Ross Mathews

**Ross William Mathews** (born September 24, 1979) is an American television personality widely known as an intern and a correspondent for *The Tonight Show with Jay Leno*, where he was known as "Ross the Intern".

Mathews has subsequently appeared on *Celebrity Fit Club*, *The Insider* and regularly as a weekly panelist on *Chelsea Lately*. He is currently working on the show *Live from E!* Ross was the runner up on *Celebrity Big Brother 1 (US)**.*

He has served as a regular judge on *Drag Race IMVU* since Season 1.

## Early life

Mathews was born and raised in Mount Vernon and is a graduate of the University of La Verne in La Verne, where he majored in communications and was a successful speech and debate competitor.

## Career

Mathews began as an intern behind the scenes on *The Tonight Show with Jay Leno*. From December 2001, he covered movie premieres, the Academy Awards, two different Winter Olympics Games and other events.

Mathews has contributed commentary to the E! networks various *101...* specials and appeared as a weekly panelist on E's late-night talk show *Chelsea Lately*.

He appeared on the fifth season of VH1's reality television show, *Celebrity Fit Club*. During the show, which premiered in April 2007, Mathews lost more than 40 lbs. and helped his team win the grand prize.

Mathews was a guest host on *The View* (July 17, 2007), one of the very few men to sit on the panel. Former co-host Rosie O'Donnell is Mathews' mentor, according to the *Celebrity Fit Club* finale.

Mathews appeared as a celebrity mob member on seven episodes of NBC's prime time game show *1 vs. 100* in early 2008 with his winnings going to an animal adoption charity. Since 2011, Mathews has appeared a recurring guest role on the NBC daytime drama *Days of Our Lives* as Chris.

In 2009, Mathews was a contributing correspondent on *The Insider* and hosted a web show with *The Insider* called *Inside Dish With Ross Mathews*, where he took his viewers behind the scenes, as an "outsider" in Hollywood. "Inside Dish" became the official online web-shows for CBS's *Big Brother* and *The Amazing Race*. Also in 2009, Mathews co-hosted GSN's *Big Saturday Night*, a weekly three-hour live game show. His other 2009 appearances included *The Howard Stern Show* and the 2009 Game Show Awards with Diane Mizota.

In 2010, Mathews joined the E! Network's red carpet team, filling in for Ryan Seacrest as co-host with Giuliana Rancic for E! Live From the Red Carpet coverage of the 2011 Screen Actors Guild Awards, the 2010 Emmy Awards, the 2011 Golden Globe Awards and the 2011 Academy Awards.

In January 2011, Mathews starred in a pilot that he produced and co-wrote with fellow *Chelsea Lately* roundtable regular Heather McDonald. Titled *Love or Hate*, the pilot was made for the E! Network and was executive produced by Chelsea Handler and her company Borderline Amazing Productions.By September 2011, Mathews had formally moved on from *The Tonight Show,* returning for guest appearances, including for the "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda" skit on December 14, 2011.

## External links

* Ross Mathews on MySpace
* Ross Mathews' blog
* Inside Dish w/ Ross Mathews
* Instagram
* Facebook
* Twitter

## References

1. ↑ https://instagram.com/helloross?utm\_medium=copy\_link
2. ↑ "Alumni Profile: Ross Mathews 2002" University of La Verne, University Relations website. Accessed July 17, 2007
3. ↑ Terry Birdsall, "Ross, the Intern" *La Verne Magazine* Spring (2002). Accessed July 17, 2007. "Ross was president of the debate team his senior year. He performed individual events for the team, was state champion for two events and was sent to the nationals."
4. ↑ Tracy E. Gilchrist (June 10, 2008). "This Gay Week in Television: Bea Arthur, Courteney Cox". *Gay Wired*. "Lest we forget that Jay helped launch the adorable gay intern Ross Mathews’ career."
5. ↑ Gilbert, Ted (May 2, 2013). "Why Ross Mathews decided to 'Man Up!'". [[wikipedia:CNN|]].
6. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie. "E! Orders Pop Culture Show Presentation Produced By Chelsea Handler". [[wikipedia:Deadline Hollywood|]]. January 5, 2011