- Marina Orlova
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Marina Vladimirovna Orlova
Марина Владимировна Орлова
Born Marina Orlova
10 December 1980
Arzamas, Russian SFSR, Soviet UnionNationality Russian/American Years active 2007-present Known for Infotainment etymology Internet information Web alias(es) HotForWords Web hosting service(s) YouTube Signature phrase "Intelligence is Sexy" Website www.hotforwords.com Marina Vladimirovna Orlova (Russian: Марина Владимировна Орлова) (born December 10, 1980) is a Russian philologist[1] who has become an Internet celebrity, hosting a popular channel on YouTube, HotForWords, and a corresponding website. She also hosts a bi-weekly radio show on Maxim Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio.
Contents
Early life and education
Orlova was born in Arzamas (Nizhny Novgorod Oblast) Russian SFSR, Soviet Union in 1980. In an interview, she claimed to work at a shop for a year before applying to an international recruitment program; she was then sent to a small town near San Francisco and worked as a nanny for a working family with two children.[2]
Orlova initially aspired to become a model. She went to two photoshoots, but did not succeed—she was told that at 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m), she was too short to be a model.[2]
She has two degrees in philology[1] and taught English and world literature to high school students in Moscow before moving to the United States to pursue further education.[3]
Orlova rents an apartment in Beverly Hills. She has said that her work takes up all of her time, and that she sometimes sits at the computer 12 to 14 hours at a time and has little time left for socializing.[2]
Hot for Words website
The theme of Orlova's website and YouTube videos, which begin with the tagline "Intelligence is Sexy," is tracing the origins of English words. Some of her entries focus on everyday words such as "irony" and "OK," while others address lengthy and rarely used words such as "floccinaucinihilipilification " and "antidisestablishmentarianism." Some entries also address idioms, including "let the cat out of the bag," "dressed to the nines," and "three sheets to the wind," or new words like the verb "to google."
Orlova in January 2010
The channel became active in February 2007, at a time when, Orlova said, "everybody was uploading cleavage."[4] Orlova has since been voted "World's #1 Sexiest Geek" in Wired Magazine's "Sexy Geek of the Year Contest" contest. G4 TV has listed Orlova among its "Hot Women of the Net" on several occasions, and Cosmopolitan Magazine has identified her as the "most subscribed to YouTube guru."[5] Orlova appeared on the cover of the November 2009 issue of the wine, beer and spirits publication Mutineer Magazine,[6] applying her trademark word explanations to common beverage words. Orlova has appeared on a number of Fox shows including on The O'Reilly Factor,[7][dead link] and was profiled on "The Medium," an Internet feature of The New York Times Magazine.[8] In June 2008, Orlova and radio personality Danny Bonaduce signed endorsement contracts with coComment.[9]
The Moscow Times said "Marina exploits her blonde-bombshell looks to the maximum: She appears in her two-minute clips scantily clad, pouting and making doe eyes. This is surely the main factor in her success. However, while the number of scantily clad girls on the Internet is limitless, not all of them put so much intellectual effort into their success."[10]
In an interview, Orlova explained how she got viewers interested in words: "How else could I attract them to words?" "Everyone knows that sex sells."[4]
In spring of 2010 Marina started doing video lessons of Russian for RT (TV network).[11]
Bibliography
- Orlova, Marina (2009). Hot for Words: Answers to All Your Burning Questions About Words and Their Meanings. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0061776319.
References
- ^ a b "Marina Orlova: About the Author". harpercollins.com. http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=35493. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- ^ a b c Наталья ДЕРБЕНЕВА (March 19, 2010). "Английский язык в Голливуде преподает русская блондинка" (in Russian). Комсомольская правда. http://kp.ua/daily/190310/220061/. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
- ^ HotForWords G4 TV Appearance of Marina Orlova.
- ^ a b Kazakina, Katya (September 25, 2009). "Google Trails Linguist With Lingerie, 238 Million YouTube Views". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=anxScNIu93Tk. Retrieved 2010-08-06.
- ^ Molly Fahner, Cosmopolitan Magazine, June 2008.
- ^ "Current and Back Issues". Mutineer Magazine. http://www.mutineermagazine.com/magazine/. Retrieved 2010-08-06.
- ^ "Internet vixen teaches O'Reilly a thing or two about origins of words". Fox News. http://google.com/search?q=cache:PGk_56HR6YkJ:www.univision.com/uv/video/Keep-It-Pithy!/id/3831422129+%2B%22Internet+vixen+teaches+O%27Reilly%22&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
- ^ Virginia Heffernan, Sexicon, The New York Times Magazine, December 17, 2007.
- ^ "coComment Ignites Web Commenting With HotForWords and Danny Bonaduce". redorbit.com. June 11, 2008. http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1426938/cocomment_ignites_web_commenting_with_hotforwords_and_danny_bonaduce. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
- ^ Marina Orlova has managed to get several million people interested in the origins of English words(registration required), Victor Sonkin, The Moscow Times, June 6, 2008.
- ^ "RT presents Russian with Hot For Words". RT.com. http://hotforwords.rt.com/. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
External links
Categories:- 1980 births
- Living people
- People from Arzamas
- Russian expatriates in the United States
- Russian Internet personalities
- American people of Russian descent
- Radio presenters
- YouTube
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