Vanessa Lachey

Vanessa Joy Lachey (née Minnillo; born November 9, 1980) is an American television host, model and actress.

Minnillo's parents separated in 1983 and divorced in 1986.

Her mother left the family when Vanessa was nine years old.

Minnillo's parents both remarried.

She and her brother Vincent Jr. relocated to Turkey with their mother and stepfather.

By 1991, in the wake of Operation Desert Shield, they returned to their father's home, eventually settling in Charleston, South Carolina, where Minnillo attended the Roman Catholic Bishop England High School and was a cheerleader.

From then on, she lived with her father and stepmother, Donna.

She has said she had "a very rocky, tumultuous childhood."

She also attended Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic School in San Bernardino, California, for one year.

She was named Miss Teen USA in 1998.

She has been a New York–based correspondent for Entertainment Tonight and hosted Total Request Live on MTV.

She has starred in two network sitcoms and hosted various competition and reality shows.

Lachey has the lead role in the CBS spinoff NCIS: Hawaiʻi.

Lachey was crowned Miss South Carolina Teen USA and won the title Miss Teen USA in 1998.

She was the first Miss Teen USA from South Carolina and also the first from South Carolina to be named the pageant's Miss Congeniality.

She was a host on MTV's The Morning After (2003) and Total Request Live (2003–2007) and became a New York City correspondent for Entertainment Tonight in 2005.

She hosted Miss Teen USA 2004 and Miss Universe 2007 beauty pageants.

In May 2006, Maxim magazine ranked Lachey #15 in its annual Hot 100 issue.

She has been featured on the covers of numerous magazines such as Maxim, Vegas, Shape, Parents, People, and Lucky.

Lachey was a finalist in E!'s competition to replace Brooke Burke as host of Wild On!.

After leaving MTV and Entertainment Tonight, Lachey was featured in print and web-based advertising for Bongo Jeans' Spring/Summer 2007 collection.

She launched a makeup line with Flirt!

Cosmetics, which debuted in August 2007 at Kohl's department stores.

In 2008, she portrayed Ashlee in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, in the episode "No Tomorrow".

She portrayed Amy in the parody film Disaster Movie (2008) alongside Matt Lanter, Kim Kardashian and Carmen Electra.

The film was panned by critics, but was a moderate box-office success, grossing nearly $35 million against a $20 million budget.

From 2009 to 2011, she hosted ABC's TV series True Beauty.

The series followed 10 contestants who competed for $100,000 and to be featured in People magazine's 100 most beautiful people issue.

The series was produced by Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher.

In 2009, Lachey and Kardashian shared scenes again, on CBS's police procedural television series CSI: NY.

Lachey became a co-host of ABC's game show Wipeout in December 2011.

Early in her career, Lachey had small roles in numerous television shows, including That's Life, City Girls, 30 Rock, The Bold and the Beautiful, Psych, Hawaii Five-O and Maybe It's Me.

In 2011, Lachey had a guest role as Carmen Chao in NBC's sitcom 30 Rock. She played Tracy in NBC's sitcom Truth Be Told (2015), about two diverse couples who are best friends and neighbors.

Vanessa Joy Minnillo was born at the 13th Air Force Regional Medical Center at Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Philippines.

Her father, Vincent Charles Minnillo, is an American citizen who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, while her mother, Helen Ramos Bercero, was born in Manila, Philippines.

Minnillo has an adopted brother who is two years older.

Her father moved the family frequently because of his service in the Air Force.

She lived in Washington, California, Nevada, Florida, Germany and Japan and attended eight schools in nine years.

The series ended after one season on December 25, 2015.

On September 6, 2017, Lachey was announced as one of the celebrities who would take part in the 25th season of Dancing with the Stars, competing against her husband, Nick.