music Factory, that was active in 1992. The group featured lead vocals by Michelle Visage, who was formerly a member of an ...

which reached the top of the dance charts with the single "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day" in 1993. In 2011, she joined the American reality competition series ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

'', and has served as a permanent judge since

season three A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. She is also a permanent judge on ''

RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars ''RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars'' is an American reality competition spin off edition of the original ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', which is produced by World of Wonder, for Logo TV and later VH1. The show premiered on October 22, 2012, on Logo TV, b ...

'', '' RuPaul's Drag Race UK'', and '' RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under''. Visage has won 3 Primetime Emmy Awards as a producer of ''RuPaul's Drag Race''.

Early life

Visage grew up in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. She was adopted and was aware of this from an early age. Visage, adopted by two

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

parents, was raised Jewish. Her biological father was also Jewish, while her biological mother was

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Despite living in a lower middle class town without many Jewish people, her parents worked to make sure she can attend Hebrew school and have a Bat Mitzvah. She attended

South Plainfield High School South Plainfield High School (or SPHS) is a four-year, co-ed comprehensive community public high school located in South Plainfield in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades and operating ...

South Plainfield, New Jersey South Plainfield is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 23,385,Madonna lookalike competition. She then moved to New York and attended the

American Musical and Dramatic Academy The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) is a private conservatory for the performing arts located in New York City and Los Angeles, California. The conservatory offers both Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and two-year certificates in prof ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

for two years. Growing up, Visage looked up to Madonna,

Belinda Carlisle Belinda Jo Carlisle ( ; born August 17, 1958) is an American singer. She gained fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist. Raised in ...

Pat Benatar Patricia Mae Giraldo ('' née'' Andrzejewski, formerly Benatar; born January 10, 1953), known professionally as Pat Benatar, is an American rock singer and songwriter. In the United States, she has had two multi-platinum albums, five platinum al ...

, Stevie Nicks,

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...

and Dale Bozzio. Visage's mother died when she was 30. After finishing her studies she stayed in New York City to pursue a career as an actress. In New York she was active in the

club scene A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

and her mother, Arlene, even gave her a

fake ID Identity document forgery is the process by which identity documents issued by governing bodies are copied and/or modified by persons not authorized to create such documents or engage in such modifications, for the purpose of deceiving those ...

so she could make connections to help further her career. Visage became prominent in the New York drag ball scene and learned voguing from various people including

Willi Ninja William Roscoe Leake (April 12, 1961 – September 2, 2006), better known as Willi Ninja, was an American dancer and choreographer best known for his appearance in the documentary film ''Paris Is Burning (film), Paris Is Burning''.Juan Battle ...

. She also became involved with Cesar Valentino and the pair appeared voguing together on the television show ''The Latin Connection'' in 1988, which they said was the first time voguing had appeared on national TV. Michelle adopted her surname, Visage, after gaining the nickname "''cara''" ("face" in Spanish) from the people she spent time with in the New York ball scene. However, because people pronounced it incorrectly she decided to change it to "''visage''" ("face" in French - a language she studied during middle and high school), a name she has stuck with. Visage also met her future friend and co-star RuPaul for the first time in the late 1980s, when she attended club nights and parties hosted by Susanne Bartsch. 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 Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

". During the day she worked as a receptionist at the shop Casablanca and Fundamental Things in the New York garment district.

Career

Music recording and music videos

Visage auditioned and won a place for

, an R&B and dance vocal trio assembled by

Robert Clivilles The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

and David Cole that signed with

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

in 1990.Michelle Visage young: Strictly Come Dancing star looks completely different in old photos
Daily Express (August 5, 2019) The group had several hits, the most famous being " Two to Make It Right". After the group's breakup, Visage collaborated with the freestyle dance act TKA as a guest vocalist on the song " Crash (Have Some Fun)". Visage provided lead vocals and was the recording artist of another dance act assembled by Clivilles and Cole,

The song "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day", which was a cover version of the

Bill Withers William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including " Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), " Grandma's Hands" (1971), " Use Me" (197 ...

song " Lovely Day", was included on the soundtrack to '' The Bodyguard''. "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day" became a number-one dance single and peaked at number 34 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in January 1993. Visage has also been featured on several of RuPaul's music albums, and appears in the music videos for "New York City Beat" and "From Your Heart", which originally premiered on ''RuPaul's Green Screen Christmas Special'' (2015), and were later uploaded to World of Wonder's YouTube channel. Visage has also made guest appearances in the videos for RuPaul's songs "Glamazon", "Responsitrannity", "The Beginning" and "Nothing for Christmas". In February 2021, it was confirmed that Visage had teamed up with Steps on a reworked version of "Heartbreak In This City".

Radio and podcasts

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. In 2005, Visage returned to New York City, where she served as co-host of ''The Morning Mix'' on

WNEW-FM WNEW-FM (102.7 FM, ''NEW 102.7'') is a hot adult contemporary formatted radio station, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Ma ...

until December 2006. She also hosted on

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings. Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially lau ...

