Whitney Port Biography

Whitney Eve Port (born March 4, 1985)[1] is an American television personality, clothing designer, and author. She is known for being one of the main cast members on the former MTV reality series The Hills. She was the narrator and main star of the former MTV reality series spin-off, The City.

Port was a former fashion contributor for Teen Vogue and has worked for Diane von Fürstenberg.
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Port was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of Jeffery and Vicki Lyn Port (née Woskoff). She has an older brother, Ryan, an older sister, Ashley, and two younger sisters, Paige and Jade. Her father, Jeff, is the owner of a fashion company called Swarm.[2][3]She comes from a Jewish family.

Whitney Port attended Warner Avenue Elementary School. She then went to Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences for middle school and high school. In 2007, Port graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a degree in gender studies.
[edit] Career
[edit] 2006-2008: The Hills, Teen Vogue, and People‘s Revolution

Prior to working at Teen Vogue, Port was an intern for the Women's Wear Daily magazine for two summers. She also interned at W magazine for three summers.

In 2006, Port was cast as one of four main cast members in the MTV reality series, The Hills. During the first two seasons of the series, Port had her first experience as a runway model, walking in a DKNY Jeans show at Los Angeles Fashion Week. She had also modeled Hilary Swank's dress from the 2005 Academy Awards on a live Good Morning America segment with André Leon Talley, the editor-at-large of Vogue magazine, during which she had tripped down the stairs. Port's Teen Vogue supervisor and editor Lisa Love praised her for handling the incident with class and grace.[4] She has also been featured on magazine covers like Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone (with her fellow Hills castmates), Seventeen and Cosmopolitan.

At the end of The Hills season one, Teen Vogue offered Conrad the opportunity to spend the summer of 2006 working in Paris, France. When Conrad chose not to take the job, Port went to Paris in her place.[4] On the second season of The Hills, Port appeared somewhat more frequently outside the workplace setting. In episode five, Conrad visited Port at her parents' home where she was recuperating from surgery after having her wisdom teeth removed. In another episode, Conrad and Patridge attended Port's softball game.[4]

From 2005–2007, Port was an intern with Lauren Conrad. The final episode of season two showed Port interviewing at Vogue headquarters in New York for the position of "Fashion Contributor" at Teen Vogue. The episode dramatized the competition between Port and another young woman, Emily Weiss, who had previously appeared in season two as an intern visiting from New York. It was revealed in the season three premiere that Port was awarded the job, and was employed by Teen Vogue in Los Angeles.

Port left Teen Vogue in 2007 for People's Revolution, a PR firm heavily involved in the fashion world. Owned by Kelly Cutrone, People's Revolution has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Paris. Conrad was seen in season 3 episode 24 of The Hills assisting Port at Los Angeles Fashion Week, and at the end of the episode was offered, and accepted, a position at People's Revolution alongside Port. In 2008, Port was awarded an interview with fashion label Diane von Furstenberg for her efforts in People's Revolution. She was accepted for the job and moved to New York. Her job with Diane von Furstenberg was featured extensively on her new reality show The City. It was announced on April 13, 2009 that Whitney had left Diane von Furstenberg and returned to People's Revolution. Port has made cameo appearances as herself in episodes of television series Entourage and Family Guy.
[edit] 2008-2010: The City and Whitney Eve fashion line
Port attending L.A. Fashion Week, March 2008.

In March 2008, Port debuted her clothing line of cocktail and partywear called Whitney Eve. The clothing line was in the New York Fashion Week in September 2009, in the Spring/Summer 2010 season.[5]

In season four of The Hills, Port began dating Jay Lyon, and was offered the opportunity to move to New York to pursue a career in high fashion at Diane von Fürstenberg. After months of speculation, it was confirmed that Port would receive her own spin-off entitled The City.[6] The series centered around Port as she moved to New York to work for fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg along with NY socialite, Olivia Palermo, who was asked to be a cast member along with 3 other friends and associates of Port.[6][7] The series debuted December 29, 2008 on MTV and first season finale aired on March 16, 2009. Whitney's love life played a major role in the series. When her relationship with Lyon ended, a friendship was lost (Erin Lucas), and along with poor ratings, the series' fate was uncertain. Later, MTV renewed The City for 10 more episodes to season one, which premiered September 29, 2009. The second half of season one focused on her ambition to become a designer with her first line Whitney Eve. Her old school-friend and new co-worker, Roxy Olin (daughter of actors Ken Olin and Patricia Wettig) was also featured as a new cast member.

In November 2009 Port revealed during an interview on The View that she had an audition for a lead role in a film later that day sparking rumors that she was planning on launching an acting career, she responded to these rumors on her Twitter page saying that she was interested in acting and had auditioned for several film parts but was holding out for the right role. Whitney's close friend and former co-star Lauren Conrad stated in an interview in February 2010 that she thought Whitney had great talent but was only really interested in acting as a hobby.

On December 1, 2009, Whitney confirmed that The City was renewed for a full second season and focused on the launch of her fashion line, Whitney Eve. Whitney told TVGuide.com, "They're chronicling the whole process from starting to design, to the fashion show at Bryant Park [and] everyone's back in action." [8] In October 2010, Port confirmed that MTV had canceled The City after 2 seasons, with no plans for new episodes to air or a move to a new network.[9]
[edit] 2010-present: Current endeavors

In September 2010, Port appeared in the online series Hollywood is Like High School with Money which also showcased her clothing line Whitney Eve.[10] She also served as executive producer of the series.[11] Later in 2010, Port posed for a spread in Maxim magazine. The pictures were featured in the January 2011 issue.[12] In 2011, Port served as the host of an online reality game show titled Genuine Ken which was aired on Hulu.com.[13] In February 2011, Port released an advice book titled True Whit: Designing a Life of Style, Beauty, and Fun.[14]
[edit] Personal life

As of 2007, Port's parents, her brother, Ryan, her sisters, Ashley, Paige and Jade, also live in Los Angeles, California.[4]

Port, who is by her own admission not as comfortable with the spotlight as her other co-stars, explained her decision not to move in with Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge in season three of The Hills: "I prefer to keep some things private." Nonetheless, she eventually allowed MTV to showcase more of her personal life when she obtained her own show titled The City.[15] Port originally relocated to New York City to work for Diane Von Furstenberg. However, after the first half of first season of The City, she returned to her former employer Kelly Cutrone to once again work with People's Revolution.

Whitney Port