By their mid-40s, most people have either hit their stride or are searching for what’s next. But, at 47, Maria Menounos has already blazed through several iterations. Known first to millions as the sunny correspondent delivering celebrity news from red carpets across Hollywood, Menounos has transformed herself into something much larger: a self-made force in entertainment, a wellness advocate, a production trailblazer and, perhaps most importantly, a voice of resilience.
Her journey is a master class in how to evolve a career, a brand and a life—all while facing personal trials that could easily have derailed it all.
Today, she doesn’t just host shows—she hosts change, courage and connection.
Heal Squad x Maria Menounos is a digital life improvement show focused on healing, growth and well-being, with Macy’s as its title sponsor.
Small-town start, big-time breakthrough
Born in Medford, Massachusetts, to Greek immigrant parents, Menounos showed early signs of grit and ambition. After studying communications at Emerson College, she got her start at Channel One News, where she cut her teeth reporting on global issues like the 2001 El Salvador earthquake and interviewing President George W. Bush. But it was her pivot to entertainment journalism that made her a household name.
“Career-wise…, I feel like everything shapes you. Everything you do helps you grow, helps you learn, helps you evolve,” Menounos says. “[My] beginning at Channel One News helped shape a lot because it was my first time working on camera, and I was doing really cool stuff.… It definitely gave me an incredible amount of confidence when I moved into mainstream media, being able to do that at such a young age.”
She rose to prominence on Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and later, Extra—where she, along with her team, earned a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment News Program. Her success came not from any single role but through her ability to shape-shift across them all. As a correspondent, Menounos loved telling people’s stories and feeling like she was making a positive impact on viewers and interviewees alike.
“I was less interested in the gossip and more interested in the work or the art or telling someone’s story,” she says. “I took that same mindset into entertainment news because I always felt like I had to protect people and help them. I wanted them to shine. I didn’t want to be the person in the ‘I got you’ moment, and so I carried that thread through.”
Reinventing entertainment on her terms
Rather than remaining in front of the camera, Menounos started shaping stories from behind the lens. She and her husband, Keven Undergaro, launched AfterBuzz TV—a digital network focused on postshow television content born from their shared passion for TV and a gap in the market.
“We were really obsessed with TV and wanted to talk about it, and there was nothing there,” Menounos recalls. “When [Keven] saw that Lost’s series finale just broke the internet and people wanted to talk about it, he knew there was something there.” AfterBuzz anticipated where entertainment was headed. As streaming surged and fandoms grew, the platform became a hub for pop culture commentary and a launchpad for rising digital talent.
Menounos wasn’t just adapting to the changing media landscape—she was helping shape its direction. Her later ventures, including the Conversations With Maria Menounos series and additional podcast ventures, further solidified her role as both a content creator and connector. Then came her most personal project yet: Heal Squad x Maria Menounos. But before we dive into that, it’s essential to understand the health journey Menounos was navigating at the same time.
The chapter she didn’t see coming
Even with all her career wins, the most meaningful parts of Menounos’ story have happened behind the scenes. In 2017, she underwent surgery for a benign brain tumor—the meningioma was discovered as she was caring for her mother, who happened to be battling another type of brain cancer at the same time.
The irony couldn’t have been more striking, and the experience sent a clear and powerful message. “Feel something, say something, do something” became her mission. She urged her fans to advocate for their own health and pushed for broader awareness around early detection and self-care. Her advice to viewers on Today: “If the symptoms persist, you must persist.”
A few years later, she was diagnosed with adult-onset type 1 diabetes.
Then, less than two years after that, a full-body MRI screening revealed a stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, a rare but less aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Early detection and surgery allowed her to bypass chemo and radiation. The experience only strengthened her commitment to public health advocacy.
Finding a new path forward
Menounos says her idea of success has evolved since her brain tumor. “For me, success is being healthy and working at a pace that matches my energy and my true self…. We’ve all been led to believe that the only way [to achieve] is to be a workaholic, and when I was in that hospital bed with the brain tumor, recovering from surgery, I realized I was living a life that wasn’t authentic to me and my true inner self. I was just doing what I saw everyone else doing, and I was going against my grain and my nature.”
These days, she’s still working hard—but she’s no longer sacrificing her well-being in order to keep up. “My work now and my passion is to help people get to that place where they feel safe enough to realize that, without your health, you can’t have all the other stuff,” Menounos says.
Another tactic for keeping the big picture in mind was learning how to choose wonder over worry. “We’re so conditioned to live in fear and to catastrophize. I was such an expert…, but choosing wonder over worry was what helped me shift out of the fetal position with the pancreas cancer diagnosis to, ‘Huh, maybe I’m predicting something that’s not even going to come? Why am I going to the worst-case scenario first?’”