's The Beat 66 from 2003 to 2006 On March 12, 2007, she became a co-host of the morning show on SUNNY 104.3 in

West Palm Beach West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

, Florida. On January 10, 2011, she joined 93.9 MIA in Miami as the host of the new ''MIA Morning Show''. She left Miami and MIA in December 2011, moving back to Los Angeles. Visage started co-hosting the weekly podcast '' RuPaul: What's the Tee?'' on April 9, 2014. The pair interview celebrities and discuss many topics ranging from their personal lives to ''RuPaul's Drag Race''. The podcast won a 2018

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

. Visage also presented ''Michelle Visage's Fabulous Divas'' on BBC Radio 2, with episodes broadcast in December 2019 and August 2020. In October and November 2020, she covered for

Rylan Clark-Neal Ross Richard Clark (born 25 October 1988), known professionally as Rylan, is an English broadcaster and model. He finished in fifth place on the ninth series of '' The X Factor'' in 2012, and the following year, he won the eleventh series of ...

on his BBC Radio 2 show and in February 2022 she covered for

Dermot O'Leary Seán Dermot Fintan O'Leary Jr. (born 24 May 1973) is an English broadcaster who currently works for ITV and BBC Radio 2. His radio career began when he worked as a disc jockey at Essex Radio, but he is best known for being the presenter of ' ...

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.

Television

Visage has worked with RuPaul on a variety of television shows throughout her career. In 1996, she became the co-host of RuPaul's VH1 talk show '' The RuPaul Show''. She also co-hosted

WKTU WKTU (103.5 FM) is a rhythmic adult contemporary formatted radio station licensed to Lake Success, New York, a suburb of New York City. WKTU is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neig ...

's morning show with RuPaul from 1996 to 2002. And when Ru began casting judges for season one of ''RuPaul'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 a

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

radio station in West Palm Beach and after asking her boss if she could join the show he said no, which Visage put down to the show's links with the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

community.

''RuPaul's Drag Race''

Two years later Visage was contacted by RuPaul again and invited to appear on

of the show. After her boss once again said she was not able to appear, she was persuaded by her friend Leah Remini to contact CBS officials who allowed her to join the show as a judge. So on January 24, 2011, Visage debuted as a permanent judge, along with

Santino Rice Santino Quinto Rice (born 20 August 1974) is an American fashion designer and television personality. He is best known for his appearances on the reality television programs ''Project Runway'', ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and '' On the Road with Aus ...

and Billy B, on season three of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', replacing Merle Ginsberg. She has also appeared on all seven seasons of the spin-off show, ''

''. In 2019, she received her first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Competition Program, having been a producer of ''Drag Race'' since its eleventh season. That same year she became a judge on '' RuPaul's Drag Race UK'', which airs on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

. In 2021, Visage served as a judge on '' RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under''.

Other appearances

On January 7, 2015, Visage became one of the contestants on the fifteenth series of the British reality series ''

Celebrity Big Brother ''Big Brother VIP'', is an adaptation of the '' Big Brother'' reality television series. It is the celebrity version of its parent franchise ''Big Brother'', the celebrity version airs in several countries, however, the housemates or houseguest ...

'' on Channel 5. On February 6, 2015, Visage left the house in fifth place. Since leaving the house she has appeared on some episodes of '' Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side'', a companion show that airs straight after ''Celebrity Big Brother''. Visage has made several other TV appearances including hosting VH1's red carpet coverage of the 1998 Grammys and in 2002, '' Grease'' 25th-anniversary re-release party. On May 13, 2017, she and

Ross Mathews Ross Mathews (born September 24, 1979) is an American television host and personality. He first rose to fame as an intern and a correspondent for ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''; he was known as "Ross the Intern" on air. Mathews has appeared ...

were the commentators for

Logo TV Logo TV (often shortened to Logo, and stylized as Logo.) is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched in 2005, Logo was originally dedicated to lifestyle and entertainment progr ...

's coverage of the Live Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest. More recently she has appeared as a judge on the first two seasons of ''

Ireland's Got Talent ''Ireland's Got Talent'' is the Irish version of the international ''Got Talent'' franchise. The series launched on 3 February 2018 on Virgin Media One (formerly known as "TV3") and was hosted by Lucy Kennedy, accompanied by a sister show entit ...

'', the first of which began airing on TV3 in February 2018. And in 2020, Visage joined fellow ''Ireland's Got Talent'' judge

Louis Walsh Michael Louis Vincent Walsh (born 5 August 1952) is an Irish music manager and television personality. He has managed Johnny Logan, Boyzone, Jedward and Westlife, four of Ireland's most successful pop acts in the 1990s and 2000s. He later be ...

on the judging panel of teen recycled-fashion competition ''Junk Kouture''. She appeared on the televised Grand Final in February 2021, after the plans for the original live Grand Final were scuppered by

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

''Strictly Come Dancing''

On August 5, 2019, it was announced that Visage would be taking part in the seventeenth series of '' Strictly Come Dancing'' in the UK on

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

. On September 7, it was confirmed that she was partnered with Giovanni 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.

Theater

Visage performed in her West End debut as "Miss Hedge" in '' Everybody's Talking About Jamie'' between October 18, 2018, and January 26, 2019.

Personal life

In her early years, Visage suffered from anorexia, an eating disorder which she says began when she was around 13 years old and continued into her adult life. Visage is

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

. She lives in California with her husband, David Case, and her two daughters. On November 10, 2015, she published her first book, ''The Diva Rules''. On Episode 214 of ''What's the Tee?'', her podcast with RuPaul, Visage said that as an adult, she has had sex with both men and women. "I've been with women; I've had sex with women... But I realized I never wanted to have a relationship ith them" In April 2019, Visage revealed she had Hashimoto's disease, which led to getting her trademark breast implants removed.

Early life

Career

Music recording and music videos

Radio and podcasts

Television

''RuPaul's Drag Race''

Other appearances

''Strictly Come Dancing''

Theater

Personal life

Discography

Albums

Singles

Guest appearances

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Notes

See also

References

External links