
Melania Trump
Acting • Born 1970-04-26
Biography
Melania Knauss Trump (born Melanija Knavs; April 26, 1970) is a Slovenian and American former model and the third wife of President Donald Trump. She has served as First Lady of the United States since 2025, a role she previously held from 2017 to 2021. She is the first naturalized citizen and the first non-native English speaker to become first lady; the second foreign-born first lady, after Louisa Adams; the second Roman Catholic first lady, after Jacqueline Kennedy; and the second first lady to hold the position nonconsecutively, after Frances Cleveland. Melanija Knavs was born in Yugoslavia, where she began working as a fashion model at the age of 16 while pursuing her education. She changed the spelling of her name to Melania Knauss and traveled to Paris and Milan to seek modeling work before meeting Paolo Zampolli; Zampolli hired her and sponsored her immigration to the United States in 1996. She worked as a model in Manhattan, where Zampolli introduced her to Donald Trump in 1998. She began dating Donald Trump shortly thereafter. Trump worked to get Melania more modeling jobs, and she supported him during his 2000 presidential campaign. Melania and Donald Trump married in 2005, and they had a son, Barron Trump, the following year. Melania started her own jewelry brand, Melania, in 2009. After encouraging Donald to run for president in the 2016 presidential election, Melania only made rare campaign appearances, instead opting to help Donald with strategy. She received major press coverage during the campaign when erotic photos from her modeling years were uncovered and published, and again when a speech she gave at the 2016 Republican National Convention was found to be plagiarized from a similar speech by Michelle Obama. In the month leading up to the election, she defended her husband following the release of the Access Hollywood tape that mired his campaign in scandal. Melania stayed in Manhattan for the first months of her tenure as first lady, to allow Barron to finish school there and to renegotiate her prenuptial agreement. She kept to minimal activity after moving into the White House and held fewer events than previous first ladies. Melania faced several challenges in 2018, including allegations of extramarital affairs committed by her husband, surgery for kidney disease, and a tour of Africa that was overshadowed by scrutiny of her wardrobe and personal conduct. During her tenure as first lady, Melania prioritized children's issues, launching the Be Best campaign to promote children's welfare and visiting many children's hospitals. She was also a close advisor to her husband, influencing his decisions to end the Trump administration's family separation policy and to ban fruit-flavored electronic cigarette cartridges. In the final months of her initial tenure as first lady, Melania endorsed her husband's false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. After leaving the White House in 2021, she largely stayed out of the public view before assuming the role of first lady again in 2025. Description above from the Wikipedia article Melania Trump, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography
51 credits
The Arc de Triomphe: A Nation's Passion
Movie • 2021
Self (archive footage)

The Plot Against the President
Movie • 2020
Self (archive footage)

Donald Trump: All-American Billionaire
Movie • 2010
Self

Nicotine - A Drug with a Future
Movie • 2020
Self (archive footage)

King Bibi
Movie • 2018
Self (archive footage)

We Feed People
Movie • 2022
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Melania
Movie • 2022
Self

The Making of Trump
Movie • 2015
Self (archive footage)

95th Annual National Christmas Tree Lighting
Movie • 2017
Self

Fahrenheit 11/9
Movie • 2018
Self (archive footage)

Ivanka Trump- America's Real First Lady?
Movie • 2017
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Who Is Donald Trump?
Movie • 2015
Self (archive footage)

Pope Francis: A Man of His Word
Movie • 2018
Self - First Lady (uncredited)

President Trump: Can He Really Win?
Movie • 2016
Self (archive footage)

American Deep State
Movie • 2020
Self

One Nation Under Trump
Movie • 2016
Self

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens
Movie • 2007
Self

Frenemies: Putin and Trump
Movie • 2020
Self - D. Trump's Wife (archive footage)

Feels Good Man
Movie • 2020
Self (archive footage)

Looking for Melania Trump
Movie • 2020
Self

Get Me Roger Stone
Movie • 2017
Self (archive footage)

Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power
Movie • 2019
Self (archive footage)

Donald Trump Is President and You're Not: A Portrait of Donald J. Trump
Movie • 2020
Self (archive footage)

The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden
Movie • 2020
Self (archive footage)

The Way I See It
Movie • 2020
Self (archive footage)

The Accidental President
Movie • 2020
Self (archive footage)

Melania
Movie • 2026
Self

The TikTok-Army of the AfD
Movie • 2025
Self (archive footage)

America at War
Movie • 2025
Self (archive footage)

Die Elon-Musk-Story
Movie • 2025
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Zoolander
Movie • 2001
Melania Knauss (uncredited)

A Pete Hegseth and Melania Trump Interview
Movie • 2022
Self

When Ruby Wax Met...
TV • 2021
Self (archive footage)

Trump: An American Dream
TV • 2017
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

The Celebrity Apprentice
TV • 2004
Self

Frontline
TV • 1983
Self (archive footage)

Spotlight
TV • 2015
Self (archive footage)

Entertainment Tonight
TV • 1981
Self

Dispatches
TV • 1987
Self (archive footage)

Panorama
TV • 1953
Self (archive footage)

20/20
TV • 1978
Self

First Ladies
TV • 2020
Self (archive footage)

60 Minutes
TV • 1968
Self

White House Christmas
TV • 1998
Self

Miss USA
TV • 1963
Self - Judge

The Donald Trump Show
TV • 2025
Self (archive footage)

Jimmy Kimmel Live!
TV • 2003
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

The Daily Show
TV • 1996
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
TV • 2015
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Untitled Melania Trump Docuseries
TV
Self

Late Night with Seth Meyers
TV • 2014
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)