Who is Heidi Klum? The entertainment and modeling world knows Heidi Klum as a German-American
model, television host, businesswoman, fashion designer,
television producer, and occasional actress. In 2008, she became an American citizen while maintaining her native German citizenship.
[3][4][5][6]
Klum became internationally known for her appearances on the cover of the
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 1997 she became the first German model to become a
Victoria's Secret Angel. Following a successful modeling career, Klum garnered acclaim as the host and judge of the reality show
Project Runway which earned her an
Emmy nomination in 2008 and a win in 2013 for
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program (shared with co-host
Tim Gunn). She has worked as a
spokesmodel for
Dannon and
H & M, and has appeared in numerous commercials for
McDonald's,
Volkswagen and others. In 2009, Klum became
Barbie's official ambassador on
Barbie's 50th anniversary. As an occasional actress, she had supporting roles in movies including
Blow Dry (2001),
Ella Enchanted (2004), and made cameo appearances on
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and
Perfect Stranger (2007). She has also appeared on TV shows including
Sex and the City and
How I Met Your Mother. Currently, Klum is a judge on the
NBC reality show
America's Got Talent.
In May 2011,
Forbes magazine estimated Klum's total earnings for that year as $20 million. She is ranked second on
Forbes' list of the "World's Top-Earning Models", behind
Gisele Bündchen.
Forbes
noted that since ending her 13-year run as a Victoria's Secret Angel,
Klum has become more of a businesswoman than a model. She was married to
English singer
Seal from 2005 until 2012.
Early life and discovery
Klum was born June 1, 1973 and raised in
Bergisch Gladbach, a town outside
Cologne.
She is the daughter of Erna, a hairdresser, and Günther Klum, a
cosmetics-company executive. A friend convinced her to enroll in a
national modeling contest called "Model 92".
[7]
Out of 25,000 contestants, Klum was voted the winner on April 29, 1992
and offered a modeling contract worth US$300,000 by Thomas Zeumer, CEO
of Metropolitan Models New York.
[8] After winning, she appeared on the
Gottschalk Late Night Show, a top German television show with host
Thomas Gottschalk.
She accepted the contract a few months later after graduating from
school and decided not to try for an apprentice position at a fashion
design school.
[9]
Career
Acting and modeling
Klum is the current host of
Project Runway, filmed at the
Parsons The New School for Design. She has been featured on the covers of
Vogue,
Elle, and
Marie Claire, and became widely known after appearing on the cover of the
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and for her work with
Victoria's Secret as an "Angel".
[10] Klum has hosted the 2002, 2006, 2007, and 2009
Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows. On October 1, 2010, the
New York Post reported in its "
Page Six" gossip column that Heidi Klum would be leaving Victoria's Secret, which was later confirmed by Klum.
[11]
In addition to working with well-known photographers on her first husband's
Sports Illustrated shoots, she was the object and subject of Joanne Gair body painting works in several editions from 1997 to 2010. She wrote the
foreword to Gair's book of body paint work,
Body Painting, Masterpieces. She was a spokesmodel for McDonald's,
Braun,
Dannon,
H & M, and
Liz Claiborne, among others. She is currently
[when?] a celebrity spokesmodel for
Jordache[12] and
Volkswagen. In addition to modeling, she has appeared in several TV shows, including
Spin City,
Sex and the City,
Yes, Dear, and
How I Met Your Mother. She had a role as an ill-tempered hair model in the movie
Blow Dry, played a giantess in the movie
Ella Enchanted and was cast as
Ursula Andress in
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. She had cameo appearances in
The Devil Wears Prada and
Perfect Stranger. Her other projects include dance and video games. She is featured in the 2006
James Bond video game
Everything or Nothing, wherein she plays the villain Dr. Katya Nadanova.
[13] She has appeared in several music videos, including
Jamiroquai's video "
Love Foolosophy" from their album
A Funk Odyssey,
Kelis's "
Young, Fresh n' New", off her second 2001 album
Wanderland and, most recently, the second video for her husband
Seal's song "Secret" off his 2010 album
Seal 6: Commitment. The latter video depicts the married couple sharing intimate moments while naked in bed; the concept was Klum's idea.
[14]
In July 2007, having earned $8 million in the previous 16 months, Klum was named by
Forbes as third on the list of the World's 15 Top-Earning
Supermodels.
[15] In 2008,
Forbes estimated her income at $18 million, putting Klum in first place. For 2007,
Forbes estimated her income at $16 million.
[16] Klum is signed to
IMG Models in New York City.
[17] In 2008, Klum was a featured guest on an American
Volkswagen commercial, where she was interviewed by a black
Beetle.
When she commented that German engineering is so sexy, she caused the
Beetle to blush and turn red. She has been a part of several commercials
for Volkswagen and McDonald's on German television.
[18] In November 2008, Klum appeared in two versions of a
Guitar Hero World Tour commercial, wherein she did a take on
Tom Cruise's iconic underwear dancing scene in
Risky Business. In both versions, she lip-synced to
Bob Seger's "
Old Time Rock and Roll" while dancing around the living room with the wireless guitar controller.
