Why The Woman In The Balance Of Nature Commercial Looks So Familiar

In late 2023, the vitamin supplement company Balance of Nature released a commercial to promote its new fiber additive. These sorts of ads live or die by their spokesperson's name recognition power — there's a reason so many 2023 commercials feature familiar actors — and, by that metric, Balance of Nature couldn't have selected an individual with a wider social net.

The talent in question, who has worked with the nutrition company since 2022, is a stage and screen actress, a singer/songwriter, a published author, and, most notably, a television host. It's for this last category that the star of the Balance of Nature commercial probably looks so familiar because Kathie Lee Gifford made her name as the face of friendly news.

While Gifford might not find herself so close to the spotlight these days, she's spent decades fashioning a career that's worth remembering, and it would be a discredit to her CVS-receipt-length resume to only style her as "the woman in the Balance of Nature commercial." Consider this a highlight reel for her storied trek through Hollywood — and everywhere else because, again, Gifford is everywhere.

Kathie Lee Gifford's screen credits date back to 1975 but it wasn't until 1988 that she scored a position with a sizeable audience tuning in just for her. ABC hired Gifford to co-host "The Morning Show" for WABC-TV, and the show was renamed "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee" upon her employment. She, alongside Regis Philbin, helped the world wake up with lively chatter about anything and everything, including themselves. Gifford often spoke about her interpersonal relationships and her experiences as a mother. The pair's chemistry was just what the doctor ordered because the series consistently pulled solid numbers, with the viewership peaking at around 18 million. 

Gifford stayed on "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee" until 2000. The driving force behind her departure was a guest hosting stint for David Letterman on his "Late Night" show. She described it as life-changing and insisted that it was time for her to do something different. Although her time on the WABC-TV series suffered — and benefited — from controversy, Gifford only praises "Regis and Kathie Lee" whenever the subject arises in conversation. She also takes every opportunity to publicly defend her late co-host, who allegedly made life difficult for her replacement, Kelly Ripa.

No story about Kathie Lee Gifford is complete until her tenure with the "Today" show is on display. The NBC social news program hired her to co-star on the "Kathie Lee and Hoda" talk show with Hoda Kotb in 2007. For 11 years, Gifford and Kotb worked networking magic in much the same way as ABC's "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee." It's this era of Gifford's career that younger generations will know her best for. After all, NBC's talk show hosts also handle the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which is essentially required viewing as part of the American holiday.

Gifford openly admitted that she never intended to stay on "Kathie Lee and Hoda" for very long. She told "Good Housekeeping" that Kotb was the reason she kept on hosting the show. "I fell in love with a beautiful, talented, extraordinary Egyptian goddess named Hoda," said Gifford. "And an amazing group of individuals who work tirelessly and joyfully at their jobs." In 2023, Kotb told the "Just B with Bethenny Frankel" podcast that Gifford fought for her employment during the inaugural phase of the show, which means that her appreciation for her co-host began early and held strong for many, many years.

Believe it or not, Kathie Lee Gifford's dream job isn't hosting morning talk shows. As previously mentioned, Gifford is also an actress and a singer/songwriter. Hearing her speak about storytelling is enough to understand how deeply she wants to act. Unfortunately, Hollywood seems way more interested in her brand than her emotional range. As early as 1991, and as recently as 2019, Gifford's appeared in movies and television shows as herself. Projects such as "Seinfeld," "The Simpsons," "George of the Jungle," "30 Rock," two of the "Sharknado" films, and "Nashville" — just to name a few — all feature Gifford as the famous morning talk show host she's famous for being. 

In 2021, Gifford told Variety that her resume is so eclectic that it looks like something of a "Where's Waldo" book. "I feel like Waldo from those 'Where's Waldo' books," she said. "Waldo's everywhere and you say, 'What the hell is he doing there?' That's me. My whole career. What am I doing here? So many people can do so many more things than they believe they can. But they're paralyzed with fear of failure, I suppose." As of this writing, Gifford's most recent appearance as herself can be found in "The Other Two," a 2019 Max original series.