Michele Merkin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the author and blogger with a similar name, see Michelle Malkin.
Michele Merkin

Born June 25, 1975 (1975-06-25) (age 32)
San Francisco, California, USA[1]
Residence Los Angeles, California, USA
Nationality United States
Occupation model, television host
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[2]
Website
Official site

Michele Merkin (born June 25, 1975)[3] is an American model and television host.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Merkin was born in San Francisco of half-Swedish, half-Russian Jewish descent,[4] but attended boarding school in England. Her mother was from Sweden, and had been a model for twenty years, including an appearance in the first Victoria's Secret catalog in the late 1970s. Merkin grew up tall and slender, reaching 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) by the age of 14. This helped her play basketball, but gathered her some abuse in school, where she was called nicknames such as "Giraffa" and "Manute Bol".[1][5][2]

[edit] Modeling career

Merkin began modeling part time from the age of 15, while she was in high school. She attended UCLA, aiming to study medicine, specifically plastic surgery, but left during the first semester to become a professional model.[5][2] She modeled for 15 years, living in Paris, Milan, New York, and Los Angeles, appearing in such magazines as ELLE, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, and over 60 commercials, most notably campaigns for Clairol and the Nintendo video game Perfect Dark.[1]

For Perfect Dark, Merkin appeared as the lead video game character Joanna Dark in commercials[6] and in-store promotions[7] for the N64 cartridge; Merkin's hair was cut short and dyed black for the appearances.[6]

Merkin was selected for the Maxim "Hot 100" list of attractive women in 2006 (at #74)[8] and 2007 (at #56).[9]

[edit] Television host

Merkin co-hosted the cable television program Foody Call with Rossi Morreale, which aired from June 2005 on the Style Network. This was a reality show which combined cooking and romance, by teaching men to seduce women with food.[10] It was the second highest rated show on the Style Network.[11] After the program was canceled in 2006, Merkin admitted that the premise was faulty, saying, "... most girls I know don’t really eat. The way to a woman’s heart is definitely not through her stomach."[6][2]

Concurrently, Merkin was a sideline reporter on the third season of Extreme Dodgeball which aired starting July 19, 2005 on the Game Show Network.[12][11]

In May 2007 she ventured off cable television to host the The Next Best Thing television series, which aired on American Broadcasting Company.[2]

In March 2008 she hosted Sand Blasters III: The Extreme Sand Sculpting Championship on the Travel Channel.

She has also hosted individual episodes of E! News Daily, NBC's For Love or Money, VH1's Red Eye, The Movie Fan Show, The Love Report for Studios USA, Close-up Hollywood, Buy TV, Movie Watch and Attack of the Show!.[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Creative Management Entertainment Group. Michele Merkin. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  2. ^ a b c d e Michele Merkin: Wild at Heart. Maxim. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  3. ^ Michele Merkin. Who's Dated Who?. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  4. ^ Drew Pinsky & Stryker. Dr. Drew and Stryker with Michele Merkin. Loveline Uncensored. Podcast accessed on 2007-11-10.
  5. ^ a b Hot and Fresh. Maxim (Nov 2005). Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  6. ^ a b c Meyer, Frank (2006-06-01). Man Talk With Michele Merkin. Attack of the Show. G4. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  7. ^ IGN Staff (2000-05-24). Joanna Sees off Perfect Dark. IGN. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  8. ^ Maxim (2006-05-15). "MAXIM Magazine Unveils Their 'Hot 100' for 2006". Press release.
  9. ^ Maxim's 2007 Hot 100. Maxim (May 2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  10. ^ E!: Entertainment Television. Foody Call. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  11. ^ a b c TBS. TBS Movie Extra - Michele Merkin. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  12. ^ "Extreme Dodgeball coming soon!", Michele Merkin Newsletter, official site, June 12, 2005. Retrieved 2007-11-08.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Languages