Marisa Petroro was born in New Jersey and grew up in the town of Elizabeth. Initially, she spoke only Italian, specifically the Abbruzzese dialect. This toughie survived a rare childhood cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma. At the tender age of five, she won the title Miss Pee Wee New Jersey and became obsessed with pageants since then. Fortunately, her passion in competing resulted to about 100 awards. Among her pageants, the most prominent she participated in was the Miss Italia USA. She even produced her own children's pageant called Miss New Jersey State. She also appeared in a commercial directed by David Lynch.
Marisa Petroro is presently one of the models on the TV show Deal or No Deal. She holds case number 10 in the opening week and then initially held case number 20 during season 1 and then finally swapped cases with
Alike Boggan in the second season. This tough yet sweet gal is currently holds case number 18.
Marisa was a substitute of the following season:
- In Season 2, she substituted at case numbers 2 and 5 for
Stacey Gardner and
Ursula Mayes .
- In Season 3, she once again substituted at case number 5 for
Ursula Mayes .
(Photos courtesy of NBC)