Maria Menounos, a journalist by trade but hottie by nature, possesses great looks and the poise of a TV veteran. As a Hollywood correspondent, she often draws more attention than her famous interviewees do. We might have to “sign off” to go and find this former beauty queen…

Before Menounos established herself as an Entertainment Tonight correspondent, she was a well-known international reporter for Channel One News, which broadcasts to schools across America. Things are really looking up for one of the most beautiful hosts on TV.

Maria Menounos Fast Facts:

* Speaks Greek fluently.

* Avid sports fan and have her own tennis and basketball courts.

* While at Emerson wrote, produced and broadcast news segments for WERS-FM, one of the largest college radio stations in the country.

* As a Channel One correspondent, Menounos interviewed President George W. Bush, numerous celebrities, and traveled the world to cover such tragedies as the 2001 earthquake in El Salvador and the AIDS epidemic in South Africa.

* Co-founder of Take Action Hollywood, an organization that raises social awareness and enlists the help of the entertainment industry.

* Attended the 2004 Oscars wearing a diamond-studded Randi Rahm dress worth more than $2 million.

Although Maria can still be seen as a correspondent on NBC, she will continue to pursue her acting career. She already has a role in the feature-length comedy kickin It Old Skool (2007) with Jamie Kennedy and Vivica A. Fox. And since Maria is quite happy with diversity in her career, you can expect to see more of her everywhere. ? A lot of people criticized me at a young age because I wanted to do a lot of different things, she says. “And that’s just how I am. I’m happiest when I’m doing a million things. I don’t see my career going in any one direction. I see myself doing a potpourri of things.”

When Maria quit her job as a correspondent for entertainment tonight to focus on her acting career in 2005, many of her fans were disappointed that they would no longer get to feast their eyes upon her on a daily basis. Fortunately, later that year, Maria had a change of heart and became a correspondent for both The Today Show and Access Hollywood. But that hasn’t distracted Maria from her acting goals. She has landed several roles in popular TV series and movies since her departure from ET, including one in Fantastic Four (2005) alongside Jessica Alba.

Making her grand entrance on June 8th, 1978 in Medford, Massachusetts, Maria Menounos was a shining star at birth. By the time she was a student (and a good one at that), her sights were set on a career in journalism. Some days, she would even arrive late to school after watching the morning news on CNN for too long.

In 1995, thanks to the encouragement of her friends and family, Menounos began to enroll in beauty pageants. The following year, she won the title of Miss Massachusetts Teen USA. Though she did not win the Miss Teen USA crown, her involvement in such a big production helped her gain a lot of experience, not to mention pave the way for her career. In fact, she boldly told pageant host and Entertainment Tonight reporter Bob Goen that she would love to work with him at ET. Her six years of foresight seem quite prophetic today.