Miss Cleo: The 90s’ Infamous Psychic
Few things are as 90s as cheesy TV commercials. A particularly 90s series of commercials were the ones featuring the bold and brassy Miss Cleo of Psychic Readers Network. So what happened to Miss Cleo after her late-90s/early aughts stint as TV’s most infamous psychic?
A TV Personality With Unclear Origins
Miss Cleo’s story is difficult to cobble together. The following is an amalgamation of info from the 2022 documentary Call Me Miss Cleo and news articles throughout the years. But as with Miss Cleo’s claims about being psychic, take it with a grain of salt. If you seek the truth, you’ll have to go down that fascinating rabbit hole yourself.
An LA Girl Named Youree Dell
Miss Cleo was born Youree Dell Harris on August 12, 1962 in Los Angeles, California. Well, at least according to official records. Friends interviewed in the 2022 documentary say Cleo was born in Jamaica, but her mother left her to American parents when she was very young.
From “A Family Of Spooky People”
In an interview with Vice, Miss Cleo claimed she came “from a family of Obeah—which is another word for voodoo”. But the word “voodoo” has a bad rap, so she used the term “psychic” instead. She also claimed she studied under a Haitian mambo for 30 years.
Telepictures Productions, Jenny Jones (1991–2003)
A Troubled Childhood, According To Friends
According to friends interviewed in her documentary, Cleo often felt like an outsider at school due to her height. She also told a story about an assault from a family member. Friends say that as an adult, Miss Cleo exhibited symptoms of multiple personalities, possibly as a way to cope.
Officially, Her Origins Were Stateside
According to official documents, Cleo’s parents were David Harris of Texas and Alisa Teresa Hopis of California. They were 37 and 36 when she was born in Los Angeles. And they were probably well-to-do folks because they sent their daughter to an expensive private school.
She Went To Catholic School
Miss Cleo went to Ramona Convent Secondary School, a private all-girls Catholic school in Alhambra, California that instilled traditional Catholic values. Parents paid $600 a year to send their kids there, which was a lot of money at the time.
Bruce H. Cox, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
She Probably Got Good Grades
According to two sisters who were classmates with Miss Cleo, many students dropped out of Ramona Convent because it was academically grueling. But Cleo made it through all six years.
Telepictures Productions, Jenny Jones (1991–2003)
She’d Sneak Out Of Her Dorm To Listen To Disco
The sister classmates remember Miss Cleo as rambunctious but also warm and approachable. When she was too young to attend school dances, she’d sneak out of her dorm to listen to the disco music in the stairwell.
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She (Probably) Didn’t Go To College
Miss Cleo told People that she took four classes at the University of Southern California. But a journalist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer couldn’t verify that anyone by the name of Youree Dell Harris or Ree Perris (a name she used at the time) was ever enrolled. Speaking of aliases, Miss Cleo went by A LOT.
FASTILY, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
A Basket Full Of Pseudonyms
Miss Cleo evidently couldn’t make up her mind about what to call herself. Her collection of aliases includes Ree Perris, Youree Cleomili, Youree Dell Harris, Youree Perris, Rae Dell Harris, Cleomili Perris Youree, and Cleomili Harris.
Telepictures Productions, Jenny Jones (1991–2003)
She Wrote A Play Called “For Women Only”
Before Psychic Readers Network, Miss Cleo wrote plays. She wrote one called For Women Only and starred in it herself… as a Jamaican character named Cleo. But these theater ventures were shrouded in deceit.
She Didn’t Pay Her Actors
In Seattle, Cleo was hired by a non-profit and given a budget with which she was supposed to pay her cast and crew. But she didn’t pay all of them, and the ones that were paid, were only partially paid, according to the cast and crew at the time.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Cleo Skipped Town, But Wrote IOUs To Each Person
Miss Cleo left Seattle. She wrote letters to her cast and crew telling them the reason she couldn’t pay up was because she had bone cancer and needed money for medical expenses. Interestingly, she did note down what she owed each person in a letter and at least one said she had a plan to pay them back.
Other Plays By Miss Cleo
Other plays Miss Cleo wrote include Supper Club Cafe and Summer Rhapsody. Isiah Anderson Jr, a teen development leader who worked with Cleo on these productions, says he was never paid.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Married At 19, Divorced At 21
Miss Cleo had an eventful love life before she became famous. She married at 19, then divorced before she turned 21. She had two daughters before she was 30.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Psychic Career Begins
In 1997, Miss Cleo met Steven Feder and Peter Stolz, cousins from Fort Lauderdale who started a phone psychic company. She began working for them as a call-taker. She was reader Number 16153.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Miss Cleo Gets Good At Her Job
According to one report, Cleo was more financially successful at her job alone than a team of psychic call-takers. The company wanted to lean into this success and they didn’t care that she was using a Jamaican persona.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Promoted To Advertising
Miss Cleo’s “big break” came about when a production assistant from Access Resource Services (the company that did business as Psychic Readers Network) offered her a role in a commercial. Miss Cleo was paid $1,750 for the shoot.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
A Psychic Is Born
With her outfits, accent, and theatrics, Miss Cleo quickly became iconic, appearing on television screens and beckoning viewers to “Call me now!” Her other memorable lines included “the cards never lie” and “you be tippin’, he be tippin’”. But the honeymoon wouldn’t last long.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
You Couldn’t Necessarily “Call” Miss Cleo
Viewers were told they could call Miss Cleo for a reading, but they were more likely to reach actors. In a retrospective memoir, one such worker recalls that you were only paid for the time you spent on the phone, and if you failed to maintain a 17-minute call time average, you’d get fewer calls. Call-takers were given minimal training—just the names of the tarot cards, she said.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
The True Price Of A Psychic Reading
Getting your fortune read over the phone cost a pretty penny. A call was free for the first three minutes, and then it was $4.99 per minute. Those free minutes were often wasted by the reader without starting the actual reading, and some people racked up $300 per call on their phone bills.
