Name	Maria Shriver
Height	5' 11½"
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	6 November 1955
Place of Birth	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Famous for

Shriver was born in Chicago, Illinois. A Roman Catholic of Irish and German descent, she was the second child and only daughter of the politician Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver; Eunice is the sister of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy and five other non-political siblings. Maria attended Westland Middle School in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, and graduated with the class of 1973 from Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, Maryland. Shriver received a B.A. degree in American Studies from Georgetown University in June 1977.

In her book Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World, Shriver says that she became passionate about broadcast journalism after being sent to the back of the campaign plane with the press corps when volunteering for her father's vice presidential race, calling these orders "the best thing that ever happened to me." After her journalism career began with KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she co-anchored the CBS Morning News with Forrest Sawyer from 1985 until 1987, co-anchored Sunday Today and weekend editions of NBC Nightly News from 1987 until 1989, and was a contributing anchor on Dateline NBC from 1989 until 2004. In August 2003, Shriver took an unpaid leave of absence from NBC News when her husband became a candidate in the 2003 California recall.

Upon her husband's inauguration as the 38th Governor of California, she became the First Lady of California on November 17, 2003. She then returned to reporting, making two more appearances for Dateline NBC.

On February 3, 2004, Shriver was told by NBC she was to be "relieved of [her] duties at NBC News," citing the conflict of interest between her role as a journalist and her status as the First Lady of California and her increasing role as an advocate of her husband's administration.

Shriver has played a minor role in Be Prepared, an episode of the television series That's So Raven as herself promoting a "Preparedness Plan". She also appeared as herself in the film Last Action Hero. On March 23, 2007, Shriver returned to television news as substitute host of panel-discussion talk show Larry King Live on CNN. Shriver moderated a discussion of breast cancer. Susan Love, musician Sheryl Crow, and other guests.