Maria Menounos (born on June 8, 1978 in Medford, Massachusetts) is an
American actress/journalist/television presenter. She is of Greek
ancestry and speaks Greek fluently.
In 1995, Menounos began to enroll in beauty pageants. The following
year, she won the title of Miss Massachusetts Teen USA. She enrolled
at Boston's Emerson College. During her senior year, she was hired as
a reporter for Channel One News, known as the top news source for
American students. Her work for Channel One's 10-minute segments
included traveling to El Salvador to report on the earthquake of 2001
and interviewing President George W. Bush.
Entertainment Tonight hired Menounos as a correspondent in 2002, where
she reported on movies, music and fashion. ET executives offered her a
hosting gig for ET on MTV & VH1; she left the program in 2005 to focus
on her acting career, though she would be joining rival program Access
Hollywood later that Fall as its special correspondent.
Menounos appeared in FHM magazine and in People magazine in 2004 as
one of the "50 Most Beautiful People", as well as recurring roles on
"Without A Trace" and One Tree Hill. It is rumored that she has or had
a romance with Hollywood star Vin Diesel. At the 2004 Oscars she wore
a diamond-studded dress worth more than $2.5 million.
In the summer of 2005, she starred in the comic book film Fantastic
Four, where she played a nurse who is romanced by the "Human Torch",
played by Chris Evans. Her likeness and voice was featured in the 2005
Electronic Arts video game, From Russia with Love which stars Sean
Connery as James Bond. She is also the spokesperson for Pantene hair
products.