AllMovie

Best known for her ongoing association with Playboy -- as a centerfold and as one of Hugh Hefner's paramours -- Holly Madison enjoyed a childhood that witnessed her family moving between Astoria, OR, and a rural island off the coast of Alaska; the clan eventually settled in Oregon, and Madison enrolled in Portland State University, where she majored in psychology and theater. Halfway through school, however, she gravitated to Southern California (where she found the climate more appealing) and transferred to L.A.'s Loyola Marymount University, working as a Hooters waitress and a Hawaiian Tropics model on the side. A friend of Hugh Hefner's soon spotted Madison posing in a Tropics photo session, which prompted Hefner to place her on the guest list for the annual Midsummer Night's Dream party; eventually, Hefner asked her out on a date and made her his "Number One Girl." As such, Madison moved into the famous Playboy mansion and received prominent billing on the popular E! network reality series The Girls Next Door (2005) -- a candid, behind-the-scenes view of mansion life. In terms of big-screen work, Madison also landed a small role in Scary Movie 4. After she and Hefner split, she continued her work on reality TV shows, with her own spin-off on E!, Holly's World, and a stint on Dancing with the Stars. She later took up residence in Las Vegas as the headliner for Peepshow, a burlesque show, where she performed for almost three years. In 2015, she appeared in the TV movie Sharknado 3.