Vanessa Ashley Rousso   (born February 5, 1983) is a French American law student at the University of Miami and a professional poker player.   She is also known by her Pokerstars online screen name Lady Maverick.   Born in White Plains, New York, Rousso has dual citizenships with the United States and France.   Rousso is a member of Team PokerStars, and a spokesperson for GoDaddy.com. She has earned money as a professional poker player since 2005.   A photo of her appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.   Rousso was her 2001 high school class valedictorian and graduated from Duke University in December 2003.     She is the wife of Chad Brown.

Rousso began law school in 2004 and was the inaugural recipient of the Chaplin Scholarship from the University of Miami.   During Law School at the University of Miami School of Law, she served on the editorial board of the University of Miami Law Review.     A poker player since the age of five, Rousso began serious poker tournament play during her summer break from law school.   Rousso was in the top 5% of her law school class,   but she did not finish law school.   Now, excluding online winnings, she ranks among the top five women in poker history in terms of all-time money winnings.   She currently resides part time in Las Vegas, Nevada and part time in Hobe Sound, Florida. Her nickname was given to her by a relative when she sold shares of herself to enter a $25,000 buyin event in a manner that was reminiscent of a storyline in Mel Gibson's movie called Maverick. As of year end 2009, Rousso drove a yellow Lamborghini Gallardo.

She had placed in the money a cumulative total of eleven times in the 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009 World Series of Poker. In the 2008 tournament, she placed 625th of 6844 entrants in the Main event. However, in 2007, she had earned over $700,000 with a second place finish in the main event of the World Championship of Online Poker. At the age of 27, she ranks among the top five women in poker history in terms of all-time money winnings. In addition, she has become one of the game's foremost sex symbols. She has been a pro-gambling activist on both the national and state level.

As of 2015, Rousso has finished in the money in numerous live poker events and had earned over $3,500,000 in career earnings. She has placed in the money a cumulative total of fourteen at the World Series of Poker. She has placed 511th of 6865 entrants in the 2011 Main event. However, in 2007, she had earned over $700,000 with a second place finish in the main event of the World Championship of Online Poker. She ranks among the top five women in poker history in terms of all-time money winnings. In addition, she has become one of the game's foremost sex symbols.

On June 16, 2015, CBS announced that Vanessa Rousso would be one of the houseguests competing on Big Brother 17.