Michele Smith

Michele Smith is an American Model, Actress, TV Hostess and Fashion Designer. She is more commonly known as the Hostess of the TV series American Thunder. She auditioned to become one of Barker's Beauties on The Price is Right during its 24th season.

Modeling Career, Fashion[]

When she first began her career as a working model, Michele first started as a pin-up girl. Most of those jobs did were sexy-type photos seen in motorcycle calendars, posters, catalogs and magazine covers like Playboy, Muscle and Fitness, Swimwear USA, Swimwear International, Neue Revue., Wild Motorcycles, Full Throttle, V-Twin, Hot Rod, Easyriders, and Iron Works.

In addition to her modeling credentials, she also worked as a Fashion Designer as she designed women's clothing and lingerie, especially for the motorcycle market.

Acting[]

Aside from her blossoming modeling career and her work as a fashion designer, Smith also became a regular in front of TV cameras as well. She successfully landed gigs in TV commercials both in America and abroad. While living in Germany for a while, she was "Heidi" the West Cigarette Girl and has appeared in European television commercials as well as billboards and magazines.

Back in America, Michele landed guest starring roles on a number of TV shows which include Married With Children, Out of This World and Anything But Love. She also went on to appear in a number of film shorts such as Dorf on Golf in 1987, Dorf and the First Games of Mount Olympus and Dorf's Golf Bible (both in 1988) and Dorf Goes Auto Racing in 1990 and in all of these video shorts, she played a character named Boom Boom.

She was spotted on the cover of Easy Riders Roadware clothing catalog and it was there that landed her the job as the hostess of the television series American Thunder. which aired on the now-defunct cable network channel Speed, which was dedicated to motorsports programming as well as automotive-focused programs.

Price is Right Audition[]

With already an impressive resume' and long-listing credentials, Michele wanted to expand her empire even further. She auditioned to become the newest Barker's Beauty on the television Game Show The Price is Right during its 24th season on the air.

In the fall of 1995, fans saw a number of changes to the series' lineup: Gena Lee Nolin, who was previously selected as the newest Barker's Beauty (permanently replacing 18-year legendary long veteran Dian Parkinson, who departed back in June 1993) the previous season, parted ways with Price after the first week of the show's 24th season as she landed a contract role on the primetime television series Baywatch. Also, just weeks after Gena's departure, longtime model and fan favorite Holly Hallstrom was abruptly dismissed from the series (which left fans angry and furious) after almost 19 years as her final appearance aired on October 27th. With Holly and Gena gone, it was then decided by the show's producers to downsize the number of Barker's Beauties from four to three.

Michele was the one and only newcomer to audition to permanently replace Gena Lee as a small number of candidates from Season 22 model tryouts were invited back to appear for a period of weeks: Cindy Margolis, Annette Marroquin, Mindy Kennedy Alvarez, Chantel Dubay and longtime substitute model Kyle Aletter.

Michele's first run of tryout appearance are believed to have aired in late November-early December, followed by a handful of return appearances in mid-February 1996. Later that April, it was Chantel (first appearing in February 1994 during Season 22 model tryouts), who was announced as the newest Barker's Beauty (permanently replacing Gena) as she continued on with the series until the start of it's 28th Season (airdate: September 20, 1999) as she, in turn, was permanently replaced by former 90s Playboy Centerfold Nikki Ziering (on the same show) as she was first introduced by host Bob Barker.

Later Career[]

After her stint as a Barker's Beauty on The Price is Right, Michele continued on with her career in modeling, acting and TV hosting. She went on to grace magazine covers such as Wild Motorcycles and Full Throttle and also appearances in V-Twin, Hot Rod or Easy Riders.

There were also stories about her and her work on American Thunder in the Iron Works magazine as well as many others and was always ready to do an interview without hesitation.

As of today, Michele occasionally still does television appearances and also modeling too.