Kelly Monaco on AllMovie

A native of Philadelphia, model-turned-actress Kelly Monaco initially achieved recognition by appearing as "Playmate of the Month" in an April 1997 issue of Playboy well before her 21st birthday, and then extending her association with the men's magazine into a long sequence of appearances in adult entertainment videos, including Girls Next Door (1997), Babes of Baywatch (1998), and Club Lingerie (2000). Monaco could also be seen on the popular syndicated adventure drama Baywatch, though her appearances on the series were all in uncredited roles in a handful of episodes. She soon found more prominent work as a regular on two daytime soap operas: Port Charles (as Olivia "Livvie" Locke) and General Hospital (as Samantha "Sam" McCall). Monaco netted a substantial audience of prime-time television viewers in 2005 when she competed in season one of the ABC reality series Dancing with the Stars, and in fact won that contest alongside partner Alec Mazo. The two subsequently lost a follow-up "dance off" against John O'Hurley and his partner, Charlotte Jørgensen.