Growing up, Michelle Visage had many aspirations. She thought of making a career in music, and if that did not come to fruition, her secondary plans were either to become a Broadway actress or try her luck in movies.

“My dreams were ridiculous. But the beauty of being a child is being able to dream big,” she told The Guardian exclusively in March 2020.

Is Michelle Visage a Drag Queen?

Visage’s upbringing and life story have a lot to do with who she is today.

She said her parents knew nothing about show business but encouraged her to attend a drama school in New York when she was seventeen.

At the same time, her mom gave her a fake ID asking her to visit New York clubs and meet people.

She then came across the gay ballroom world, a part of the New York club scene where different drag “houses” formed a large group of friends and competed against each other with their performance.

Visage was welcomed in a group called Magnifiques, consisting of thirty members or “family,” as she would like to call them.

Michelle Visage of RuPaul's Drag Race

Entertainment personality Michelle Visage posing for a picture. (Photo Credit: Instagram)

A cisgender, white, middle-class female being allowed in a group as such was unheard of; visage says she felt “really special.”

During the time, she slept with women as well as men without identifying her gender.

“It was just if I saw a pretty girl and I was attracted to her, why not?” Visage told the publication.

While she was busy giving a rundown of her personal life and career, the television personality reportedly stood up from her chair to pull down her trousers, revealing a tattoo with the text “drag queen” inked on the top of her thigh.

In her supplement, she said that’s who she is, and that’s what she identifies as.

Getting to Know Michelle Visage

Visage got her first break in acting with a paid role at a local theatre at the age of thirteen. It made her feel that she was good enough, especially when everybody else had disregard for her.

And when she turned nineteen, her dreams became rosier with her incorporation in the girl band Seduction. The band went platinum, and the members enjoyed playing in packed arenas around the country. 

Visage said it was the most incredible time of her life, but financial troubles meant the group did not last beyond their one-hit single.

At one point, she took a job in a strip club as the host of a hot-oil wrestling show.

The presently well-known radio host saw a lot of ups and downs in the early part of her career.

In fact, it wasn’t until her 40s that Visage would become the star she dreamt of becoming.

While she did not make it to Broadway or become a movie star, her work as a judge in the reality television show RuPaul’s Drag Race showered her with overnight fame.

The show positively impacted multiple cultures and, in recognition, has several Emmy wins to its name.

In addition, her involvement in UK’s Celebrity Big brother, followed by Strictly Come Dancing, exposed her to an even bigger audience in 2019.