Michele Merkin (born June 25, 1975) is an American model and television host.
Merkin modeled for 15 years, living in Paris, Milan, New York, and Los Angeles, appearing in such magazines as ELLE, Marie Claire,Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, and over 60 commercials, most notably campaigns for Clairol and the Nintendo video game Perfect Dark.
For Perfect Dark, Merkin appeared as the lead video game character Joanna Dark in commercials and in-store promotions for theN64 cartridge; Merkin’s hair was cut short and dyed black for the appearances.
Merkin was selected for the Maxim ”Hot 100″ list of attractive women in 2006 (at #74) and 2007 (at #56).
Beginning in June 2005, Merkin co-hosted the cable television program Foody Call with Rossi Morreale, a reality show which combined cooking and romance by teaching men to seduce women with food. It was the second highest rated show on the Style Network. After the program was canceled the following year, she admitted that the premise was faulty, saying, “… most girls I know don’t really eat. The way to a woman’s heart is definitely not through her stomach.”
Concurrently, Merkin was a sideline reporter on the third season of Extreme Dodgeball which aired starting July 2005 on the Game Show Network.
In May 2007, she ventured off cable television to host the The Next Best Thing television series, which aired on American Broadcasting Company.
In March 2008, she hosted Sand Blasters III: The Extreme Sand Sculpting Championship on the Travel Channel.
As of December 2008, she is co-hosting Party Monsters Cabo on E!, a reality television show where participants compete to determine who is the best party event planner.
Merkin has also hosted individual episodes of E! News Daily, NBC’s For Love or Money, VH1′s Red Eye, The Movie Fan Show, The Love Report for Studios USA, Close-up Hollywood, Buy TV, Movie Watch and Attack of the Show!
