MARIA SANSONE

Maria is currently the host of the popular video "the 9" featured daily by Yahoo. She is also a contributor to ESPN, CBS Sports, NESN & MTVU.

She gained celebrity early in life when she became the youngest reporter in the history of network television, (12 yrs, 6 months) while doing sideline reporting for ABC Sports coverage of the Little League World Series. At age eleven she hosted her own children's sport show, Down to Size on WJET-TV ABC in Erie, Pennsylvania. She went on to interview Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills; Michael Jordan; Bill Cowher, coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers; baseball legend Tommy Lasorda; and others before her 13th birthday. She appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in December of 1992. The following year Maria went on to national broadcasts of ABC's Little League World Series, Professional Bowling Tour, Wide World of Sports for Kids, and reported from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, witnessing first-hand the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding saga. Later, she co-hosted, together with American Idol's Ryan Seacrest, Gladiators 2000 and did spot reporting for NBA Inside Stuff.

Maria took a break from TV to be a 'normal' kid and went to high school, at Villa Maria Academy in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she played varsity basketball, She graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School in 2003. While a junior at Syracuse, she co-hosted "Live with Regis and Kelly" while Kelly Ripa was on maternity leave.

She was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and currently lives in New York City with her dog, Louie.