Michelle Visage

Michelle Lynn Shupack, better known as Michelle Visage (born September 20, 1968), is an American singer, television host, actress, radio DJ and producer. She first gained recognition as a member of the musical group Seduction, who 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., who 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, and has served as a permanent judge since season three. She is also a permanent judge on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, 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. She was adopted and was aware of this from an early age. Visage, adopted by two Jewish parents, was raised Jewish. Her biological father was also Jewish, while her biological mother was Irish and Italian Catholic. Despite living in a lower middle class town without many Jewish people, her parents worked to make sure she could attend Hebrew school and have a Bat Mitzvah. She attended South Plainfield High School in South Plainfield, New Jersey, graduating in 1986. When Visage was 16, she won a Madonna lookalike competition. She then moved to New York and attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan for two years. Growing up, Visage looked up to Madonna, Belinda Carlisle, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks, Cyndi Lauper and Dale Bozzio. 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. Her mother Arlene gave her a fake ID so she could make connections to help further her career. Visage's mother died when she was 30. Visage became prominent in the New York drag ball scene and learned voguing from various people including Willi Ninja. 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.