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Courtney Hansen is an American television host/personality, syndicated columnist, published author, and former
fashion model A model is a person with a role either to promote, display or advertise commercial products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as a visual aid for people who are creating works of art or to pose for photography. Thoug ...
.


Biography

Courtney Hansen was born on October 2, 1974 in
Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
,
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, to Gerald John "Jerry" and Constance (Walker) Hansen. Her father is a winner of 27
SCCA The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...
national racing championships. From 1973-2006 her family owned
Brainerd International Raceway Brainerd International Raceway is a road course, and dragstrip racing complex northwest of the city of Brainerd, Minnesota. The complex has a dragstrip, and overlapping and road courses. The complex also includes a kart track. The raceway hos ...
and she grew up in
Orono, Minnesota Orono ( ) is a rural city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States west of Minneapolis. Located on the north shore of Lake Minnetonka, Orono is known for its rural character and abundant wildlife. The population was 7,437 at the 2010 censu ...
, and spent much time around the pits and garages at racing tracks. As a result, she is an automobile enthusiast, and much of her work to date has revolved around automobiles. Courtney Hansen married Jay Hartington, her longtime boyfriend and father of her child, on July 21, 2018 in Taormina, Italy.


Career

After graduating with a degree in marketing from
Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...
, she undertook a corporate job in marketing. After leaving the corporate world, Hansen hosted the
Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest go ...
pilot ''Killer Golf'' and segments on the
Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...
, worked as a fashion and fitness model, and was on the cover of ''
Hot Rod Magazine ''Hot Rod'' is a monthly American car magazine devoted to hot rodding, drag racing, and muscle cars—modifying automobiles for performance and appearance. History ''Hot Rod'' is the oldest magazine devoted to hot rodding, having been publishe ...
, ''
Muscle & Fitness ''Muscle & Fitness'' is an American fitness and bodybuilding magazine founded in 1935 by Canadian entrepreneur Joe Weider. It was originally published under the title ''Your Physique'', before being renamed to ''Muscle Builder'' in 1954, and acq ...
'' and other major magazines. Hansen's first major TV role was co-host of the hit car makeover series ''
Overhaulin' ''Overhaulin'' is an American automotive reality television series. The show originally ran for five seasons between 2004 and 2008 on TLC. After a four-year hiatus, sixth season premiered on October 2, 2012 on Velocity and Discovery (Cablevision ...
''. She went on to host
Spike TV Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Media Networks. The network's headquarters are located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles. The channel was o ...
's ''
Powerblock PowerNation is an American automotive how-to enthusiast television program that began originally as ''PowerBlock''. The programming is produced by Gray Television, which purchased the assets of PowerNation's former owner Raycom Media in 2019. Po ...
'', which was composed of four half-hour automotive shows, for eight seasons. She hosted a special for Spike TV called ''Great Builds.'', was host of the travel adventure series "Destination Wild" for Fox Sports Net, which won a Telly Award. In the past she hosted for
TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...
's automotive-themed shows ''Rides'', and ''Million Dollar Motors''. Hansen has been a spokes-model for
Matco Tools Matco Tools, Inc. is an American professional tool distribution franchise for the automotive and other industries and is based in Stow, Ohio, United States. This includes over 13,000 different tools such as wrenches, screw drivers, gauges, and ...
,
Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...
, and
Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
. Her participation in ''Overhaulin'' was far from superficial; she helped with the disassembling and assembly of cars for the show. Additionally, Hansen wrote a column for ''FHM'', and has written a nationally syndicated automotive newspaper column titled "Courtney Hansen: Full Throttle" since 2005. She is the published author of ''The Garage Girl's Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Your Car'' (), a book offering women and first time car buyers advice on how to care for their cars. Hansen hosted ''Autoweek's Vinsetta Garage'' for Discovery Channel's Velocity network. The show was named after Vinsetta Garage, a century-old
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
landmark that Autoweek Magazine saved from demolition. The garage serviced everything from carriages to
Ford Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...
s to
Chevrolet Corvette The Chevrolet Corvette is a two-door, two-passenger luxury sports car manufactured and marketed by Chevrolet since 1953. With eight design generations, noted sequentially from C1 to C8, the Corvette is noted for its performance and distinctive ...
s. In January 2014 Hansen started duties as host of the new NBC Sports, Spike TV and CBS Sports TV series ''PowerNation'', and was the spokesperson for Endurance Warranty Services, LLC Endurance Warranty until 2017. On 5 July 2014 she had her first child, Holland Marysia Walker Hartington, a daughter with 35-year-old entrepreneur, Jay Hartington (owner of Rumbatime and MarissaCollections.com, among other ventures). Hansen dated "Idiotest" host Ben Gleib in 2006–2007. Courtney announced she is leaving Powernation at the end of 2015 to pursue other endeavors.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Courtney 1974 births Living people Actresses from Minneapolis Television personalities from Los Angeles American women television personalities Florida State University alumni Actresses from Los Angeles Writers from Minneapolis Writers from Los Angeles Female models from Minnesota People from Orono, Minnesota 21st-century American women