Michelle Visage Biography

Michelle Lynn Shupack (born September 20, 1968), professionally known by her stage name Michelle Visage, is an American singer, television host, radio DJ, author, and television personality. She began her career as a member of the female vocal trio Seduction. After the band's separation, Visage became the lead singer for The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. in 1992. She also featured as a guest vocalist on the single "Crash" for TKA.

Visage later became a co-host for the VH1 talk show, The RuPaul Show opposite RuPaul. She also hosted red carpet coverages for the 1998 Grammy Awards and the 25-year anniversary re-release party for Grease. Since January 2011, Visage has been a judge on the Logo TV reality competition show RuPaul's Drag Race, as well as its spin-off RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars.

Visage became a housemate on the fifteenth series of Celebrity Big Brother on January 7, 2015. Visage left the house on February 6, 2015 in fifth place.

Early and personal life

Michelle Visage was born Michelle Lynn Shupack. She says she is Hungarian and Irish-Catholic by birth and was adopted and raised by a Jewish family. She went to an arts high school in South Plainfield, New Jersey and then attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan. When Visage was 16 she won a Madonna look-alike competition. Shortly after finishing her studies she headed to New York City to pursue a career as an actress. She now lives in California with her husband and her two daughters.

Career

Visage auditioned and won a place for Seduction, an R&B and dance vocal trio assembled by Robert Clivilles and David Cole that signed with A&M Records in 1990. The group had several pop and dance hits, which included "Two to Make It Right". After the group's breakup, Visage collaborated with freestyle dance act TKA as a guest vocalist on the song "Crash (Have Some Fun)". Visage provided lead vocals to another dance act assembled by Clivilles & 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 the Bill Withers song "Lovely Day", was included on the soundtrack to The Bodyguard. "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day" became a #1 dance single that year and song peaked at #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1993.

In 1996, Visage became the co-host of RuPaul's VH1 talk show The RuPaul Show. She also co-hosted with RuPaul on WKTU's morning show from 1996 to 2002. In 1997, she was featured on RuPaul's Christmas album Ho, Ho, Ho on the songs "With Bells On" & "Hard Candy Christmas". She has also hosted such television programming as VH1's red carpet coverage of the 1998 Grammys and, in 2002, Grease's 25th-anniversary re-release party. Visage was also co-host of The Jamz Session on Hot 92 Jamz (KHHT) in Los Angeles from 2002 to 2005.

In 2005, Visage returned to New York City where she served as co-host of The Morning Mix on (WNEW-FM) until December 2006. She also hosted on Sirius Satellite Radio's The Beat 66 from 2003-2006 On March 12, 2007, she became a co-host of the morning show on SUNNY 104.3 in West Palm Beach, 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 WMIA in December 2011 and moved back to Los Angeles. On January 24, 2011, Visage debuted as the second permanent judge on Logo TV's reality-television series RuPaul's Drag Race, where she replaced former judge Merle Ginsberg, and is also a judge on the spin-off show, RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars. Michelle also features on RuPaul's albums, Born Naked on the song "Let The Music Play", RuPaul Presents: CoverGurlz2 on the song "New York City Beat", Realness on the song, "LA Rhythm", Slay Belles on the song, "From Your Heart", and Butch Queen, where she has a speaking part on the song, "Category Is...". She also appears in the videos for "New York City Beat" & "From Your Heart", which originally premiered on RuPaul's Green Screen Christmas Special (2015), and was later uploaded to World of Wonder's YouTube channel. She has also made guest appearances in RuPaul's videos for "Glamazon", "Responsitrannity", "The Beginning" & "Nothing For Christmas", which is mostly taken from archive footage.

On January 7, 2015, Visage became one of the contestants on the fifteenth series of the British reality series, Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5. On February 6, 2015, Visage left the house in fifth place.

On November 10, 2015, she published her first book, The Diva Rules.

Discography

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Guest appearances

Song	Year	Artist	Album
"Let the Music Play"	2014	RuPaul	Born Naked
"Manila Radio (Interlude)"		Manila Luzon	Eternal Queen
"New York City Beat"	2015	RuPaul	RuPaul Presents: CoverGurlz2
"L.A. Rhythm"			Realness
"L.A. Rhythm" (Remix)
"From Your Heart"			Slay Belles

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1989	Dance Party USA	Herself
1990	Club MTV
1997	The RuPaul Show
2002	Maybe It's Me	Tania
2011-present	RuPaul's Drag Race	Herself
	RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked
2013	That Sex Show
2013-2014	The Most Popular Girls in School	Mrs. Zales
2015	Celebrity Big Brother UK	Herself

Podcast

On April 9, 2014, RuPaul: What"?s The Tee? With Michelle Visage podcast debuted. The weekly show (formerly fortnightly) features RuPaul and Michelle"?s thoughts on behind the scenes of RuPaul's Drag Race and life advice, beauty tips, and conversations with featured guests from members of the entertainment world amongst other topics. The show is available on the What's The Tee website, Stitcher, Soundcloud and iTunes.