[19]
In October 2009, Klum was the often-nude one-woman subject of
Heidilicious,
[20] a photo book by photographer
Rankin.
Klum ventured into web-based videos, starring in "SPIKED HEEL:
Supermodels Battle the Forces of Evil". The web-series starred model
Coco Rocha and was directed by fashion documentarian Doug Keeve. In the story, Klum aka 'The Kluminator,'
[21]
and her stylish sidekick Coco "The Sassy Superhero" Rocha battle the
evil Dr. Faux Pas who is plotting to destroy Fashion Week. The heroines
employ everything from blow-dryer guns to fist fights, in order to
thwart Dr. Faux Pas' dastardly plans. The Kluminator and Girl Wonder
avoid a chain of fashion disasters to neutralize a death ray that
threatens to vaporize the community of fashionistas gathered in Bryant
Park.
[22]
In 2010, Klum became the new face and creative advisor for European
cosmetics brand Astor, for which she sets artistic direction and designs
new products and fashion forward color collections.
[23]
In October 2010, Klum parted ways with Victoria's Secret after 13 years
of working with the brand. She provided a simple explanation in her
official statement, stating: "All good things have to come to an end. I
will always love Victoria and never tell her secret. It's been an
absolute amazing time!"
[24]
It was reported in May 2011 that Klum trails far behind
Gisele Bündchen at No. 2 with estimated earnings of $20 million on
Forbes' list of the
World's Top-Earning Models (2010-2011).
Forbes noted that since ending her 13-year run as a Victoria's Secret Angel, Klum has become more of a
businesswoman than a model. She's partnered with
New Balance and
Amazon.com to launch a clothing line and signed a 20-episode deal to host a new show on
Lifetime, called
Seriously Funny Kids.
[25] In fact, some noted fashion designers have long been commenting on Klum's limited role as a fashion model.
Karl Lagerfeld, for example, in 2009 agreed with German designer
Wolfgang Joop, who called Klum after she had posed naked on the cover of the German edition of
GQ magazine,
[26] "no runway model. She is simply too heavy and has too big a bust".
[27] Lagerfeld observed that neither he nor
Claudia Schiffer
knew Klum, as she has never worked in Paris and was insignificant in
the world of fashion, being "more bling bling and glamorous than current
fashion."
[28]
Producing
In December 2004, Klum became the host, judge and executive producer of the reality show
Project Runway
on the U.S. cable television channel Bravo (airing on Lifetime
television beginning in 2009), in which fashion designers compete for
the opportunity to show their line at
New York Fashion Week
and receive money to launch their own fashion line. She received an
Emmy Award nomination for the show for each of the first four seasons.
[29][30] In 2008, Klum and
Project Runway received a
Peabody Award, the first time a reality show won the award.
[31] Klum was nominated for an Emmy in 2008 for "outstanding host of a reality or reality-competition show" for
Project Runway, the first year that category was recognized by the Emmys.
[30] Klum has been the host, judge and co-producer of
Germany's Next Topmodel,
the German version of the internationally successful reality television
show, since 2006. All seven seasons aired on the German TV station
ProSieben.
Design and other business ventures
Klum designed clothing lines (one for men), featured in the German mail-order catalog "
Otto". She designed shoes for
Birkenstock,
[32] jewelry for Mouawad, a clothing line for Jordache, and swimsuits – featured in the 2002
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
[33]
She was one of the designers of the Victoria's Secret lingerie line
"The Body", named after the nickname she received following her first
Victoria's Secret Fashion Show appearance.
[34] Her Mouawad jewelry collection debuted on the cable shopping network
QVC on September 14, 2006, and 14 of the 16 styles sold out after 36 minutes.
[35] Klum's clothing line for Jordache launched on April 30, 2008.
[36]
Klum has two fragrances, called "Heidi Klum" and "Me". She designed
makeup for Victoria's Secret as part of their "Very Sexy Makeup
Collection", titled "The Heidi Klum Collection". The first run debuted
in Fall 2007. A second run was released in Fall 2008.
[37] Klum was involved in the development of a namesake rose, the
Heidi Klum rose,
[38][39] which is available in Germany. For the 2008
US Open,
Klum designed a screen print t-shirt which was sold at the US Open
shop. It featured childlike butterfly pictures. Proceeds will go to a
non-profit organization maintaining the park, which is home to the US
Open.
[40] Heidi became
Barbie's official ambassador for the doll's 50th anniversary in 2009, even having made a Barbie doll out of herself.
[41] On April 1 that same year, she appeared on the
CBS television special,
I Get That a Lot,
[42] as a girl working at a pizza shop. That same year, she appeared in advertising for Dannon's Light & Fit brand.
[43]
Klum and husband Seal announced in June 2010 that they will be making a reality series on
Lifetime titled
Love's Divine (after Seal's song of the same name.)
[44]
In January 2010, Klum launched two lines of maternity wear: Lavish by
Heidi Klum for A Pea in the Pod, and Loved by Heidi Klum for Motherhood
Maternity. Klum stated, "I experienced fashion challenges during my four
pregnancies and combined my knowledge of what works in terms of style,
comfort and practicality to create these lines".
