Brooke Elizabeth Burns is a lot of things. She is an actress, a fashion model, a game show host, and a television personality. She was well known for hosting the GSN quiz show “The Chase”, which got nominated at the 41st Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game Show. Burns was also recognized two years later for her effort on the show, getting nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host.
Her life took a new direction back in November 2005 when she was involved in a diving incident that almost damaged her spine. “It was my nightly routine. I didn’t even think about it,” Burns explains. “But one of the pool lights was out, and I misjudged the depth and hit my head on the bottom.”
Brooke was so lucky that a friend of hers was visiting at the time of the incident. He saw her in distress just as he was arriving, and he quickly jumped into the pool, keeping her afloat until the paramedics arrived. As a result, her friend was able to not only save her life, but also her mobility.
The actress and TV host has since found a new purpose after narrowly avoiding paralysis and has been an advocate for those with spinal cord injuries.
Top 10 interesting facts about Brooke Elizabeth Burns
- Brooke Elizabeth Burns is one of three daughters of Brad Burns and Betsy Burns.
- She was a ballet dancer for most of her childhood until a tragic knee injury ended her dancing career at 15.
- Brooke attended Trinity Christian Academy before her parents opted for home-schooling so she could spend more time training with the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet.
- Brooke Burns started modelling at 16, touring Europe and moving to New York on her own at age 17.
- She has been married twice and has two daughters, one from each of her marriages. She was formerly married to the son of the former Prime Minister of Australia, Sir William McMahon.
- The actress was once named #31 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2005 list.
- Brooke also suffered a near-death experience that almost made her lose her mobility.
- She is involved with a couple of charitable organizations especially one that involves helping people with spinal cord injuries.
- She has served as a TV host for a couple of shows and currently hosts GSN’s “Master Minds”.
- Brooke Burns is currently married to Gavin O’Connor.
- She is estimated to have a net worth of about $3 million.
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Early life
Brooke was born on 16 March 1978 to Brad and Betsy Burns. She has two sisters, and they were all raised in Dallas, Texas. During her childhood, Brooke was a ballet dancer for 12 years, and she started her modelling journey when she was 15.
Until the seventh grade, Brooke attended Trinity Christian Academy. After then, her parents opted for home-schooling so she could spend more time training with the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet. She began dancing at age 2.
Brooke’s dancing career ended at 15 following a skiing accident that required reconstructive knee surgery. She soon began modelling, travelling throughout Europe and moving to New York on her own at age 17.
On how interesting modelling was, Brooke said, “I found out you could make $125 an hour just smiling in front of a camera. Fantastic!”
Career
Before Brooke Burns got the nod to host the “Masterminds Game Show”, she had been in a few industries herself. As a child, she was a ballet dancer for more than a decade before a horrible knee injury halted her dreams of becoming a professional dancer. She soon turned the setback around by becoming a model.
Brooke toured Europe modelling for different clients. She also began doing commercials and featured in a couple of magazines including Stuff, back in August 2002.
Before long, she got an offer to co-star in the short-lived 1996 series “Out of the Blue.” Also, Brooke Burns starred in the 1998 film “Baywatch” as Jessica ‘Jessie’ Owens.
She also appeared on a celebrity edition of “Fear Factor” but was eliminated in the first round, leading to her stint as host on “Dog Eat Dog.” Brooke has also featured as a guest, ‘a fantasy girl’, on “Ally McBeal” while making her feature film debut in 2001’s “Shallow Hal”.
Brooke Burns has also appeared on “Just Shoot Me!”, “Drop Dead Diva”, “CSI: Miami, Out of the Blue”, “To Tell the Truth”, “Average Joe: Hawaii”, and she was nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for best game show host on the GSN game show “The Chase” with Mark Labbett. Currently, Brooke is the host of the American game show “Master Minds”.
The Chase host
Brooke Burns was the host of the popular quiz show “The Chase”, which originally ran on GSN from 2013 to 2015, and even got nominated for an Emmy for her work as the game show host.
However, she didn’t make a return for the US spin-off, which left fans wondering what happened to their beloved host. Well, what happened was that Brooke was already hosting “Master Minds” while also playing Maggie on “The Gourmet Detective”.
It appears that Brooke loves playing host as it works well with her schedule, since she’s a parent and wants to spend as much time with her family as possible, and hosting shows allows her that flexibility.
The actress also had nice things to say about her time on the show, admitting it seemed very intimidating at first. She said, “[The Chase] was a little daunting at first, to be honest. Just because you’re around very smart people all the time and they know so many things. They have so many degrees. So you’re often just feeling like, ‘Oh wow, OK. I know nothing.”
But, she appreciates being on the show as it proved to be a learning ground to so many things, especially being around so many smart folks.
Brooke Burns Baywatch
Brooke joined the cast of “Baywatch” a few years after making her television career debut. She became part of the action-drama series in 1998 and even went on to star in its second rendition “Baywatch: Hawaii”. In total, she appeared in 33 episodes until she left the show owing to her first pregnancy.
Personal life
Brooke Burns grew up in Texas, and she and her siblings were raised in a Christian family. Her father, Brad Burns, was in the oil business and is also a church elder. Her mother used to work in a bank.
According to her, the family was a tight one whose foundation is built on trust and love. Brooke also comes from a very supportive home, and what her family thinks of her matters a lot to her. That was why she felt bad after her parents got upset for her hot photos in August’s Stuff back in 2002. “I think at first they thought maybe I was a little nuts when I went off on my own,” she says.
Off-screen, Brooke Burns was briefly married to Australian actor Julian McMahon, who is the father of her first daughter, Madison. The pair were married from 1999 to 2001. Julian McMahon also happens to be the son of the former Prime Minister of Australia, Sir William McMahon. Their daughter, Madison Elizabeth McMahon, was born on 10 June 2000.
Brooke Burns remarried more than 10 years after her first marriage failed. She got wedded to Gavin O’Connor, a movie director, on 22 June 2013, and the pair have a daughter together, Declan Welles O’Connor, born on 22 January 2017.
Brooke Burns husband
Brooke Burns is currently married to Gavin O’Connor. Gavin was born on 24 December 1963, and he grew up in Huntington, New York, on Long Island.
He is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, playwright, and actor famous for directing the films “Miracle”, “Warrior”, Ben Affleck’s “The Accountant”, and “The Way Back”.
Gavin O’Connor was previously married to American screenwriter, actress, and documentary film director and producer Angela Shelton.
How tall is Brooke Burns?
Brooke Burns is a natural beauty who stands at 5 ft 8 inches tall.
Brooke Burns nude
As a model, many offers would come from clients to show off a bit of skin or perhaps take it all off during photo ops, and many take whatever initiative is best available to them. As for Brooke, in August 2002, she appeared in an issue of Stuff magazine.
The actress was shown semi-nude on a page of the magazine, and while she might have garnered a lot of fans appreciating her beauty, her family didn’t seem all pleased with her action. She later claim she regretted her action which ultimately upset her parents, calling it a “live-and-learn” mistake.
Brooke Burns net worth
The American model, actress, and TV show host Brooke Elizabeth Burns has an estimated net worth of around $3 million, according to CelebrityNetWorth.
Conclusion
Despite many obstacles on her path since a very tender age, Brooke Elizabeth Burns has always managed to scale through and find her next possible destination. A terrible knee incident dented her hopes of becoming a dancer despite training all her childhood for it. Well she turned the setback into another stepping stone, venturing into the world of modeling and then acting and now, she’s a TV show host and is excelling in her role as well.
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Interesting
Finds away to trample on difficult situations.