What Is Maria Menounos' Net Worth?
Maria Menounos is a Greek-American actress, journalist, and television presenter who has a net worth of $20 million. Maria Menounos is probably most famous for her work as a correspondent on "Today," "Extra," "Access Hollywood," and several other television programs.
Early Life
Maria Menounos was born on June 8, 1978, in the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts. She is the daughter of Greek immigrants Costas and Litsa Menounos. Her parents had come to the United States prior to her birth and worked as janitors at a Boston nightclub. Maria attended the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church growing up. She attended Medford High School. At age 17, Menounos produced the "Land of Merry Misfits," an independent film fairy tale. In 1995, she began to compete in beauty pageants, and in 2006 won the title of Miss Massachusetts Teen USA. Later, Menounos attended Emerson College, where she participated in the now award-winning organization Emerson Independent Video. She graduated from Emerson in 2000. While in school, Maria worked as a reporter for Channel One News. In her ten-minute segments, Menounos had many memorable assignments, such as traveling to El Salvador to report on the El Salvador earthquakes, interviewing NATO aircrew members aboard a plane during Operation Eagle Assist, and interviewing President George W. Bush.
On-Screen Career
In 2002, "Entertainment Tonight" hired Menounos as a correspondent. She reported on movies, music, and fashion until she left the program in 2005 to focus on her acting career. However, she joined the rival program "Access Hollywood" just a few months later. In 2003, she appeared on the show "Punk'd" and was one of the many celebrities caught in the awkward and embarrassing "Red Carpet Interviews." In 2004, she appeared in UPN's "One on One," and the next year, she was in the film "Fantastic Four" opposite Chris Evans. Around this time, she became a spokesperson for Pantene hair products. Maria was a presenter, along with Greek singer Sakis Rouvas, in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest that took place in Athens. Later that year, she directed "Longtime Listener" starring Wilmer Valderrama. Menounos also acted in and produced "Adventures of Serial Buddies."
In 2005, Maria personally funded the recovery and restoration of the film she made when she was 17, "Land of Merry Misfits," and got John Waters to narrate it. The film finally premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. She went on to co-host a few episodes of the "Today" show in 2006 and 2007
Menounos founded and maintained AfterBuzz TV, an online entertainment network for which she was named 2014's CES Entertainment Matters Ambassador. She has had guest-starring roles on shows such as "Without a Trace," "One Tree Hill," and "Scrubs." In 2006, she appeared in Jessica Simpson's music video for "A Public Affair." In 2007, Maria starred in the film "Kickin' It Old Skool" opposite Jamie Kennedy. In 2008, she became the host of "Hollywood Green" on the Planet Green network and also had a role in the movie "Tropic Thunder." That same year, she became the first journalist to interview the entire Obama family as a whole. Menounos hosted reunion specials of MTV's "The Real World" and "The Challenge" from 2009 to 2012. In August 2011, it was announced that she would be joining "Extra" as a co-host with Mario Lopez. She won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment News Program for her work. In 2012, she was a contestant on "Dancing with the Stars." Partnering with Derek Hough, the pair came in fourth place. In May 2013, Menounos launched a new interview series called "Conversations with Maria Menounos." The next year, her reality TV series "Chasing Maria Menounos" premiered on the Oxygen network.
In 2014, Maria left "Extra" after three years as a host and signed a multi-year contract with E! Entertainment to host and produce several programs. In July 2015, "The Hollywood Reporter" announced that she would be replacing Giuliana Rancic as the co-anchor of E! News. She stepped down in July 2017 due to an ongoing medical battle with a brain tumor.
(Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
Wrestling Career
Menounos is an avid long-time WWE fan and has made several appearances, her first being in October 2009 when she joined Nancy O'Dell in guest hosting "WWE Raw." That night, she made her in-ring debut in a six diva tag team match with Gail Kim and Kelly Kelly. Their team was victorious, and the highlight of the match was Menounos slapping the much larger-statured Beth Phoenix. She returned to the ring in December 2011 at the WWE Tribute to the Troops and teamed up with Alicia Fox, Eve Torres, and Kelly Kelly to defeat the Bella Twins. She did a tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII and teamed up again with Kelly Kelly. Despite Maria suffering two cracked ribs during practice for "Dancing with the Stars" before the match, Menounos and Kelly defeated Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres on April 1, 2012, at Wrestlemania. For six years in a row, from 2014 to 2019, Menounos hosted the WWE Hall of Fame red carpet pre-show and appeared during the event as a guest backstage interviewer for several Wrestlemanias. In January 2018, Maria served as the special guest ring announcer for the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match.
Personal Life
Menounos has been in a relationship with director, producer, and former MTV writer and filmmaker Keven Undergaro since April 1998. In March 2016, Undergaro proposed to Maria live on "The Howard Stern Show." They were married on New Year's Eve 2017, live on television in front of the whole world, and had another wedding in Greece in October 2018. The couple welcomed daughter Athena on June 23, 2023, via a surrogate.
In 2017, Maria underwent surgery to remove a meningioma (a benign intracranial brain tumor), and in early 2023, she had surgery after being diagnosed with stage II pancreatic cancer.
Real Estate
In 2005, Maria and Kevin paid $2.3 million for a home in the LA suburb of Encino, California. The 5-bedroom property sits on just under an acre and is likely worth $5-6 million today.
