Maureen Orth is an award winning journalist, a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair Magazine and has interviewed public figures from Madonna to Margaret Thatcher, among other heads of state. Right after 9/11, Orth journeyed to Central Asia to report on the relationship between terrorism and drugs. She has written investigative pieces regarding the allegations of sexual abuse by Michael Jackson and child abuse by Woody Allen and profiled other controversial figures such as Arianna Huffington, Mohamed Al Fayed, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Gerry Adams, Denise & Marc Rich, and Carla Bruni.

She has authored two books, the best-selling Vulgar Favors, the Largest Failed Manhunt in US History, about the murder of Gianni Versace, and The Importance of Being Famous, in which she coined the phrase "celebrity industrial complex". She is the founder of the Marina Orth Foundation which helps support 1,200 children in three One Laptop Per Child schools in Colombia, where she served as a Peace Corps volunteer and had a school named for her – Escuela Marina Orth. She is the Producer of www.PeaceCorpsPostcards.com, an interactive website created for the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps that highlights the influence of the Peace Corps on the lives of past and present volunteers.

Orth is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and received a Masters in Journalism and documentary film at UCLA. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Berkeley Foundation and a board member of Internews. Her latest investigative article is the October 2012 cover of Vanity Fair, "What Katie Didn't Know," about Tom Cruise and Scientology.