Vanna White (born Vanna Marie Rosich; February 18, 1957) is an American television personality and film actress best known as the hostess of Wheel of Fortune since 1982.
White was born Vanna Marie Rosich, in Conway, South Carolina, the daughter of Joan Marie and Miguel Angel Rosich. Her parents divorced when she was an infant, and White took the name of her stepfather, Herbert Stackley White Jr., a former real estate agent in what is now North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Before her appearance on TV in 1980, White was a contestant in the Miss Georgia 1978 pageant. White's first appearance in a game show was on the June 20, 1980, episode of The Price Is Right, in which she was among the first four contestants. She did not make it onstage, but the clip of her running to Contestants' Row was rebroadcast as part of The Price Is Right 25th Anniversary Special in August 1996 and also was featured on the special broadcast Game Show Moments Gone Bananas. After Wheel of Fortune hostess Susan Stafford left in October 1982, White was selected as one of three substitute hostesses (along with Vicki McCarty and Summer Bartholomew) to co-host the show. On December 13, 1982, White became the regular hostess. Her 1987 autobiography, Vanna Speaks!, was a best-seller. Also in 1987, she was featured in a Playboy pictorial, showing photos taken of her by her boyfriend (before her career on Wheel of Fortune) wearing see-through lingerie.