Early life

Nancy Humphries was born in Sumter, South Carolina and moved to Myrtle Beach as a baby and she has one sister. After her 1984 graduation from the now defunct Coastal Academy High School, Clemson University graduated her Summa Cum Laude in 1990 with a degree in marketing. She was a member there of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She won the Miss South Carolina pageant in 1987, and represented the state at Miss America 1988, where she won a preliminary swimsuit award. In 1990, in the Miss South Carolina USA pageant, she finished 1st runner-up to Gina Tolleson, who herself would become the 1st runner up in Miss USA 1990, before winning Miss World that year.

Career

O'Dell began her broadcast career as a reporter and anchor at WPDE-TV in her home town of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She later worked as morning news anchor and crime reporter at WCBD-TV in nearby Charleston. While in Charleston, O'Dell's reports on the lenient police approach to DUI cases led to a State Law Enforcement Division investigation that resulted in state authorities re-issuing a more stringent directive regarding these cases. O'Dell was honored by the Associated Press with the Best Report of the Year Award (all media, South Carolina). In 1993, she joined NBC's WTVJ in Miami co-anchoring the 5:30 pm news with Jackie Nespral. She left the station in 1995 to move to Las Vegas with her first husband. Nancy worked as an entertainment reporter for the nationally syndicated tabloid show A Current Affair. She remained with A Current Affair until the show ended in 1996. In addition to her work as a lead anchor on Access Hollywood (1996), O'Dell also contributed to NBC News' Today, and also to Dateline NBC. She has covered such events as The Oscars, The Emmys, The Grammys and The Golden Globe Awards, as well as co-hosting a number of Pre-Show/Arrivals shows for The Emmys and the Golden Globes.

O'Dell co-hosted the Miss USA and Miss Universe competitions in 2004 and 2005. She co-hosted the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade on WNBC from 2004-2006. She co-hosted the Miss USA 2006 pageant with Drew Lachey, the Miss Universe 2006 pageant with Carlos Ponce, and the Miss USA 2007 pageant with Tim Vincent.

O'Dell appeared in minor roles in the television series Charmed (Season 1 finale and Season 5 premiere). She also portrayed herself in Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000), and Scream 4 (2011). She also served as host and consulting producer of the USA Network talent competition Nashville Star over its first two seasons.

On January 13, 2008, after the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards were cancelled as a result of the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, she co-hosted NBC's 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards Winners Special with Access Hollywood co-anchor Billy Bush.

In 2009, O'Dell hosted NBC's pre-show for the 66th Annual Golden Globes with Tiki Barber and Brooke Burke. She portrayed herself in the Hannah Montana season three episode, "Cheat It". She also appeared on the Fox sitcom Brothers, and in the same year, she and Maria Menounos guest co-hosted WWE Raw on October 12, 2009.

Until 2009, O'Dell co-hosted NBC's entertainment news show Access Hollywood with Billy Bush. On June 22, O'Dell hosted the Nashville Rising concert to provide flood relief for Nashville, Tennessee residents. She shared hosting duties with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. As of January 3, 2011, O'Dell joined Entertainment Tonight as a special correspondent; and she replaced Mary Hart as co-anchor once Hart left the show in May 2011. An avid scrapbooker, O'Dell partnered with Creative Memories, the industry leader, in 2010 to release her first collection of scrapbooking supplies, the Hummingbird Collection, and her second book, "Full of Love: Mom-to-mom advice for enriching families with simple photo albums and scrapbooking."

Dancing with the Stars

O'Dell was set to participate in the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars and was to be paired with professional dancer Tony Dovolani. She had to withdraw from the competition before the season started due to a knee injury sustained during training; her replacement was Melissa Rycroft from the most recent cycle of The Bachelor. O'Dell underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in her knee on March 20, 2009.

Personal life

She was first married to Dr. Richard O'Dell, from September 30, 1995 to November 4, 2004. On June 29, 2005, she married Keith Zubchevich, and is stepmother to her husband's two sons, Tyler and Carson. Nancy, at age 41, gave birth to their daughter, Ashby Grace, on June 11, 2007 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. During her pregnancy, she says unexpected and surprising changes happened to her body, which prompted her to write a parenting book: Full of Life. She is the Muscular Dystrophy Association's National ALS Ambassador.

On May 10, 2013, Nancy was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Clemson University. While receiving this honor, Nancy spoke to the rest of the graduates, encouraging them to never give up in pursuing their dreams, saying "I decided that I would rather fail doing something I enjoyed than be successful doing something that would just be a grind," and later, "my wish for all of you is that you will do the same. Be who you are because you'll always be right."