Maria Frances Louise Kanellis also known as Maria Kanellis, is an American professional wrestler and a model, was born on February 25, 1982 in Ottawa, Illinois. She is of Greek heritage and played volleyball, basketball and softball and graduated from Ottawa Township High School in 2000. She then continued her studies at Northern Illinois University. She has two younger siblings Janny and Billy. She was offered to pose for Playboy but turned it down for she didn’t want to embarrass her sister Janny. Maria was a contestant on the reality show Outback Jack in 2004 and placed fifth in the Raw Diva Search and later hired by World Wrestling Entertainment as a backstage interviewer. After the Raw Diva Search in 2004, she began making appearances at the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) training facility under Paul Heyman. Her work at OVW later led to a spot in Raw as a backstage interviewer in November 2004. However, WWE Superstars and divas were irritated and amused at the same time with Maria for it seemed that she asks the wrong questions. On January 10, 2005, she fought Christie Hemme in a Lingerie Pillow Fight on her first official match. Maria teamed with John Cena against the Edge and Lita on the main event of the February 6 Edition of Raw. On October 16, she fought Victoria, Candice Michelle and Torrie Wilson in Women’s Championship Tournament and lost to Lita in the semi-finals.

On January 1, 2007, she attempted to interview Kevin Federline but got slapped by Melina and was called a “bitch” which result a match. Melina prevailed in that said match. In June 2007 she got involved with Santino Marella, her on-screen boyfriend and was dragged in to Santino’s fueds and gave her more airtime. In the earlier part of 2008, her Ahsley Massaro suggested to Maria to a cover girl of Playboy to the disdain of her on-screen boyfriend Santino. On February 18, 2008, Maria unveiled her Playboy magazine cover however it was covered up with Marella’s images. She was then asked to choose between Marella and posing for the magazine, her answer “No man and no one is going to make this decision for me” and broke up with Santino. After her Playboy gig, she was drafted to the SmackDown brand. It was on August 1, 2008 when she debut on SmackDown and defeated Victoria on the said match. One of her big matches last year was the match with Maryse for the Divas Championship in which she lost. She was a guest referee in the Divas Championship match of Maryse and Michelle McCool which led to McCool kicking her gut to for allegedly letting Maryse win the match. On February 13, 2009, Maria got back on Michelle McCool by winning the match with the help of Eve Torres. She then participated in the 25 Divas Battle Royal for the first Miss WrestleMania in April 05, 2009 but was eliminated by Victoria.

Real Name: Maria Frances Louise Kanellis
Date of Birth: February 25, 1982

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