She retrained her thoughts to lean into curiosity instead of fear. “I would say, ‘I wonder what it’s going to be like when the doctor calls me with good news.’ And then he did. ‘I wonder what it’s going to be like when I get through surgery, and I get to the other side of this, and I get to meet my baby?’” (Menounos and her husband welcomed a daughter via surrogacy in 2023.) Adopting this mindset brought real relief. She also leaned into her faith and credits bestselling author and researcher Joe Dispenza’s meditation practice with helping her transform.
“We need tools, and that’s the thing,” Menounos says. “Life will beat us down, and it’s really hard to get up unless you have some tools.” She says life is about progress. “You don’t want to be living and dwelling in the past because you’re robbing yourself of the beauty of now and to come.”
She launched Heal Squad x Maria Menounos in 2019, originally titled Better Together, as a way to share what she’d learned and help others take charge of their own healing journeys.
In the sea of celebrity podcasts, the wellness and life improvement podcast stands out for its authenticity and depth, covering topics like mindfulness, nutrition and holistic wellness.
Recognizing the limitations of conventional health care and the need for accessible resources, Heal Squad serves as a comprehensive resource for those seeking guidance on various aspects of life improvement.
It’s not just a celebrity chat show—it’s a safe space offering real-world value for those tackling life’s complexities. Menounos interviews thought leaders, health experts and everyday people who have overcome adversity. Topics range from mental health and nutrition to entrepreneurship, relationships and personal transformation.
To help tamp down the overwhelming info that comes with online research, the program launched Heal Squad journeys. Now a cornerstone of her brand, it’s a meeting point of journalism, wellness and community building and, in many ways, a reflection of her own evolution: polished but personal, informative but inspiring.
“It’s just so important to be preventive, to start looking at what you can do now to accumulate better habits and better choices,” Menounos says. “Most of us spend our early lives trying to achieve, and we’re trained: be a good girl, get good grades, go to a great college… and get a big job, make a lot of money. And then, it’s have kids and get married, but health is never ever, ever in the equation. And, you know, preventive health is so important.”
She says there are foundational things you can do for free, like syncing your circadian rhythm, and others, like preventive screenings, that are often covered by health insurance. She’s now leaning in to teach these tools via wellness retreats to help others “be the CEO of their own health.”
“I think, if your pain persists, you have to keep fighting,” Menounos says. If you feel dismissed by one practitioner, she suggests getting a second opinion. She recommends having a good health collaborator, such as a friend or podcast, to help “open your mind to other ideas, other modalities.” She says she’s not committed to diseases or illnesses and the parameters that are put around them. “I believe we can heal from anything,” she says.
The business of being Maria
Despite—or perhaps because of—these challenges, Menounos has never stopped building. She remains one of the few entertainment figures to span nearly every media vertical: TV, film, digital, audio, publishing and sports.
This year, she starred alongside Taye Diggs in the Lifetime short film I’ll Be Home for National Margarita Day, part of a branded content campaign with Chili’s. That ambassadorship—along with on-the-go content displayed at gas stations via GSTV, inside movie theaters with Noovie and at airports with Maria: Discover More—shows just how far-reaching her media appeal is.
One day, she’s headlining a health podcast and the next, she’s anchoring a national ad campaign. Yet she continues to resonate across age groups, bridging longtime fans of her TV work with a new generation discovering her voice in wellness and digital media.
She’s also embraced motherhood with the same candor that defines her career, sharing her fertility journey. In a world of carefully curated celebrity narratives, Menounos’ honesty is a breath of fresh air, redefining what it means to be in the spotlight.
More than a star—Menounos is a strategist—and a survivor. In a rapidly evolving media landscape, she’s proven that staying relevant takes more than visibility—it takes adaptability, authenticity and a mission. From high-profile events to quiet recovery rooms, Menounos has managed to turn personal health setbacks into platforms, hardship into connection. What sets her apart isn’t just what she produces but how fully and honestly she shows up.
If the past is any indication, Menounos isn’t slowing down anytime soon. With a growing media portfolio, a thriving podcast and a renewed sense of purpose in motherhood, she’s poised for her most impactful chapter yet.
Her new filter for choosing projects is simple: Does it feel right? “It’s always, ‘Are they good people, and do I feel safe working with them?’” she asks herself. “I’ve dealt with a lot of toxic [work] environments, and I don’t have it in the energy budget or the health budget anymore.”
Her focus is less about fame—and more about footprint: helping others heal and thrive. In Menounos’ world, legacy isn’t inherited—it’s something you build, moment by moment, message by message. And she’s just getting started.
Photo by John Russo. This article originally appeared in the September/October 2025 issue of SUCCESS® magazine.
