Kelly Marie Monaco Bio
Kelly Marie Monaco is an American actress, television personality, glamour and nude model. She was born on May 23, 1976, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has also been credited as Kelly Monaco. Playboy named her its April 1997 Playmate at 20. Her appearance came during Playboy's 1990s print era, a period increasingly shaped by entertainment and celebrity culture.
Monaco has natural breasts, brown eyes and brown hair. Her measurements are 34-21-32.
Kelly Marie Monaco grew up in Pennsylvania’s Poconos, where an outdoorsy childhood gave her an early taste for competition and performance. One of five sisters, she played soccer and softball, competed in track and swimming, and took part in speech, debate and theater. Her mother, a former figure skater, also trained her on the ice. After high school, Monaco attended Northampton Community College and worked as a lifeguard at a local resort.
In 1996, Monaco took a decisive step toward modeling by sending photographs to Playboy. Her portfolio led to her centerfold the following year and additional appearances in Playboy Special Editions. The exposure quickly opened another door: producers of Baywatch contacted her after seeing her Playboy feature. From 1997 to 1998, she appeared on the series as Susan and also occasionally worked as Carmen Electra’s swimming body double.
Film roles in BASEketball, Idle Hands and Mumford followed, but daytime television became the foundation of Monaco’s acting career. She played Livvie Locke and later the character’s double, Tess Ramsey, on ABC’s Port Charles before joining General Hospital as Samantha “Sam” McCall in 2003. Her soap work brought a Daytime Emmy nomination for Port Charles in 2003 and another, for Outstanding Lead Actress, for General Hospital in 2006. She remained associated with General Hospital for more than two decades.
Monaco reached an even larger television audience in 2005 when she partnered with Alec Mazo on the inaugural season of Dancing with the Stars. Despite difficult early judging and a memorable costume mishap during one performance, the pair won the competition. She returned for the 2012 all-star season with Valentin Chmerkovskiy and finished third. Other projects included the reality series Dirty Soap and a 2009 run as Bo Peep in Jerry Mitchell’s Las Vegas production Peepshow alongside Melanie Brown.
Away from acting, Monaco has used her public profile for charitable work, including a 2009 trip to Kenya with Feed the Children and volunteer work with fellow General Hospital cast members in Los Angeles. Her career has proved remarkably varied: Playboy led to Baywatch, daytime drama brought Emmy recognition, and Dancing with the Stars introduced her to another generation of viewers. What began with a photograph mailed to Playboy became a television career spanning soaps, reality competition, film and live performance.
