During a time when reaching out to talk to anyone other than in person or via email involved a landline with a dial tone, psychic hotline queen Miss Cleo came across peoples’ late night TV screens and into their ears with a Jamaican accent and a reassuring “I’ll tell you what’s going on with you” strength that millions dialed in to hear (and if not her, then many others who worked for the same popular hotline). After becoming a cult figure of the 1990s,Miss Cleo had a reemergence in the mid-Aughts after she came out as a lesbian. Both revered, reviled, and investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, the complicated person behind the persona — Los Angeles-born Youree Dell Harris — is explored in the recent HBO Max documentaryCall Me Miss Cleo. The film, co-directed by Celia Aniskovich, shows that Harris was much more than a campy late night fixture. We spoke to Aniskovich about Harris, a woman who sadly passed away from cancer in 2016 at only 53 years old.
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During a time when reaching out to talk to anyone other than in person or via email involved a landline with a dial tone, psychic hotline queen Miss Cleo came across peoples’ late night TV screens and into their ears with a Jamaican accent and a reassuring “I’ll tell you what’s going on with you” strength that millions dialed in to hear (and if not her, then many others who worked for the same popular hotline). After becoming a cult figure of the 1990s,Miss Cleo had a reemergence in the mid-Aughts after she came out as a lesbian. Both revered, reviled, and investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, the complicated person behind the persona — Los Angeles-born Youree Dell Harris — is explored in the recent 
