Melana Scantlin (born December 4, 1977

Gladstone, Missouri Gladstone is a city in Clay County, Missouri, United States and a suburb of Kansas City. The City of Gladstone is located only 10 minutes from downtown Kansas City, and 10 minutes from Kansas City International Airport. As of the 2020 census, th ...

) is an American entertainment journalist, sports journalist and former Miss Missouri USA, and reality TV star who also competed in the

Miss Teen USA Miss Teen USA is a beauty pageant formerly run, since 1983, by the Miss Universe Organization for girls aged 14–19. Unlike its sister pageants Miss Universe, which currently broadcasts on Fox and Miss USA, this pageant is webcast on the M ...

and

Miss USA Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020, ...

pageants. In college, she was named to the Dean's List, The National Dean's List and Who's Who Among College and University Students. Scantlin's first

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

win was

Miss Missouri Teen USA The Miss Missouri Teen USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Missouri in the Miss Teen USA pageant. It is directed by Vanbros and Associates, based in Lenexa, Kansas. In 1993, Missouri joined the Vanbro ...

. She went on to represent

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

in the

pageant broadcast and placed in the semifinals. In 2001, she won the

Miss Missouri USA The Miss Missouri USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state Missouri in the Miss USA pageant. It is directed by Vanbros and Associates, based in Lenexa, Kansas. In 1993, Missouri joined the Vanbros group of st ...

2002 title, becoming the fifth former Miss Teen USA delegate to win the title. She went on to represent

in the

Miss USA 2002 Miss USA 2002 was the 51st Miss USA pageant, held at Genesis Convention Center in Gary, Indiana on March 1, 2002. The event was won by Shauntay Hinton of the District of Columbia, who was crowned by outgoing queen Kandace Krueger of Texas. This ...

pageant broadcast live from

Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the sou ...

on March 2, 2002. Scantlin became widely known in 2003 on the first season of the TV series Average Joe. She was expecting to start off meeting a bunch of hunks, but was instead inundated with mostly plain-looking and/or

obese Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

suitors. Later on in the show, three model types of men were brought in to compete against the Average Joes. She chose "pretty boy" Jason Peoples over Average Joe

Adam Mesh Adam Mesh (born September 14, 1975) is an American entrepreneur, stock trader, television personality and author. He is the CEO and founder oThe Adam Mesh Trading Group Adam Mesh was first introduced to television audiences in the 2003 NBC show '' ...

. After the show, Melana and Jason flew off in a

private jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people. Business jets may be adapted for other roles, such as the evacuation of casualties or express parcel deliveries, and some are used by pub ...

for a romantic getaway. The two made the rounds of TV

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...

s, but later started seeing other people. She has served as an on-camera host and red carpet interviewer for E!, NBC Universal, Variety, VH1, Yahoo, Verizon, Best Damn Sports Show Period, The Kanas City Chiefs, The New England Patriots, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, NFL Kick-off Week, NHL All-Star Week, The Super Bowl, The Oscars, The Emmys, The Grammys, MTV VMAs, CMT Music Awards, AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards, The ESPYs, ION, FX, Verifone, Screenvision, ''

World Series of Blackjack The ''World Series of Blackjack'' is a televised blackjack tournament created and produced by the cable network GSN. It is a closed tournament; players are either invited to play or attempt to win a spot via a satellite tournament. Rounds are edi ...

'', Red Carpet Specials and Live Panel Discussions'. She's also appeared on '' Days of Our Lives'', ''20 Most Awesomely Bad Songs on VH1'', ''

Sidewalks Entertainment ''Sidewalks Entertainment'' (1988–present) is a weekly American television series that is a combination of a talk show, magazine show and variety show featuring celebrity interviews, music, artistic and novelty acts, and rising performers. The ...

'', ''

The Wayne Brady Show ''The Wayne Brady Show'' is an American variety show hosted by comedian Wayne Brady that aired in two separate forms. On August 8, 2001, ABC, for whom Brady had been working as a panelist on ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'', launched the first ''Wa ...

'', ''

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014. The fourth incarnation of the ...

'', and ''

Live with Regis and Kelly ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...

''. In 2004, Scantlin was the co-host of the ''Screening Room'', a movie review segment which airs Fridays on

WDAF-TV WDAF-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Summit Street in the Signal H ...

in Kansas City, Missouri. Scantlin graduated from

Park University Park University is a private university in Parkville, Missouri. It was founded in 1875. In the fall of 2017, Park had an enrollment of 11,457 students. History The school which was originally called Park College was founded in 1875 by John A ...

in Parkville, Missouri, where she was on the Dean's List, named to the National Dean's List and Who's Who Among College and University Students. She resides in Los Angeles, California where she hosts E! News Now since 2009.

Other

She is also the cousin of lead singer

Wes Scantlin Wesley Reid Scantlin (born June 9, 1972) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and only constant member of rock band Puddle of Mudd. He was named one of the "Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocali ...

from

Puddle of Mudd Puddle of Mudd is an American rock band formed in Kansas City, Missouri in 1992. To date, the band has sold over seven million albums and has had a string of No. 1 mainstream rock singles in the United States. Their major-label debut '' C ...

References

External links

Biography of Melana Scantlin by Miss Missouri USA
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scantlin, Melana 1977 births Living people Miss USA 2002 delegates Participants in American reality television series Park University alumni People from Gladstone, Missouri 1995 beauty pageant contestants 20th-century Miss Teen USA delegates