[45] In October 2010, Klum with
New Balance, HKNB, launched a line of active woman's wear fashion clothing on Amazon.com.
[46] Klum is a "Real Celebrity" on the website
Stardoll, where she has a line of virtual jewelry, and a virtual clothing line called Jordache. Users can go to Klum's
suite (address) and interact with her by doing interviews, sending pending requests or dressing Klum's doll.
[47]
Other work
Klum is an artist, and had several of her paintings appear in various
art magazines in the U.S. On September 27, 2002 she dedicated a
sculpture she painted called "Dog with Butterflies" to commemorate the
role of rescue dogs in the aftermath of September 11.
[48] In 2004, Klum co-authored
Heidi Klum's Body of Knowledge with
Elle
magazine editor Alexandra Postman. The book gives Klum's biography as
well as her advice on becoming successful. Prior to that, Klum had been
an occasional guest columnist for the German television network
RTL's website. She wrote an essay for the German newspaper
Die Zeit.
[49]
In November 2006, Klum released her debut single "
Wonderland", written for a series of television advertisements for the German retailer "
Douglas".
[50] Proceeds were given to a children's charity in her hometown of
Bergisch Gladbach. She contributed to her husband Seal's 2007 album
System, singing the duet "Wedding Day", a song that Seal wrote for their wedding.
[51] In March 2013, it was announced that Klum will be joining
America's Got Talent as the show's new fourth judge.
[52]
Personal life
In 1997, Klum married stylist Ric Pipino. The couple divorced in 2002.
[53]
Klum began a relationship with
Flavio Briatore (the managing director of
Renault's
Formula One team)
[54]
in 2003. The following year, Klum publicly announced her pregnancy. She
gave birth to their first child, Helene Boshoven "Leni" Klum, in May,
2004 in New York City.
[55]
 |
| Heidi and | Seal |
In early 2004, while still pregnant with Leni, Klum began a relationship with musician
Seal.
[56]
With Briatore no longer involved in Heidi's life, Seal became Leni's de
facto father. Seal was present for Leni's birth and Klum has stated
emphatically that "Seal is Leni's father".
[57] Klum and Seal became engaged in December 2004 on a glacier in
Whistler, British Columbia[58] and married on May 10, 2005 on a beach in Mexico.
[59] They have three biological children together: sons Henry Gunther Ademola Dashtu Samuel (born 2005)
[60] and Johan Riley Fyodor Taiwo Samuel (born 2006),
[61] and daughter Lou Sulola Samuel (born 2009).
[62] On November 21, 2009, Klum officially adopted Seal's surname and became legally known as Heidi Samuel.
[63] Soon after, in December 2009, Seal officially adopted Leni, and her last name was changed to Samuel.
[64]
During their marriage, Klum and Seal renewed their vows to one another
each year on their anniversary in front of family and friends.
[65] On January 22, 2012, the couple announced that they were separating after almost seven years of marriage.
[66][67][68]
She filed for divorce from Seal three months later on April 6, 2012.
She also requested that her name be restored to her birth name of Heidi
Klum.
[69]
Klum confirmed that she has been dating her bodyguard Martin Kristen since September 2012.
[70]
Philanthropy
Klum spends time at
Children's Hospital Los Angeles visiting patients.
[71] On April 30, 2011, Klum led Walk for Kids, a community 5k to raise funds as part of the hospital's community awareness efforts.
[72]
Filmography
Who is Cari Champion? The sports world knows Cari Champion as an American broadcast journalist and television personality.[1] She has worked as an anchor and reporter for the Tennis Channel and is currently the host of ESPN2's First Take.
Champion was born in June 1975 and raised in Pasadena, California.[2] Champion attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she majored in English and minored in mass communications. She wrote for the Daily Bruin and was inspired to pursue a career in journalism by UCLA alumni, including Matea Gold of the Los Angeles Times, who spoke in her classes.[3] Champion was drawn to journalism with goals of transforming negative stereotypes of African Americans:
"I wanted to give people a voice that didn't have a voice. I'm always
fighting for the underdog. I don't know where I got it from, but I've
been like that all my life. That's why I love journalism."[4] In her junior year, she studied in Washington, D.C. and earned an internship at CNN.[3] Champion graduated from UCLA in 1998,[3] with an English degree.[4]
Champion began her broadcasting career at several television stations.[4] She moved to West Virginia for her first reporting job.[1]
She later said of working there: "I was a one-man-band carrying a
camera and a tripod and that was God-awful. But I loved it because I
wanted to do it. I always wanted to be a reporter."[4] She was a reporter at the Orange County Newschannel in Santa Ana, California before joining WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida in the same capacity in 2002.[5]
Champion grew up as an avid basketball fan. She is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and the UCLA Bruins.[4] According to her, she is 6 feet 1 inch tall "with heels".[2] Before working on the show, Champion was an avid watcher of First Take: "I love the barbershop debates that make First Take feel different than other programs".[1] She currently lives in Connecticut.[10]