A Young Reporter Gets A Whiff
A reporter named Matt Bean was one of the first people to call Psychic Readers Network on their bluff. Through a recorded call of his own, he determined that the “psychics” on the other end were reading off a script.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Multiple States Sue ARS
Soon, North Carolina sued Access Resource Services (working as Psychic Readers Network) in 1999. States that followed included Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Then, the feds came.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Big Trouble From The FTC
In February 2002, the Federal Trade Commission filed a federal district court complaint against Access Resource Services and Psychic Readers Network. The companies faced allegations of fraudulent activity; they also allegedly harassed customers with telemarketing calls.
Telepictures Productions, Jenny Jones (1991–2003)
Miss Cleo’s Bosses Settle With The FTC
Later that year in November 2002, Access Resource Services and Psychic Readers Network settled with the FTC. They agreed to forgive approximately $500 million in outstanding consumer charges and to pay the FTC $5 million.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Luckily, Miss Cleo Largely Escaped The Lawsuit
For a brief time, Miss Cleo was named in the lawsuit, but she was later dropped because according to the FTC, spokespeople are not liable. Cleo was not protected from the court of public opinion, though, and she was soon infamous in the news.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Gig With Grand Theft Auto
Miss Cleo scored one last big gig in the early aughts: She voiced Auntie Poulet, the leader of the Haitians gang in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Then, in 2014, she was hired to be the face of French Toast Crunch. But even this venture wouldn’t be without drama.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
“Miss Cleo” Couldn’t Sell Cereal
Psychic Readers Network was not happy about their beloved character being used for other business purposes. They claimed copyright violation, causing General Mills to stop the French Toast Crunch ads. Psychic Readers Network then sued Rockstar Games, the producer of Grand Theft Auto, in 2015.
Telepictures Productions, Jenny Jones (1991–2003)
Cleo Came Out As A Lesbian In 2006
Inspired by a teenage godson, Miss Cleo came out as a lesbian in 2006. Her parents had known about her sexuality for a long time but never discussed it. And her friends in the 1980s did not tolerate this part of her identity well.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Cleo’s First Gay Relationship Was In High School
Miss Cleo told The Advocate that she dated her first girlfriend in high school. “I thought she was the best thing since sliced bread,” Cleo told the magazine. But the relationship ended when the girl left for college.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Miss Cleo Had Relationships With Men And Women
Cleo married the father of her first child when she was 19 years old, but divorced him less than two years later. She later had two long-term relationships with women she called marriages. She left her second wife in 1997.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
How Much Money Did Miss Cleo Earn?
Despite the enormous amounts of money involved in the Psychic Readers Network legal issues, Miss Cleo claimed she never got super wealthy. She estimates she made less than $450,000 over two years.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Graduating To Independent Voodoo Priestess
After the FTC fiasco, Miss Cleo left the mainstream spotlight but didn’t stop working. She started a radio show and recorded a spoken word CD. She also offered readings from $75 to $250 and identified as a “Voodoo priestess” rather than a psychic.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
“The Real Miss Cleo”
It was later discovered that Cleo had formed her own company, Waghwaan Entertainment, in 2001. On archives of her website “The Real Ms Cleo”, she offered services like readings, cleansings, and weddings, the latter of which started at $350.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Giving Back To The Community
Despite the negative press, many people recall Cleo fondly and praised her calming, mom-like presence. She walked in the Florida AIDS Walk and emceed for PrideFest 2008 at the Palm Beaches. She even made fun of the Psychic Readers Network at PrideFest, recalls one person who “love[s] spending time with her”.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
Her Appearance In Hotline
In 2014, Miss Cleo appeared in Hotline, a documentary about the history of telephone hotlines. Cleo appeared alongside representatives of the GLBT Hotline, Homework Hotline, and the Anti-Violence Project.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
The 2022 Documentary
In 2022, HBO Max released a documentary, Call Me Miss Cleo. Raven-Symoné—who plays another famous fictional psychic on That’s So Raven—appears in this documentary too. But the world still hadn’t had enough of Miss Cleo.
Miss Cleo: Her Rise And Fall (2024)
Just two years later, Lifetime aired a biopic called Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall. Robin “The Lady of Rage” Allen played the part of Miss Cleo. In an interview, Allen says she hopes viewers will leave with more empathy for Miss Cleo. “It was the powers that be that were behind her” who are at fault, she says.
Enhanced Media, Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (2024)
How Culpable Was Youree Harris?
So, how much is Miss Cleo to blame for deceiving desperate people out of their money? She claims she never got paid much. And the companies behind “Miss Cleo” have been very defensive about their ownership over the persona, which was the real moneymaker. Perhaps Youree Dell Harris was simply dedicated to the bit, playing a Jamaican psychic to the point of method acting.
Telepictures Productions, Jenny Jones (1991–2003)
Con Artist Or Just Artist?
After Call Me Miss Cleo, more people are questioning the black-and-white narrative that Miss Cleo was out to scam people. One commentator argues that she just wanted an acting job to support her daughters, while another maintains she should be held accountable. After all, many of her advertisements had the disclaimer “For Entertainment Purposes Only”.
Miss Cleo Passed Away In 2014
Finally, it was colorectal cancer that took Miss Cleo forever off the air in 2016. She was 53 years old. And whether you found her annoying, entertaining, or endearing, Miss Cleo certainly left her mark on pop culture.
