Janee Michelle (born Geneva Leona Mercadel; 1946), also known as Gee Tucker, is an American actress, former model, dancer, and businessperson, best known for her role in the 1974 horror film The House on Skull Mountain.

Michelle's acting in the television series The Outcasts in 1968 was critically acclaimed, which led to several offers of film roles.

[6] Her paternal great-grandfather was a shoemaker who immigrated to New York from Champagne, France before moving to New Orleans in pursuit of a warmer climate.

[6] She attended Rivers Frederick Junior High School where her principal, Leah McKenna, encouraged her to pursue a career in entertainment.

[6] As a stage actor, she appeared in productions of MacBird!, The Death of Daddy Hugs and Kisses, Ride a Wild Horse,[12] The Vagina Monologues, In the Blink of an Eye, and other plays.

[15] Michelle's acting in the television series The Outcasts was critically acclaimed,[2] leading to several offers of film roles.

The Outcasts reviews also led to her appearance in an episode of Love, American Style alongside Greg Morris, known for his role in the Mission: Impossible television series.

[2] The article declares Michelle to be one of several up-and-coming African-American actresses, along with Gloria Foster, Gail Fisher, and Denise Nicholas.

[17] In the corresponding interview with Jet, Michelle said although racial inequality in the United States may have been a career obstacle for African-American women in the past, "that's not it today—and that's for sure".

[21] In 1973,[22] Michelle collaborated with actors Judy Pace and Lillian Lehman to found Kwanza,[23] a Hollywood, California-based nonprofit organization named after the African diaspora celebration Kwanzaa.

Run entirely by African American actresses on a volunteer basis, Kwanza initially provided food to people in need at Christmas.

[22] Michelle and the other two co-founders each enlisted five other African American actresses to volunteer with the organization and, together, they raised enough funds to provide food to 75 families that first Christmas.

[18] In the Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television, Bob McCann writes that Michelle "is quite pretty and gives a charming performance in her undemanding role".

[3] A Variety reviewer provided a similar appraisal of Michelle's appearance, calling her attractive and her role chic.

[11] In 1977, Michelle's cousin, Anthony "Chuck" Mercadel, was chosen to be that year's king of the Zulu parade, part of New Orleans Mardi Gras.

She flew to New Orleans to be ceremoniously greeted at the airport by a band and some Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club members.

Mackie had designed outfits for Cher, from whom Michelle borrowed a beige turkey feather boa and headdress for the parade.

[7] Of her promenade around the ballroom, during which she swayed her shoulders and hips, Michelle later said "high-school girls were imitating it for a year after that: the 'Zulu queen' walk".

[29] After Tucker had repeatedly been unsuccessful in being elected to public office, he convinced Michelle to go into business with him and stop working for Copeland.

Michelle said they made this decision because "we had seen other businesses start out strongly, graduate from the SBA 8-A program and fail [and] we wanted to be able to know that we could compete without it".

"[31] Eventually, Tucker and Associates began receiving contracts requiring a variety of services, including personnel, data processing, finance, and marketing.

[32] Michelle was a director of Hibernia National Bank while it was a Forbes 500 company, and as of 2002[update], she is the chief operating officer of Tucker and Associates.

[7] In a 1969 interview with the magazine Tan, Michelle indicated that DoQui's fashion preferences were an important factor in her clothing purchase decisions, saying, "I think a girl should dress for her husband".

She went on to say that women no longer worked hard enough to retain the respect and love of their husbands, and the interviewer describes Michelle as following her own advice: "She dotes so much on her man, invests so much of herself in him, his well-being".