1. Ananda Lewis was born on March 21,1973 and is an American television host, carpenter, former model, and social activist.
37 Facts About Ananda Lewis
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Ananda Lewis was an MTV veejay from the late 1990s until 2001, when she left the network to host her own broadcast syndicated television talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show.
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Ananda Lewis was a correspondent for The Insider from 2004 to 2005.
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Ananda Lewis hosted the 2019 revival of While You Were Out on TLC.
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On October 1,2020, Lewis announced to her Instagram followers that she has been battling stage 3 breast cancer for the last two years.
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Ananda Lewis is of African American and Native American descent, specifically of the Creek and Blackfoot tribes.
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Ananda Lewis's mother worked as an account manager for Pacific Bell, and her father as a computer-animation specialist.
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Lewis's parents divorced when Ananda was two years old, and her mother moved with her daughters to San Diego, California, to be near her own mother.
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Ananda Lewis's mother took an extended trip to Europe to escape the pain of her failed marriage, leaving Ananda and Lakshmi with their grandmother.
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Ananda Lewis often fought with her mother while growing up and rarely saw her father, who had remarried.
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Ananda Lewis struggled with a speech impediment, stuttering until she was eight years old.
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In 1981 Ananda Lewis entered herself in the Little Miss San Diego Contest, a beauty pageant, and won.
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At the age of thirteen, Ananda Lewis began volunteering as a tutor and counselor at a Head Start facility.
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Ananda Lewis was inspired by the work and decided to become a teacher or a psychologist, with the goal of helping young people.
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However, Ananda Lewis's family urged her to follow a more lucrative career path, specifically law.
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Ananda Lewis portrayed the love interest of vocalist Carl "Groove" Martin.
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Ananda Lewis was considering attending graduate school to pursue a master's degree in education when she learned that auditions were going to be held for the job of on-screen host of BET's Teen Summit.
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In 1996, on an installment of the show entitled "It Takes a Village", Ananda Lewis interviewed then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, whose book with that title had been published earlier in the year.
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Ananda Lewis hosted and VJed a variety of shows includingTotal Request Live, a daily top ten video-countdown show, and Hot Zone, which offered both music videos and Ananda Lewis's interviews of musicians and others.
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In 2001 Ananda Lewis earned another NAACP Image Award, for her hosting of the MTV special True Life: I Am Driving While Black.
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In 1998, while at MTV, Ananda Lewis made headlines when she announced that she intended to remain abstinent for at least six months.
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Also during that period Ananda Lewis became a familiar presence at celebrity-attended events in and around New York City.
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Ananda Lewis has emerged as the hip-hop generation's reigning 'It Girl,' meaning she is not just an MTV personality but a woman whose looks and attitudes have made her perpetually in demand.
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In 2001, Ananda Lewis decided to leave MTV in order to start her own talk show.
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The Ananda Lewis Show debuted on September 10,2001, after much advance press in which Lewis was compared to Oprah Winfrey.
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Ananda Lewis continued to do special presentations for MTV after her show had begun.
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Ananda Lewis's show aired on some WB and NBC stations before being canceled after one season.
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In 2004 Ananda Lewis became the chief correspondent on celebrity subjects for the nationally syndicated, nightly entertainment program The Insider, a spin-off of the popular Entertainment Tonight.
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Ananda Lewis appeared on the ABC network's reality show called Celebrity Mole: Yucatan.
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Ananda Lewis has been known to frequently introduce her two pet chihuahuas to interviewers.
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Ananda Lewis has been a spokesperson for Reading Is Fundamental, a nonprofit literacy group.
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Ananda Lewis has credited her mother, grandmother, and sister for providing her with a positive, supportive environment.
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Ananda Lewis was a good friend of singer and actress Aaliyah before her accidental death.
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In 2011, Ananda Lewis gave birth to son Langston, her first child, with Harry Smith.
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On October 2,2020, Ananda Lewis revealed that she has been battling breast cancer for 2 years.
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Ananda Lewis said that her aversion to mammograms took time from her ability to find out about the cancer in a timely manner, and begs for the public to get cancer screenings as soon as necessary.
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On October 15,2024, Ananda Lewis announced that her cancer had progressed to stage IV after years of alternative medicine.