Michelle Hunziker Swiss Actress Born 1977 in Sorengo

Michelle Hunziker is a Swiss and Italian television presenter, actress and former model, born on 24 January 1977 in Sorengo, in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. She has presented entertainment programmes in Italy, Germany and Switzerland, hosted the Sanremo Music Festival twice, and in 2025 was one of the three presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest final in Basel.

Early life

Hunziker was born in Sorengo, near Lugano. In 1983 her family moved to Ostermundigen, a suburb of Bern in the German-speaking region, where she attended primary school. She later moved with her mother to Milan, where she worked as a fashion model through the agent Riccardo Gay. As a teenager she modelled for several fashion brands, including Armani. She speaks German, Italian, English and Dutch.

Career

Her move into television began in the mid-1990s. In 1996 she co-presented the Rai Uno show I cervelloni with Paolo Bonolis and the comedy programme Paperissima Sprint on Canale 5. The next year she hosted the afternoon programme Colpo di Fulmine on Italia 1. From 1999 to 2001 she presented the late-night show Nonsolomoda on Canale 5, which reported on fashion and lifestyle. Around the same time she began acting, appearing in the television series La forza dell'amore and in the film Alex l'ariete in 2000, in which she acted opposite the former skier Alberto Tomba. Her earliest credit in film listings is The Protagonists, from 1999.

In 1999 she hosted the makeover programme Cinderella on the new Swiss channel TV3, a show that was criticised at first and became more popular after the concept was changed. That exposure led to work in Germany, where she presented Erstes Glück, which was cancelled, and later co-hosted the first two seasons of Deutschland sucht den Superstar, from 2002 to 2004, together with Carsten Spengemann. In October 2009 she joined the ZDF show Wetten, dass..?, which was also shown in Austria and Switzerland.

Back in Italy she co-hosted the comedy shows Zelig and Scherzi a parte in 2001 and presented the music show Festivalbar with Daniele Bossari and Alessia Marcuzzi. She appeared in Italian productions of the musicals The Sound of Music, as Maria von Trapp, and Cabaret, as Sally Bowles, both directed by Saverio Marconi. In 2006 she released Lole, an English-language album that was sold only in German-speaking countries; its single was "From Noon Till Midnight". In 2019 she released the single "Michkere".

Her film work includes the Christmas comedies Natale in crociera (2007) and Natale a Rio (2008), in both of which she has second billing, as well as Christmas in Beverly Hills (2009). Her screen credits continue to 2012 with the talent show DSDS Kids.

In 2007 she hosted the Sanremo Music Festival on Rai Uno with Pippo Baudo, and she returned to the festival in 2018 with Claudio Baglioni and Pierfrancesco Favino. In 2024 she hosted Andrea Bocelli 30: The Celebration on Canale 5. In May 2025 she co-presented the Eurovision Song Contest final in Basel with Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer. She also took part in the third series of Last One Laughing Deutschland, from which she was eliminated in the third episode.

Recognition

In 2001 Hunziker received the Italian television prize known as the TV Oscar in the category Discovery of the Year.

Personal life

Hunziker married the Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti in 1998. The marriage ended in divorce, and through it she acquired Italian citizenship. In 2014 she married Tomaso Trussardi, a member of the Trussardi fashion family, and that marriage ended in 2022. She has three children.