Debbie Matenopoulos
Template:Infobox actor television Despina "Debbie" Matenopoulos (born December 13, 1974 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American journalist, talk show host, and actress.
Early Life
She was born in Richmond, Virginia, of Greek ancestry. Her birth name is Thespina Matenopoulos, named after her grandmother. Despina was later Americanized to Debbie.
She attended the Virginia Commonwealth University for one year before transferring to the Journalism Department at New York University. While at NYU she also worked at MTV as an intern. She quickly moved up the ranks, soon becoming story coordinator for UnFiltered.
TV Career
In 1997 after a chance meeting with Barbara Walters she became a co-host on Walters's new talk show The View. She was parodied on Saturday Night Live and then invited on as a guest. In 1999 she was abruptly let go from the show. On July 25, 2006, over seven years after her last appearance on The View, Debbie was invited back as a special guest co-host for a day. In 1999, she joined the TV Guide Channel.
Debbie has played Lisa Swayzak in the 2000 film Endsville and starred in the claymation show Celebrity Deathmatch as herself.
In August 2004, Good Day Live brought in Matenopoulous (along with Arthel Neville) to co-host the nationally syndicated program. On September 29, 2004, she was hospitalized for an injury that was the result of a stunt she attempted for a segment of Good Day Live. The segment was focused on firefighter training, in which she practiced a fall from a three-story building at a Los Angeles fire station. She landed incorrectly on an airbag and was rushed to the hospital for a possible head injury. It was a closed head wound and she was temporarily blind. Despite massive promotion, including a mall-tour featuring Matenopoulous and Neville, Good Day Live was cancelled by its syndicators in March 2005.
In January 2006, Matenopoulos joined E!'s coverage of the Golden Globe Awards. In April 2006, she became one of the three hosts on E!'s weeknight celebrity gossip and pop culture series, The Daily 10.
Matenopoulos has also been a frequent contributor to VH1 specials, including I Love the 90s and I Love Toys.
Personal life
On July 5, 2003, she married Jay Faires, the president of Music at Lions Gate Entertainment and founder of Mammoth Records.
External links