Manuela Arbeláez Correa (born September 9, 1988 in Medellin, Colombia) is a Colombian-American model and actress. Since 2009 (officially), she has appeared as one of the current models on The Price is Right.
Early Life[]
A native of Medellín, Colombia to parents Luis Carlos Arbeláez and Gloria Correa. Looking for a fresh start, Manuela packed her bags and made the move to the United States in 2006 with high hopes of making it big in the industry, first relocating to West New York, New Jersey. Shortly after her arrival the US, Arbeláez became one of the finalists during the 2008 season of Nuestra Belleza Latina, a beauty contest/reality show hybrid airing on the US Spanish-language television channel Univision, she placed sixth in the competition.
Price is Right Audition & Later return[]
Still practically a new citizen to the US, Manuela continued on to audition for other TV acting and modeling gigs. Shortly after appearing as a finalist on Nuestra Belleza Latina, Manuela learned of a Model Search contest for the television game show The Price is Right during its 37th season and decided she wanted to audition.
Out of auditioning hundreds of women, Manuela was one of five lucky finalists to appear on-camera as a model for one episode of the game show as the winner was chosen by an internet fan vote and the opportunity to tape five additional episodes. The contest also ran in four additional cities: Los Angeles, Detroit, Birmingham, and Miami as the chosen winners from those cities were flown to Los Angeles.
Along with Manuela representing New York City, the other finalists representing their cities were Annilie Hastey of Miami, Lindsey Kelley of Los Angeles, Ekima White of Detroit and Amanda Shiflett, representing Birmingham. The entire week of shows aired during the week of October 20th-24th, 2008, with Manuela's episode airing on Monday, followed by Amanda on Tuesday. The viewers cast their votes by voting in an online poll that began on the 24th and continued until the 31st. After the votes were tallied, it was Amanda who was the chosen winner as her additional week of shows aired during the week of January 12-16, 2009.
Although she was not the chosen winner of the model contest, Manuela left an excellent impression on the show's producers and a few short months later, she was instantly hired as a regular model for the show as she replaced ex-model Brandi Sherwood-Cochran, who was dumped from the program due to her pregnancy and later filed suit as a result (and also in which some fans were angry and furious over how she was treated by the producers behind the scenes). Manuela made her official Price is Right debut on April 1, 2009 (airdate) and continuing on coming into the new season.
Other TV appearances & Trivia[]
In addition to her joining The Price is Right as their new model, Manuela has appeared on other TV shows including the CBS soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful (which tapes next door to Price) and appeared in the motion picture Jack and Jill (a 2011 comedy film starring comedic actor Adam Sandler in a dual role as both Jack & his twin sister Jill Sadelstein).
She was also featured in Diddy/Dirty Money’s music video for Loving You No More and Robin Thicke’s music video It’s in the Mornin’. She was also one of the Trophy Models at the 54th Grammy Awards, which aired in February 2012.
On April 1, 2013, Manuela shared hosting duties with Rob Wilson, Gwendolyn Osbourne-Smith & Amber Lancaster on an episode of Price called "Model's Rule!" where both current host & announcer Drew Carey & George Gray respectively were being demoted as models.
Manuela became so popular with game show fans, very much so, Complex magazine listed her as one of the 25 Hottest Game Show Eye Candy, ranking in as number one of the list. Fellow current and ex-Price models Lanisha Cole, Rachel Reynolds, Lisa Gleave, Jennifer England, Nikki Ziering, Phire Dawson, Cindy Margolis, Kathleen Bradley, Gena Lee Nolin, Claudia Jordan, Tamiko Nash and Amber Lancaster also made the list (with Amber coming in at number 2, behind Manuela).
In 2014, she was one of the judges on the short-lived reality competition spinoff series The Price is Right Male Model Search along with former producer Mike Richards, Shanna Moakler, former first male model Rob Wilson, Amber Lancaster, Gwendolyn Osbourne-Smith & Rachel Reynolds.
On (airdate) the April 2, 2015 episode, during the Five Price Tags game, Manuela makes a COSTLY mistake in the game. She accidentally revealed the correct price of the car offered, to the amazement of both the contestant and Drew Carey, who exclaims "Congratulations, Manuela just gave U a Car!" and as a result, the contestant is INDEED awarded the car despite having two more chances at picking the right price (the contestant had three chances total), embarrassed by her costly blunder, Manuela tries to hide behind the Price Tags stand, only to have Drew pull her out of hiding and the contestant happily hugs her.
Having the relive the embarrassing screw-up, Manuela revealed during an interview with Inside Edition that she was mortified and thought she was going to be either fired or lose a big chunk of her paycheck. She goes on to reveal that after she heard the buzzer, she thought the game was over as she proceeded to reveal the remaining tags left and that her very expensive mistake made someone very happy.
On May 11, 2016, the clip was also seen on its brother show Let's Make a Deal (Brady) for their version of Five Price Tags which also featured Manuela during their Mash-Up Week and on its official Facebook page.
On an episode that aired in February 2016, Manuela was injured after modeling a trampoline during one of the items up for bid rounds, hurting her ankle and applying ice on it and as a result of this, she was absent for the remainder of the show, leaving Rachel Reynolds modeling the rest of the show by herself.
As of today, Manuela, along with Rachel, Amber Lancaster and male models James O'Halloran and Devin Goda, continues on modeling on The Price is Right as October 2018 will mark 10 years since her first appearance during model tryouts but April 2019 will mark her OFFICIAL 10th year with the series as she'll be in a 3-way tie with former longtime model Kathleen Bradley, who served a 10-year stint during the Bob Barker era and Amber Lancaster, who (since March 2008) also currently holds a 10-year stint on the series.
A 2017 Halloween episode where the cast portrays members of the superhero organization "The Prize League" sees Manuela play the role of "Manuela Transmission."
On October 20, 2023 (#0335L), a fly landed on her price podium during a playing of Bargain Game. Manuela removed one of her heels and quickly swatted it, with a camera close-up of the dead fly resting at the base of the podium.
Personal Life[]
- She has been married to Matthew Doherty since February 17, 2018.
- In 2019 on the show she announced her pregnancy for their first child which is a girl - Matilda (often affectionally referred to as "Tilly").
- On April 17, 2022, Manuela and Matt announced that they are expecting a second child in October. Madeline Mercedes Doherty, named after a friend of Manuela's who passed away due to cancer, was born on October 18, 2022.
Gallery[]
(Manuela's audition during the 2008 Model Tryouts, October 20th)
Links[]
Her Facebook Page
Her Twitter Page
Her Instagram Page
Her TikTok Page
YouTube Video[]
Manuela's big-time mistake in Five Price Tags
Exclusive! 'Price is Right' Model Who Gave Away Car: 'I Was Mortified'