Maria Elisa Domingues, known as Maria Elisa (born June 4, 1950) is a Portuguese

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and television presenter.

Early years

Maria Elisa was born in Lisbon,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. After attending the Medical School of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

for two years and the

Drama School A drama school, stage school or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university; or a free-standing institution (such as the Drama section at the Juilliard School); which specializes in the pr ...

for another two (1967–1972), she trained as a professional

at the ''Centre de Formation des Journalistes'', in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

(1974–1977).

Career

As a journalist with RTP, the Portuguese Public Television, she was the author and hostess of her own political and cultural talk shows since 1977. She received and interviewed most of the Presidents, Prime Ministers and other politicians, writers, painters and many other relevant cultural Portuguese personalities as well as business men and union leaders, among many others. She was the hostess of '' The Greatest Portuguese'', a BBC format (October 2006 to March 2007). In her life Maria Elisa Domingues had other professional experiences: she was the Press Counselor to Prime Minister

Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo Maria de Lourdes Ruivo da Silva de Matos Pintasilgo (; 18 January 1930 – 10 July 2004) was a Portuguese chemical engineer and politician. She was the first and to date only woman to serve as Prime Minister of Portugal, and the second woman to ...

(1979/1980); Program Director of RTP (1980–1983 and 1998–1999); Press Counselor with the Portuguese Embassy in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

(1986–1987); Director of Communication of the

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One ...

(1995–1998) and Cultural Counselor with the Portuguese Embassy in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

(2004–2006). Maria Elisa nowadays is the President of ''Associação dos Jornalistas Europeus'' (the Portuguese association of European Journalists) and also a regular contributor to some of Portugal's largest newspapers and news magazines, such as ''

Diário de Notícias ''Diário de Notícias'' () is a Portuguese daily newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal. Established since 1864, the paper is considered a newspaper of record for Portugal. History and profile ''Diário de Notícias'' was first published in ...

, Público,

Expresso Expresso may refer to: * Espresso, a coffee beverage * eXpresso, a hosted workspace for Microsoft Office communities * Expresso (Donkey Kong), a character in the ''Donkey Kong Country'' series * ''Expresso'' (newspaper), based in Lisbon, Portug ...

'' and ''

Visão ''Visão'' is a Portuguese news magazine published weekly in Lisbon, Portugal. History and profile ''Visão'' was first published on 25 March 1993. The magazine is the successor to the weekly newspaper ''O Jornal'' which was published between 197 ...

''.

Honours and decorations

She received the '' Ordem do Mérito'' from President

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th pres ...

in 1987.

Personal life

In January 2001, Maria Elisa was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. She is a member of ''Myos—Associação Nacional Contra a Fibromialgia e Síndrome de Fadiga Crónica'' (Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue National Association).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elisa, Maria 1950 births Living people Portuguese women journalists Portuguese television presenters Lisbon Theatre and Film School alumni University of Lisbon alumni Portuguese women television presenters