Olivia Ward (born October 23, 1975) is an American reality television personality and the winner of

season 11 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

of '' The Biggest Loser'', which was the fourth season of couples on the TV reality show. Ward competed on the purple team alongside her sister,

Hannah Curlee ''The Biggest Loser: Couples 4'' is the eleventh season of the NBC reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rat ...

, in which they became the final two together.

Early life and education

She was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She is the eldest of four siblings. Her family subsequently moved to

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, where she attended

Langham Creek High School Langham Creek High School is a high school located in an unincorporated area in Harris County, Texas, United States, near Houston. Langham Creek, which was established in 1984, is part of the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District. Severa ...

though her junior year. She spent her senior year at, and graduated from, Baker High School in Mobile County, Alabama in 1994. Ward earned a degree in vocal performance from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1998. She earned master's degrees in voice and in opera performance from the

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on Hu ...

in Boston, Massachusetts in 2002.

Career

Ward has worked as a manager at a plastic surgery office.

''The Biggest Loser''

Ward's motivation for being on ''The Biggest Loser'' was the fact that her weight, which had climbed to over 261 pounds, combined with a diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome, meant she would likely never have children if she didn't lose a significant amount of weight. She felt her obesity was a reason she had not received many opera singing roles. Her teammate was her sister Hannah Curlee, who is three years younger than she. Ward won the Biggest Loser Season 11 on May 24, 2011 and Hannah placed second.

Other

As of 2018, Ward is an Atlanta-based Senior Instructor at

SoulCycle SoulCycle is a fitness company owned by Equinox Group which offers indoor cycling and spinning workout classes. It was founded in 2006, and has operations in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In early 2020, before the COVID-19 p ...

. As of 2013, Ward operates a website called MyFitspiration.com.

Opera

Ward was a

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...

opera singer. Ward's operatic work includes appearances with Ash-Lawn Highland Opera,

Chautauqua Opera The Chautauqua Opera is the resident summer opera company of the Chautauqua Institution. It is one of the oldest continuously active summer opera companies in the U.S, having been founded in 1929 as the Chautauqua Opera Association, and it has pro ...

, Las Vegas Opera,

Mobile Opera Mobile Opera is an opera company located in Mobile, Alabama and is one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States,Recognized by OPERA America as the 13th oldest opera company in the United States (source: Mobileopera.org) as we ...

, Nashville Opera Association, and Nevada Opera. She appeared in the Music City Community Chorus and in their Operalooza! in Nashville, Tennessee. She appeared in the Nashville Symphony, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. By 2007, she had begun attracting regional operatic and orchestral attention. Ward played Mrs. Baines in the opera ''

Elmer Gantry ''Elmer Gantry'' is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. The novel's protagonis ...

''.

Personal life

She currently resides in Atlanta with her husband Ben, whom she married soon after she graduated from college in 1998.

Notes

External links

MyFitspiration.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Olivia American opera singers American mezzo-sopranos Singers from Houston Musicians from Mobile, Alabama People from Mobile County, Alabama People from Pascagoula, Mississippi Singers from New York City 1975 births Living people University of Alabama alumni New England Conservatory alumni Participants in American reality television series 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers Classical musicians from New York (state) Classical musicians from Texas