María Mercedes Milá Mencos (born 4 April 1951) is a Spanish television presenter and

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 ...

, most notable for her work on Spain's

Telecinco Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially laun ...

's '' Gran Hermano'', the Spanish version of the

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

series '' Big Brother''.

Biography

Mercedes Milá was born in

Esplugues de Llobregat Esplugues de Llobregat () is a municipality of the Barcelona metropolitan area. Formerly in the ''Barcelonès'', since 1990 it has been part of the comarca of Baix Llobregat. During recent decades Esplugues has evolved from a predominantly indus ...

on 5 April 1951, the daughter of José Luis Milá Sagnier, Count of

Montseny Montseny is a municipality and village in the Vallès Oriental comarca in Catalonia. As of 2014, the population was 332. The village is located at the feet of the Montseny Massif Montseny () is a mountain range west of the coastal hills n ...

, and Mercedes Mencos, and eldest of six brothers and sisters (including newscaster Lorenzo Milá). She studied Philosophy, but abandoned it and then studied

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

and arts in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, where he got a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

. She first worked as journalist in ''El Correo de Andalucía'', in

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

. Shortly afterwards she began working in the newsrooms of Spanish public broadcaster

Televisión Española Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in ...

. She joined the sports division, where she remained between 1974 and 1978, when she was selected to co-host, along with Isabel Tenaille, the talk show ''Dos por Dos'' ("Two by Two"). After the show was cancelled, Milá returned to radio. She worked with

Iñaki Gabilondo José Ignacio Gabilondo Pujol (born 19 October 1942, in San Sebastián) better known as Iñaki Gabilondo is a Spanish journalist, and TV news anchor. Gabilondo started his career at 21 (1963) in Radio Popular (COPE) until 1969, when he became t ...

Cadena SER La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is Spain's premier radio network in terms of both seniority (it was created in 1924) and audience share (it had a regular listenership in 2018 of 4,139,000). The acronym SER stands for ''Sociedad Española de Radi ...

. Milá's TV comeback came in 1982 with the program ''Buenas Noches'' ("Goodnight"), which became one of the hits of the season and lasted until 1984. Her personal style and directness with her guests helped her turn into one of the most popular Spanish TV personalities of the 1980s. After a brief stint with the Catalan television station TV3, and then back in TVE in 1990, she moved over to new private TV network Antena 3 in the early nineties, where she stayed until moving to private broadcaster Telecinco in 2000. In 2000 she found renewed success as the host of the Spanish franchise of hit reality show '' Gran Hermano'', earning poor critical reviews but massive ratings. As of 2017, Milá has hosted fifteen of the seventeen regular seasons of the show (all except for season 3 in 2002 which was hosted by Pepe Navarro, and season 17 in 2016 which was hosted by

Jorge Javier Vázquez Jorge Javier Vázquez Morales (born 25 July 1970) is a Spanish television presenter, writer and actor. Early life and beginnings Vázquez was born in the Sant Roc district of Badalona, Catalonia, Spain. His mother María Morales Martínez ...

) and two All Stars seasons. In 2016 she hosted a TV program named ''Convénzeme, con Z de Zweig'' which motivates people to read. In 2012 she published a book based on the

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

she writes in

named ''Lo que me sale del bolo''. In February 2019 she will host the TV program ''Scott y Mila'' in

Movistar+ Movistar () is a major telecommunications provider owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and Hispanic American countries. It is the largest provider of landline, broadband, mobile services, and pay television ( Movistar+) in Spain. Movistar ...

Shows

Televisión Española

* ''Polideportivo'' (1974–1978) * '' Dos por dos'' (1978) * '' Buenas noches'' (1982–1984) * ''De jueves a jueves'' (1986) * ''El martes que viene'' (1990)

TV3

* ''Dilluns, dilluns'' (1988)

Antena 3

* ''Queremos saber'' (1992–1993) * ''Más que palabras'' (1995) * ''Sin límites'' (1998) * ''Queremos saber más'' (2002)

Telecinco

* '' Gran Hermano'' (2000–2015) (excluding Gran Hermano 3 and the VIP seasons) * ''Diario de''... (2004–2011) * ''La tribu'' (2009) with Javier Sardá

Cuatro

* ''Diario de...'' (2011–) * ''El comecocos'' (2011) as a judge

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mila, Mercedes Gran Hermano (Spanish TV series) Spanish television personalities Living people 1951 births Spanish television journalists