Kelly Monaco Pics

Kelly Marie Monaco (born May 23, 1976 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and raised in the Poconos) is an American model and actress.

Her first television role was on the nightime drama Baywatch from 1997 to 1998 (she had previously been a lifeguard in real life, in addition to playing a variety of sports growing up). She also had minor roles in the late 1990s films BASEketball, Idle Hands, and Mumford.

Monaco had two roles on the supernatural television soap opera Port Charles: Olivia “Livvie” Locke Morley (1999–2003) and Tess Ramsey (2002–2003). When that program ended, she joined the cast of soap opera General Hospital as possible con woman Samantha “Sam” McCall in September 2003.

In 2003 Monaco was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her Port Charles work.

In summer 2005, Monaco appeared as a contestant in the highly-rated American version of the television series Dancing With The Stars. Despite her perceived lack of height and an initial lack of grace, she improved each week and became a popular underdog. In the quarterfinal round samba, she coolly recovered from a mid-dance wardrobe malfunction without becoming exposed on live national television. On July 6, 2005, Kelly Monaco won the Dancing With The Stars competition.

This was viewed by some as an upset, whereas others suspected ballot-box stuffing, a frequent complaint of Internet-based voting. This was discussed briefly on a Larry King Live interview with several members of the show, but was not pursued by runner-up John O'Hurley, who took the high road and declared that participation and viewer popularity was more important to him than winning. However, it was decided to have a "Dance-Off" special as a followup to this controversial result, with a presumably lessened chance of Internet voting skewing the results. It was held "live" on September 20 and results were announced two days later. This time, O'Hurley and his dance partner Charlotte emerged as the winners. From appearances, it is fair to say that Monaco was as happy about losing this match as O'Hurley was about losing the regular competition.

The win on Dancing With the Stars boosted her visibility level considerably and resulted in a number of appearances on talk shows as well as possible new job offers, but she stated that she intends to remain with General Hospital. She has more recently made cover appearances in scantily-clad magazines such as FHM and Maxim and also appeared on Dancing with the stars..