Ananda Lewis Biography
Ananda Lewis is an American television host, carpenter, former model, and social activist who left MTV to host her own broadcast syndicated television talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show, she was a veejay for the network. From 2004 to 2005, she worked as a correspondent for The Insider. After that, she became a carpenter. On TLC in 2019, she was the host of the While You Were Out revival.
Ananda Lewis Age
She is 50 years old as of 2023. She was born on 21 March 1973 in Los Angeles, California, United States. She celebrates her birthday on 21 March.
Ananda Lewis Family
She comes from the Creek and Blackfoot tribes, both of which are Native American tribes, and she is African American. In Sanskrit, her first name means “bliss.” Pacific Bell employed Lewis’ mother as an account manager and her father as a computer animation specialist. Lakshmi, her sister, is a doctor. Ananda Lewis’s mother moved with her daughters to San Diego, California, to be near her own mother after Lewis’s parents divorced when she was two years old. Ananda and Lakshmi were left with their grandmother while her mother took a lengthy trip to Europe to escape the pain of her failed marriage. Lewis felt abandoned during her brief absence of less than a year. She asserts: It appeared as though she gave me care and carried me in her womb before completely abandoning me. Throughout her childhood, Lewis fought frequently with her mother and rarely saw her father, who had remarried. Throughout her childhood, Lewis and her grandmother also frequently “locked horns.”
Ananda Lewis Husband
She is married to Harry Smith. She has six godchildren. Lewis gave birth to her first child, son Langston, with Harry Smith in 2011. She now lives in the San Fernando Valley.
Ananda Lewis Cancer
Lewis announced on October 2, 2020, that she has been battling breast cancer for two years. She pleaded with the general public to get cancer screenings as soon as possible, stating that her aversion to mammograms hindered her ability to discover cancer in a timely manner.
Ananda Lewis Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $2 Million.
Ananda Lewis MTV
Lewis was offered a position as a program host and video jockey by the cable network MTV soon after. She was hurting at the thought of leaving Teen Summit; Indeed, she was cited by a number of sources as recalling having “cried for three weeks” while contemplating her options. In selecting to move to MTV, the game changer was the chance to enormously expand the size of her survey crowd and the potential for impacting America’s childhood.
Hot Zone, which featured both music videos and Lewis’s interviews with musicians and others, and Total Request Live, a daily top ten video countdown show, were two of the shows that Lewis hosted and VJed. She criticized the rapper Q-Tip on one notable episode of The Hot Zone for the number of braless dancers in one of his videos. In a reference to Lewis’ communication-wise, Weave Kusbit, MTV’s senior VP for creation, told Douglas Century for The New York Times on November 21, 1999, “In the past, our ability was in some cases simply beautiful individuals who could peruse sign cards. However, when we brought Ananda to MTV, we decided to perform much more live television. Lewis was also asked by MTV to host other programs about current topics, such as two MTV forums on school violence that aired after the Columbine High School massacre and a number of tributes to the singer Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in 2001. Lewis received a second NAACP Image Award in 2001 for her role as host of the MTV special True Life: I’m driving in blackface. Lewis made headlines in 1998 when she declared her intention to abstain for at least six months while working at MTV.
Ananda Lewis Shows
Lewis was included on People’s list of the “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2000. Lewis made the decision in 2001 to leave MTV and start her own talk show. After receiving a lot of advance press in which Lewis was compared to Oprah Winfrey, The Ananda Lewis Show premiered on September 10, 2001. Lewis continued to host MTV specials after her show premiered. King World Productions syndicated Lewis’ series, which addressed issues like breast cancer and domestic violence in women between the ages of 18 and 34; It was advertised as an alternative to the sensationalism and provocative programming of Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake, whose talk shows were generating the majority of daytime viewers at the time.
Lewis’ show lasted for one season before it was pulled from some WB and NBC stations. The creators of her show stated: Roger King, chairman and CEO of King World Productions and CBS Enterprises, stated, “We started on a Monday, then there was the World Trade Center bombing the next day, and everything has become a mess since then.” After that, Lewis briefly worked for BET. In 2004 Ms. Lewis likewise showed up on the ABC organization’s unscripted TV drama called VIP Mole: Yucatán. The Outstanding Achievement in Enhanced Television Emmy went to this reality show. Lewis has worked as a spokesperson for the Humane Society and as a co-host of the A&E television network show America’s Top Dog. Lewis is an avid animal lover.