Kelly Marie Monaco aka Kelly biography

Real biography: Introduction

We like Kelly Monaco for many reasons: her dark-haired beauty, her acting skills, her dancing. But maybe most of all: her proactive-ness to send Playboy nude pictures of herself when she was 20.

Life Story

Born in Philadelphia to a deer-hunting father and a figure-skating mother, Kelly attended Catholic school as a girl and grew up running track, playing soccer, swimming and working as a lifeguard. Kelly would eventually try out to be in Playboy Magazine, and became Playboy’s Playmate of the Month for April 1997, one month before her 21st birthday. She used the attention surrounding her jaw-dropping centerfold appearance to launch an acting career, at first getting uncredited roles in Baywatch (Pamela Anderson, Brooke Burns, Gena Lee Nolin, Nicole Eggert, Krista Allen, Donna D’Errico)—as a girl flying a kite, a rookie lifeguard and the body double of Carmen Electra, who couldn’t swim—and BASEketball (Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny McCarthy), as a pole-dancing cheerleader. She followed that with credited parts in Idle Hands (Jessica Alba, Vivica A. Fox), Mumford (Zooey Deschanel), Port Charles and Spin City (Jennifer Esposito). In 2003 Kelly began playing the character she’s best known for, sexy con artist Samantha “Sam” McCall on General Hospital. Her performances have led to two Emmy nominations, and though she has yet to take home Emmy hardware, she did pick up a win with her partner Alec Mazo on Dancing with the Stars (Carrie Ann Inaba). In the future, expect more dancing from Kelly, as well as more playfully over-the-top acting on General Hospital. And we hear she’s got some pretty wild photos of her appliances that she plans to send to Popular Science.