Daytime Soap Operas are a staple of the American entertainment industry and you cannot speak of daytime television in America without talking about Maura West, an actress who has been a part of daytime television for over 20 years. Maura West has become an icon of the daytime industry, starring in some of its major programs like General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, and the very one that made her famous, As the World Turns.
For many who desire the prestige and glory of acting, Maura West’s career is an exemplary one to aspire to. She has been a member of the entertainment industry since 1995, delivering multiple exceptional performances that have earned her several major awards and nominations.
Here is an in-depth look at the life of Maura West, biography and career. Read below.
Who is Maura West?
In a little town called Springfield, Massachusetts, Maura West was born on the 27th of April, 1972. Despite her decades of time in the industry, her parents’ identities are still very much unknown. We do know, however, that her birth was the fourth and last in her family.
Details about her relationship with her siblings and her foundational education remain a mystery; however, we know sometime before graduating high school, Maura West was determined to become an actress and this informed her course of study at Boston University where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
Following graduation, she made her appearance on screen for the first time in As the World Turns, a CBS soap opera that had been airing since 1956. With her debut, playing the character Carly Tenney in 1995, she joined the long-running show. Within a few months of becoming Carly Tenney, Maura’s talents as an actress began to show forth and she became an integral part of the show in the process.
Career Achievements
Within the first year of her debut, she earned a Soap Opera Digest Award nomination for Outstanding Villainess. It would be the first of many nominations and awards for the young actress. Her role on As the World Turns lasted a total of fifteen years, remaining a main character on the show since she made her debut.
Following the end of her debut show, Maura West’s talents and her good working relationship with CBS earned her another place in another long-running show, The Young and the Restless. She joined the show in 2010 and played the character, Diane Jenkins, as the third actress to portray the character. She, however, did not enjoy similar longevity on the show as she did on her previous project and she left the show after a year.
Maura West took a break after leaving The Young and the Restless and only returned to soap operas in 2013 for General Hospital. She has been starring on the show ever since, playing Ava Jerome in the main role.
Though she has very limited credits to her name, her lasting appearances on major soap operas have made her a staple of the industry and have earned her a total of 15 award nominations, with 11 of them from Daytime Emmy. She has won three of them thus far.
Her only appearance in a film so far came in 2014 on Come Back to Me. The film was an adaptation of a novel, The Resurrectionist and Maura played the character, Eileen.
Her Husband and Children
Throughout her career, Maura West has so far been able to maintain a stable personal life. The actress was first married to Jonathan Knight from 1995 and 1999. However, since 2000, she has been married to Scott DeFreitas.
Her husband, Scott DeFreitas, was a co-star on the show As the World Turns. Knowing Maura was a big fan of the New York Yankees, Scott proposed to her via the large video screen in the Yankee Stadium. The couple got married in 2000 and have so far given birth to five children – Joe, Joseph Peter, Katherine Marie, Basil John, and Birdie West.
Her son, Joe West, has followed in the professional footsteps of his mother and become an actor. He currently works as a professional actor on Broadway.
Maura West in total has six children. She gave birth to a solitary child, Benjamin, during her marriage to Jonathan Knight.
Other Interesting Facts
As for the physical profile of Maura West, she is a good-looking woman who has blonde hair and grey eyes. She has a height of 5 feet and 3 inches with a bodyweight of 56 kg. Being an actress, it is surprising that Maura is in excellent shape.
