Quick Facts
- NAME: Kelly Monaco
- OCCUPATION: Children's Activist, Television Actress, Model
- BIRTH DATE: May 23, 1976 (Age: 37)
- EDUCATION: Northampton Community College
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Full Name: Kelly Marie Monaco
- AKA: Kelly Monaco
- ZODIAC SIGN: Gemini
Best Known For
Kelly Monaco is an actress and model known for her role on General Hospital. Additionally, she was a Playboy "Playmate of the Month" in 1997, and won season 1 of Dancing with the Stars.
Quiz
Think you know about Biography?
Answer questions and see how you rank against other players.
Play NowKelly Monaco. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 11:14, May 23, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/kelly-monaco--20980931.
Kelly Monaco. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/kelly-monaco--20980931 [Accessed 23 May 2013].
"Kelly Monaco." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 11:14 http://www.biography.com/people/kelly-monaco--20980931.
"Kelly Monaco," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/kelly-monaco--20980931 [accessed May 23, 2013].
"Kelly Monaco," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/kelly-monaco--20980931 (accessed May 23, 2013).
Kelly Monaco [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/kelly-monaco--20980931.
Kelly Monaco, http://www.biography.com/people/kelly-monaco--20980931 (last visited May 23, 2013).
Kelly Monaco. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/kelly-monaco--20980931. Accessed May 23, 2013.
Synopsis
Born to a large Catholic family in 1976, Kelly Monaco launched her career by appearing as Playboy's "Playmate of the Month" in April 1997. After a small role on Baywatch, Monaco landed a part on the soap opera Port Charles. When it was canceled, she moved on to a role on General Hospital. In 2005, Monaco won the first season of Dancing with the Stars, and she returned in 2012 to compete on the all-stars series, Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars.
Contents
Early Life
Kelly Marie Monaco was born on May 23, 1976, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She comes from a large Italian Catholic family, and is the third of five daughters.
Kelly Monaco’s family moved to the Poconos before she entered junior high school. As a teen, she was involved in a variety of sports, including swimming, track, soccer and tennis, as well as drama and speech. After graduating from high school, she attended Northampton Community College for two years and worked as a lifeguard.
Career
At just 20 years old, Monaco sent a packet of photos of herself to Playboy, and became Playboy’s "Playmate of the Month" in April 1997. She continued to be a Playboy “bunny” throughout the late 1990s. She also landed a spot on Baywatch from 1997 to 1998, and was often seen as Carmen Electra’s body double.
Monaco was a regular on the soap opera Port Charles from 1999 to 2003, and she earned a nomination for a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series. When the show was canceled, she was cast as private investigator Samantha McCall, a new role, on General Hospital. She received another Daytime Emmy Award nomination, this time for outstanding lead actress in a drama series.
In addition to her regular roles, Monaco also guest starred in the season finale of Spin City with Heather Locklear and Charlie Sheen, and has had parts in films, including Idle Hands, Mumford and BASEketball, as well as Hallmark’s made-for-TV-movie Edge of the Garden.
Other Endeavors
In 2006 Monaco co-hosted the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards, and in 2009, Donald Trump asked her to be a judge for the Miss USA pageant. That same year, she starred in the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood burlesque act Peepshow.
In 2011 she starred in the E! reality series Dirty Soap, which followed the lives of daytime soap opera stars including her General Hospital co-star Kirsten Storms, but it was canceled after a single season.
In 2005, Monaco won the first season of Dancing with the Stars after starting out as the lowest-rated contestant on the show. She returned to the series in 2012, competing as an audience favorite on Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars.
Personal Life
Monaco dated her childhood sweetheart Michael Gonzalez for 18 years, and they broke up in 2009. In 2009, she traveled to Kenya with Feed the Children, as part of Daytime Gives Back.
profile name: Kelly Monaco profile occupation:
Your Connections
Sign in with Facebook to see how you and your friends are connected to famous icons.
Profile Connections
Included In These Groups
-
Cast of Dancing with the Stars
View groupThe famous dance-competition show Dancing with the Stars has seen more than a dozen seasons and a gamut of stars, including Apolo Anton Ohno, Kirstie Alley, Joey Fatone, Jennifer Grey, David Hasselhoff, Buzz Aldrin, Brandy, Wynonna Judd, Dorothy Hamill, D.L. Hughley and Aly Raisman. Learn more about the show's contestants, who, for a period, swapped their skills as athletes, actors, musicians, comedians, TV personalities and politicians for a chance to show off their footwork on national TV.
Cast of Dancing with the Stars 92 people in this group
-
Famous Geminis 529 people in this group
-
Famous Children's Activists
View groupBrowse notable children's activists such as Pat Nixon, Lillian D. Wald, and Pete Seeger.
Famous Children's Activists 26 people in this group

June Carter Cash
Musical Monikers
Justin Bieber
My Ghost Story
I Survived
Babe Ruth
Johnny Cash
Georgia O'Keefe
I Survived


