Biography
Who is Vanessa Lachey?
Early life and real name
Vanessa Lachey Joy Minnillo was born on November 9, 1980, at the 13th Air Force Regional Medical Center at Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Philippines. Her father, Vincent Charles Minnillo, served in the Air Force, and her mother was Helen Ramos Bercero. Because of her father's military service, the family relocated frequently during her childhood, living in various places such as Washington, California, Nevada, Florida, Germany, and Japan.
Her parents separated in 1983 and later divorced in 1986. After her parents remarried, Vanessa and her brother moved to Turkey with their mother and stepfather. By 1991, they returned to live with their father and stepmother, eventually settling in Charleston, South Carolina. There, Vanessa attended the Roman Catholic Bishop England High School and lived with her father and stepmother, Donna.
Pageants and television hosting
Vanessa began gaining public attention in 1998 when she was crowned Miss South Carolina Teen USA and subsequently won the national title of Miss Teen USA. She made history as the first contestant from South Carolina to win the crown and also earned the pageant's Miss Congeniality award. Following her pageant success, she transitioned into a television hosting career.
She hosted programs such as MTV's Total Request Live from 2003 to 2007 and became a New York City correspondent for Entertainment Tonight in 2005. Over the following years, she hosted several other television projects, including ABC's reality series True Beauty and the game show Wipeout. In 2020, she and her husband Nick began hosting the hit Netflix dating series Love Is Blind.
Acting career and television roles
Alongside her hosting work, Vanessa pursued an acting career with guest roles in numerous television shows, including 30 Rock, CSI: NY, Psych, and How I Met Your Mother. She also appeared in the 2008 parody film Disaster Movie and the sitcom Truth Be Told in 2015. In 2017, she competed on the twenty-fifth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, finishing in joint seventh place.
Her most prominent acting role came in April 2021 when she was cast as Jane Tennant in the CBS police procedural series NCIS: Hawaiʻi. She played the first female Special Agent in charge of NCIS: Pearl, marking the franchise's first female lead. The series ran for three seasons before concluding in May 2024.
Personal life and family
Vanessa began dating singer Nick Lachey in 2006 after she appeared in the music video for his song 'What's Left of Me'. The couple became engaged in November 2010 and married on July 15, 2011, at Sir Richard Branson's private Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. Interestingly, both Vanessa and Nick were born on November 9, exactly seven years apart.
Together, the couple has three children: two sons born in September 2012 and December 2016, and a daughter born in January 2015. In addition to her television and acting work, Vanessa released her first book, Life from Scratch: Family Traditions That Start with You, through HarperCollins in November 2021.
Birthday and age
Vanessa Lachey was born on November 9, 1980, which makes Vanessa 45 years old today. That birthday falls under the Scorpio sign. Vanessa shares the date with 17 other famous people.
Explore more
