Ariana Madix

Ariana Madix is an actress, television personality, host, and businesswoman born on June 24, 1985, in Melbourne, Florida. She was raised by her father, James, of Irish descent, and her mother, Tanya, alongside her younger brother, Jeremy. Madix graduated from Eau Gallie High School in 2003 and earned a dual bachelor's degree in Theatre and Broadcast Communications from Flagler College in 2007. During her college years, she worked at Disney World portraying costumed characters including Ariel, Cinderella, and Aurora. She also pursued competitive equestrian riding from age six and won two national dance championships.

Following graduation, Madix relocated to New York City with the goal of performing on Broadway, remaining there for five years while working as a bartender and hostess at the restaurant Butter. She appeared in early film and television projects during this period, including the films Working It Out (2010) and Killer Eye: Halloween Haunt (2011), as well as guest roles on the Fox sitcom Dads and the FX sitcom Anger Management. She also appeared frequently in videos for the comedy website CollegeHumor. Finding it difficult to advance her television career in New York, she moved to Los Angeles, where she began working at Lisa Vanderpump's restaurants SUR and Villa Blanca, which led to her joining the Bravo reality series Vanderpump Rules in 2013. She remained a cast member for eleven seasons, through 2024. Along with co-stars Scheana Shay, Katie Maloney, and Lala Kent, Madix received the Best Reality On-Screen Team award at the 2023 MTV Movie and TV Awards for her work on the series.

Madix's film credits include Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader (2012), Dirty Dealing 3D (2018), Dead End (2019), and the Lifetime film Buying Back My Daughter (2023), in which she plays police officer Karen investigating a sex trafficking case. In 2019, she appeared as herself in an episode of the comedy series The Other Two. In October 2024, Variety reported that she landed a guest role in the third season of ABC's police procedural Will Trent, playing a fictionalized version of herself. In August 2025, Deadline announced she would appear as Dr. Emerson in the second season of NBC's sitcom St. Denis Medical.

In the summer of 2023, it was announced that Madix would compete on season 32 of ABC's Dancing with the Stars, partnered with Pasha Pashkov. The pair finished in third place. That same year, she made a special guest appearance on the fifth season of Love Island on Peacock, traveling to Fiji to surprise the cast during the show's second week. She also served as a special guest host on three episodes of Love Island Games. In 2024, she replaced Sarah Hyland as the permanent host of Love Island USA for its sixth season.

Madix has co-authored two cocktail books. The first, Fancy AF Cocktails: Drink Recipes from a Couple of Professional Drinkers, was co-written with Tom Sandoval and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on December 3, 2019. Her second book, Single AF Cocktails, was published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group, on December 5, 2023, and debuted at number ten on the New York Times advice, how-to, and miscellaneous best seller list for the week ending December 24, 2023. Her business ventures also include a holiday lip kit released with Frankie Rose Cosmetics in November 2017, a four-lipstick collaboration with Lip Lab announced in July 2023, and a shoe collection released with Designer Shoe Warehouse in April 2024. In 2022, she and Vanderpump Rules co-star Katie Maloney announced plans to open a sandwich shop and wine bar called Something About Her.

Madix made her Broadway debut on January 29, 2024, originating the role of Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago, the production she had long identified as a personal goal. Her initial run lasted eight weeks, with the production grossing $939,177.40 for the week ending February 4, 2024, which BroadwayWorld reported as the show's highest-grossing non-holiday performance week in its history. Due to popular demand, her run was extended through April 7, 2024. She returned to the role for a second Broadway engagement running from August 1 through September 1, 2024. Chicago is Broadway's second longest-running American musical, having run for 27 years at the time of her debut.