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Michelle Visage (born Michelle Lynn Shupack, September 20, 1968) is an American television personality, singer, broadcaster, producer, and actress. She gained recognition as a member of the dance-pop group Seduction, who charted five singles on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1989 and 1990. She later served as lead vocalist of the R&B and Dance Moms 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, Visage 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 its spin-off series RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, RuPaul's Drag Race UK, , and Drag Race Down Under, also hosting the latter. Visage has won 3 Primetime Emmy Awards as a producer of RuPaul's Drag Race.
Visage was a contestant on the British reality shows Celebrity Big Brother (2015) and Strictly Come Dancing (2019), and was a judge on the talent competition show Ireland's Got Talent (2018–2019).
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 Nightclub. 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 Ball culture 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 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). She has kept the name since that time. 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". During the day she worked as a receptionist at the shop Casablanca and Fundamental Things in the New York garment district.
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".
Visage started co-hosting the weekly podcast 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. 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 on his BBC Radio 2 show and in February 2022 she covered for Dermot 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. In February and March 2025 Michelle covered for Elaine Paige on Sunday.
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. In 2021, Visage served as a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under.
In 2024, it was confirmed that Visage would be the permanent host on the fourth season of Drag Race Down Under, taking over for RuPaul who had hosted the first three seasons.
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 were the commentators for Logo TV'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, the first of which began airing on TV3 in February 2018. And in 2020, Visage joined fellow Ireland's Got Talent judge Louis Walsh 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.
| Week No. | Dance/Song | Judges' score | Total | Result | |||
| Horwood | Mabuse | Ballas | Tonioli | ||||
| 1 | Cha-Cha-Cha / "So Emotional" | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 30 | No Elimination |
| 2 | Viennese Waltz / "That's Amore" | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | Safe | |
| 3 | Quickstep / "Cabaret" | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 35 | Safe |
| 4 | Salsa / "Quimbara" | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 31 | Safe |
| 5 | Rhumba / "Too Good at Goodbyes" | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 28 | Safe |
| 6 | Foxtrot / " The Addams Family Theme" | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Safe | |
| 7 | Paso Doble / "Another One Bites The Dust" | 8 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 34 | Safe |
| 8 | American Smooth / "I Just Want to Make Love to You" | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 36 | Bottom two |
| 9 | Street dance / "Vogue" | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | Eliminated | |
She played Morticia in the West End premiere of The Addams Family in concert opposite Ramin Karimloo as Gomez in February 2024.
She lives in California with her husband, David Case, who she has been with for 28 years, and her two children. On November 10, 2015, she published her first book, The Diva Rules.
On What'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."
In April 2019, Visage revealed she had Hashimoto's disease, and so had her breast implants removed.
| Nothing Matters Without Love | 1989 | Seduction |
| "Seduction Theme" | 1989 | Seduction | Nothing Matters Without Love |
| "(You're My One and Only) True Love" | 1990 | ||
| "Two to Make It Right" | |||
| "Heartbeat" | |||
| "Could This Be Love" | |||
| "Breakdown" | |||
| "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day" | 1992 | The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. | The Bodyguard soundtrack |
| "Heartbreak in This City" | 2021 | Steps | What the Future Holds Pt. 2 |
| "Crash (Have Some Fun)" | 1991 | TKA | Single |
| "Hard Candy Christmas" | 1997 | RuPaul | Ho, Ho, Ho |
| "With Bells On" | |||
| "Let the Music Play" | 2014 | Born Naked | |
| "Manila Radio (Interlude)" | Manila Luzon | Eternal Queen | |
| "New York City Beat" | 2015 | RuPaul | |
| "L.A. Rhythm" | Realness | ||
| "L.A. Rhythm" (Remix) | |||
| "From Your Heart" | Slay Belles | ||
| "Category Is..." | 2016 | Butch Queen |
| Dance Party USA | Herself | |||
| Club MTV | ||||
| The RuPaul Show | Co-host | |||
| Maybe It's Me | Tania | |||
| RuPaul's Drag Race | Herself | Judge (season 3–present) Producer (season 11–present) | ||
| Judge | ||||
| That Sex Show | ||||
| The Most Popular Girls in School | Web Series | Mrs. Zales | ||
| Celebrity Big Brother 15 | Herself | Housemate, 5th Place (Series 15) | ||
| Eurovision Song Contest | Commentator for the United States | |||
| Ireland's Got Talent | Herself | Judge | ||
| The X Factor | Simon Cowell's Judges Houses Guest (Series 15) | |||
| Everybody's Talking About Jamie | Miss Hedge | West End debut | ||
| 2019 | The Only Way Is Essex | Herself | Cameo | |
| RuPaul | ||||
| Game Grumps | Web series | Episode: "Playing Viva Pinata with Michelle Visage + Lillie" | ||
| Strictly Come Dancing | Television | Contestant; 7th place (Series 17) | ||
| Judge (Series 1–present) | ||||
| How's Your Head, Hun? | Host | |||
| Guest Judge (Series 2, Episode 4) | ||||
| Guest Host/Judge (Season 1, Episode 9) | ||||
| 2021 | Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway | Star Guest Announcer | ||
| 2021–present | RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under | Judge (Seasons 1–3) Host & Head Judge (Season 4–present) | ||
| 2021 | Helen | TV special (1 episode) | ||
| Celebrity Gogglebox for Su2c | Herself | Stand Up to Cancer special (Series 18, episode 5); alongside Graham Norton | ||
| The Wendy Williams Show | Special Guest (3 episodes) | |||
| 2021–2023 | Queen of the Universe | Judge | ||
| 2021 | The Bitch Who Stole Christmas | Movie | Narrator | |
| 2022–present | Television | Herself | Judge | |
| 2023 | Survival of the Thickest | Television | Avery | Recurring role |
| 2024 | RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars | Television | Herself | Judge |
| 2024 | Television | Elaine | Recurring role (Season 1, Episode 2 & Episode 6) | |
| 2015 | The Icon Awards | Straight Ally Award | Herself | ||
| 2017 | WOWIE Awards | Best Twitter | |||
| Best Podcast | |||||
| 2018 | Webby Awards | Best Host (Podcast, as co-host) | |||
| 2019 | WOWIE Awards | Best Podcast | |||
| Best TV Moment | Strictly Come Dancing | ||||
| Critic's Choice Real TV Awards | Female Star of the Year | Herself | |||
| Producers Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television | RuPaul's Drag Race (as producer) | |||
| 2020 | Producers Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television | |||
| British Academy Television Awards | Best Reality and Constructed Factual | RuPaul's Drag Race UK | |||
| British LGBT Awards | Deutsche Bank – Celebrity Ally | Herself | |||
| Queerty | Drag Royalty | ||||
| Podcast | RuPaul: What's the Tee? | ||||
| Attitude Awards | Ally Award | Herself | |||
| Critics' Choice Real TV Awards | Female Star of the Year | ||||
| National Television Awards | Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award | RuPaul's Drag Race UK | |||
| 2021 | Critics' Choice Real TV Awards | Female Star of the Year | Herself | ||
| Producers Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television | RuPaul's Drag Race (as producer) | |||
| National Television Awards | Talent Show | RuPaul's Drag Race UK | |||
| 2022 | WOWIE Awards | Best TV Moment | The Wendy Williams Show (with Leah Remini) | ||
| Best Documentary | Explant | ||||
| British Academy Television Awards | Best Reality and Constructed Factual | RuPaul's Drag Race UK | |||
| National Television Awards | Talent Show | ||||
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