Meredith Vieira

About

Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953) is an American broadcast journalist and television personality. She is best known as the original moderator of the daytime talk show The View (1997–2006), the original host of the syndicated daytime version of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (2002–2013), and as co-host of the NBC morning news program Today (2006–2011). As of 2019, she hosts the syndicated weekday game show 25 Words or Less.
Vieira has also been a contributor to Dateline NBC, Rock Center with Brian Williams, and NBC Nightly News, and hosted the Lifetime television series Intimate Portrait (1994–2005). From 2014 to 2016, she hosted her own syndicated daytime talk show, The Meredith Vieira Show.

Vieira was born on December 30, 1953, in Providence, Rhode Island. She was raised nearby in East Providence. Her mother is Mary Elsie (Rosa), a homemaker, and her father, Edwin Vieira, is a physician, both first-generation Portuguese Americans. She is the youngest of four children, with three older brothers. All four of Vieira’s grandparents came from the Azores—three from Faial Island, one of the nine islands in the archipelago. The family name Vieira…