Olivia Munn
Monday, August 18th, 2008Olivia Munn (born July 2, 1982) is an American actress, model and television personality. She began her career being credited as Lisa Munn. However, since 2006, she has been using the name Olivia Munn professionally. Also since 2006, Munn has been one of the faces of the cable network G4, hosting a number of shows for the network, the most prominent being Attack of the Show!, with co-host Kevin Pereira.
Early life
Lisa Olivia Munn was born in Oklahoma to mother Kim Munn and father Sam Munn. She is of Chinese descent on her mother’s side and of Caucasian descent on her father’s. When Munn was two, her mother re-married to a man in the Air Force. Although the family relocated many times, Munn was predominantly raised in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Japan, where the military assigned her stepfather. During this time, she had appeared in a number of local theater productions, and later became a model within the Japanese fashion industry.
Munn moved back to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career. In 2004, she interned at Fox Sports Net and worked as a sideline reporter for college football and women’s basketball. She has gone on to say that she disliked the experience, explaining "I was trying to be something I wasn’t, and that made me really uncomfortable on live TV." Munn had also gained a small role in the straight to video horror film Scarecrow Gone Wild. She also stars in the music video Hello Tomorrow by the band Zebrahead.
In late 2005, Munn began her portrayal of Milly Acuna, a teen surfer, over two seasons of the TV drama Beyond the Break on The N network. She enjoys surfing and continues to practice the sport. She originally auditioned for the part of Kai, but the producers wanted a "local girl". She also appeared in the film The Road to Canyon Lake.
Attack of the Show!
In 2006, Munn moved on to the G4 network, where she began co-hosting Attack of the Show! with Kevin Pereira on April 10, 2006. She was replacement for host Sarah Lane, who left the show along with Brendan Moran to get married. The network, devoted to the world of video games and the video game lifestyle, was at first hesitant to hire Munn. Although she admits video games were her "weak point", she was confident in her technical knowledge. On the show, Munn is featured with journalist Anna David in a segment of the program called "In Your Pants", which deals with sex and relationship questions from viewers. While working on Attack of the Show!, Munn hosted Formula D, a now defunct program about American drift racing, and an online podcast called Around the Net (formerly known as The Daily Nut), for G4.
Munn is a successful model and has booked campaigns for Nike, Pepsi and Neutrogena. She appeared on Fall 2006 cover of Foam magazine in September, and Men’s Edge magazine in August, and was featured in a pictorial in Complex magazine in November 2006. In February 2007, she appeared as "Babe of the Month" in a non-nude pictorial in Playboy magazine. Munn also appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of Men’s Health magazine. In September 2007, she was featured in the magazine, Italian Vanity Fair for their "Hot Young Hollywood" Issue.
Munn will make her debut in a large Hollywood film in the upcoming Rob Schneider movie Big Stan. She will play Schneider’s character’s receptionist Maria. Munn also has a significant role in the 2008 horror film Insanitarium, in which she plays a nurse at an insane asylum.
Personal
She once dated actor Bryan Greenberg.
Olivia Munn Interview:
LAist: So Kevin Pereira is the only guy my boyfriend would ever consider making out with. Why is that, you think?
Munn: Well, Kevin’s very heterosexual, but he loves to play Gay Chicken. Do you know what Gay Chicken is? Well, if we were playing Gay Chicken I would come up and put my hand on your leg, and then you would put your hand on my shoulder, and then who ever pulls away first loses. Kevin and Wil O’Neal, our gadget expert – they full-on tongued one time. Cause Will’s kinda dirty too. But yeah, somebody made a joke the other day about Kevin & I hooking up. But Kevin’s like a brother to me – it’s disgusting!
LAist: When I did a Google video search for Olivia Munn, the first things that pop up are 1) Olivia Munn deepthroats hot dog, 2) Olivia Munn Princess Leia, 3) Olivia Munn Lesbionic Woman. How do you do all of this and not lose your dignity?
Munn: That’s a good question – because you have to have dignity to maintain it. Let’s talk about the hot dog for a second – I had no idea this would be up on the front of all these big sites, like Defamer, Perez Hilton, not just G4 techie sites. I came into the office to do our read-through and we’re all going over it: “hot dog falls in mustard, Olivia puts it in her mouth –“ I was like whoa whoa whoa — can we reverse a bit? What makes you think I’d do this? And they said, ‘well, Olivia, you’re always game!’ And it’s true! I don’t take myself that seriously at all, so when something comes down, if it can be remotely funny, I’m gonna do it! They great thing is it’s a daily show, so the next day, I always have the opportunity to adopt an orphan from Ethiopia or something to regain my dignity. I always have the next day to make it up.
The thing about Princess Leia, I did not realize how big the Star Wars convention was– if I knew that I probably would have been throwing up like weeks before, cause I didn’t work out or anything before that. And I hate seeing those pictures, I absolutely dread it, there’s only one picture I’m okay with, cause the light’s hitting a certain way and I’m positioned a certain way, but I hate seeing those pictures.
Going to the Star Wars convention is like going to the mother ship, all our fans are there, and they’re really great. But we actually got in trouble because the head of the convention came to the G4TV event organizer and asked them, ‘hey, can you make sure tomorrow when Olivia comes in for the live show she’s not dressed like Leia again? The other vendors are getting mad cause nobody’s coming to their booths, and everybody’s following her around.’ And it was a big compliment but also a big embarrassment to me! so I’ll never do Leia again.
LAist: Well I have to say, as a chick myself, I never feel condescended to or objectified by what you guys do on the show. There are a lot of cool chick hosts on G4 who are clearly into what they’re doing.
Munn: There’s one fan in particular on the boards who gets on me for putting down women or making insensitive jokes – but the thing is, I just find it funny, it’s my sense of humor. I don’t take it seriously, if anyone’s gonna take our show that seriously – I mean, yes, there are a lot of times when we are debating something rather seriously, but in general, if something’s going to get a laugh, I’m gonna do it.
LAist: But you weren’t into video games before you started the show?
Munn: Not at first, and I didn’t want to come on to be that person who just pretends to be into it. When I’m acting, then I’m an actress, and I’m playing a role. But when I’m here every day I’m myself – I’m a heightened version of myself, obviously, I make a lot more jokes, and I’m pretty energetic. Otherwise I’m pretty tired all the time! I save it for 4-5 and let out all my energy then. But I didn’t think there was anything wrong with saying I want to learn about games and I’m very interested. Growing up in Japan and having brothers I do have a lot of respect for cars and for gaming and for technology, and I do take my computer apart – although now I have a Mac, so I don’t have to do that — but I’m very familiar with the tech side of the world.
When you’re here, you can’t help but see that there is so much intelligence and thought that goes into video games. So now I request every game and go home every night and play, and I’m not very good at it — I still have to play Guitar Hero on easy, but I enjoy it. I’m not a hardcore gamer but I do have a deeper respect – and a lot of girls play now! You look at something like Assassin’s Creed and it’s just ridiculous how cool it is and how it can appeal to so many. We get these people [game creators] on and you hear about the art and the backstory, and it’s just amazing.
