“Imagine not being able to feed your child. We can do something to help by making time in our lives to join Feeding America. We can donate our time, and our voices, to support this cause however we can, as much as we can.”
A seasoned entertainment news journalist and two-time Emmy-nominated TV personality, Samantha Harris, currently can be seen passionately sharing her opinion nightly on one of the top-rated entertainment news programs in the country, CBS Television Distribution’s
The Insider. Viewers have also been enjoying her affable nature as the fill-in co-anchor of
Entertainment Tonight Weekend since October 2009.
She is also well known for her eight seasons co-hosting the hit ABC series
Dancing With The Stars, which averaged more than 30 million viewers weekly and was the #2 most-watched show in the U.S. in each of those years. In Season 2 of the show, she even kicked up her heals on the ballroom floor to perform a Jive dance routine with World Smooth Champion dancer and cast-mate Jonathan Roberts.
Additionally, Samantha made her Broadway debut in summer 2009 in New York City, singing and dancing for sold-out audiences playing the iconic role of “Roxie Hart” in the Tony Award-winning musical
CHICAGO.
Harris has been seen on a myriad of TV shows, including lending her dynamic personality filling in for a week for host Meredith Vieira on
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?,
multiple times as a guest co-host on ABC’s
The View, and contributing as a special correspondent on ABC’s
Good Morning America.
One of her greatest honors was hosting live, alongside Regis Philbin, the official red carpet pre-show for the
80th Annual Academy Awards: Road To the Red Carpet, which garnered nearly one billion viewers worldwide.
Beginning in January 2005 and continuing for four years, Harris was seen in over 130 countries in 600 million homes on E! Entertainment Television. In addition to writing, producing and reporting daily for
E! News, she co-hosted the network’s live award-show coverage for the Oscars, Golden Globes and Emmys. Samantha has also found herself reporting from inside San Quentin Penitentiary as host for E!’s
THS Investigates, a spin-off series from the producers of
E! True Hollywood Story.
Prior to her work on
The Insider and at E!, Samantha served as the weekend co-host and a full-time correspondent for the nationally syndicated entertainment news magazine
Extra which she joined in 2003. As a correspondent who sought out unique stories, Samantha took to the stage performing with Cirque du Soleil, sang a duet with Wayne Newton during his live show in Las Vegas, as well as dancing her way into the arms of Patrick Swayze backstage while he performed in
Chicago. She also launched the first-ever Las Vegas bureau for
Extra. Samantha’s other hosting credits include Fox Network’s
The Next Joe Millionaire,
AMC Access (a show produced by NBC’s
Access Hollywood for
the AMC network), as well as a variety of cable shows and pilots.
Harris’ triple-threat talents extended from the stage to the screen. Hot off the North American musical tour
Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python (where Samantha’s comedic, vocal, and dance performance electrified audiences at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and other prestigious venues), CBS cast her as America’s sweetheart, “Mary Ann,” in its made-for-TV movie
Surviving Gilligan’s Island. Samantha’s other acting credits include the multi-award winning
Reefer Madness!: The New “Hit” Musical (original cast) as well as multiple feature films and television shows
.In addition to gracing the cover of
Muscle & Fitness HERS magazine a record four times,
Samantha has also been seen on the covers of
USA Today Weekend Magazine,
FIRST, Fit Parent, YogaMom, Sun Country Airlines in-flight, Pilates Style and
Pregnancy & Newborn (while pregnant with her daughter). She has been featured in
many magazines including
SHAPE, People, Health, US Weekly, In Touch, Life & Style, FHM, and
SELF. As a fitness enthusiast, she loves dancing, cardio-sculpting, Bikram yoga, as well as hiking but will also confess… she’s a dessert fanatic!
Samantha is actively involved in various charities. She is on the Entertainment Council of Feeding America (www.feedingamerica.org) and has previously supported the Revlon Run/Walk and What A Pair for cancer research, Operation Smile, P.S. Arts as well as the Crohns and Colitis Foundation of America.
In 2009, Samantha was given the honor of making her Wall Street debut by ‘Ringing The Bell’ to open trading at the New York Stock Exchange in front of an international audience of more than 120 million people.
Born and raised in Hopkins, MN by a rock concert promoter father and dancer mother – who together created and produced one of the country’s first Renaissance festivals, King Richard’s Faire (
www.kingrichardsfaire.net), Samantha went on to graduate with honors from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, IL. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA, with her husband, Michael, and their daughter, Josselyn.
For more info and photos of Samantha Harris, go to
www.samantha-harris.com