Kelly Brook

Kelly Brook
Kelly Brook (born Kelly Ann Parsons on November 23, 1979) is a British model, actress, and occasional swimwear designer and television presenter.

Biography
After leaving school in Rochester, Brook studied at the Italia Conti stage school in London for three years before becoming a professional model.

Model
Brook's modeling career began at 16 after winning a beauty competition, her early work was in a range of advertising campaigns, including for the new "Bravissimo" company that specializes in bras and lingerie for full-figured women, and for Foster's beer. Brook is 5 feet, 9 inches (173 cm) tall, and her voluptuous figure caught the eye of the editorial team of the Daily Star who began featuring her as a Page Three girl.

Brook's picture soon began appearing in other lad mags such as FHM (repeatedly landing in its list of the "100 Sexiest Women of the Year") and Loaded. She topped the 'FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005' list, which was said to have polled 15 million people. In a poll over 5000 women in April 2005 for Grazia magazine she was considered to have the best British female body. She ranked 5th at 'FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006' list.

Brook has also done a large amount of commercial swimwear, sportswear, and hosiery modeling, and a limited amount of nude & semi-nude modeling. Recent modeling work for Triumph Bras caused quite a stir because of specially commissioned 50-foot high billboards of Brook's bust.

In 2005, Brook shot a ten page, mostly nude black and white portfolio with photographer David Bailey. The shoot featured in British design magazine October 2005 issue of Arena magazine.

In 2006, she released successful ranges of swimwear and lingerie at New Look stores nationwide.

In February 2007, it was announced that Kelly had signed a contract, reported to be worth £1m, to be the new face and body of Unilever's Lynx body spray, known as Axe in the US and on continental Europe. Kelly has been on billboards, in newspapers and online as part of the advertising campaign.

In Autumn 2007, Brook will launch her first Book Life Style and her own signature fragrance Kelly Brook. The bottle shape will replicate her famous curves.

Presenter
In 1997, still barely 18, Brook started getting work presenting youth television programmes on MTV, Granada and Trouble TV.

Brook had a breakthrough into mainstream presenting in January 1999 when she was chosen to replace Denise van Outen as the female half of The Big Breakfast presenting team, alongside Johnny Vaughan. Brook's tenure was not a success. She failed to recreate the on-screen chemistry that van Outen had achieved with Vaughan, and also appeared to have trouble with some of the technical aspects of live presentation: scriptwriters were requested to keep difficult words to a minimum when writing for her. She left the show in July, 1999.

Brook picked up roles presenting for MTV again. In 2005 she presented the reality television programme Celebrity Love Island for ITV.

Actress
she has appeared in minor roles in a string of movies including Sorted and Ripper. She played the girlfriend of Clark Kent/Superman's best friend Lex Luthor in four episodes of Warner Brothers' Smallville during the show's first season (2001 - 2002). She has also completed assignments as a movie actress in Canada and made a short appearance as Lyle's girlfriend in the 2003 movie The Italian Job. In 2004 she played character Nikki Morris in the video game Need for Speed Underground 2, alongside Brooke Burke. Brook's first starring role was in School for Seduction, a 2004 film.

In 2005 she appeared in the Philippe Vidal film House of 9, a thriller about nine seemingly unconnected strangers captured and locked in a house together. The people are forced to compete against one another, in order to survive.

She recently starred in a Marple drama on ITV. She caused a minor controversy over her most recent film Survival Island (previously known as Three), in which she co-starred with fiancé Billy Zane, when Brook and Zane requested her nude scenes be excised from the final cut, which the producers refused to do.

In 2007, Brook will be seen as a guest star in an episode of the British television drama Hotel Babylon, the independent films In the Mood and Fishtales and Carry on London, the latest in the Carry on series.

In 2008 she will appear opposite Kris Marshall and Jemima Rooper in the British Horror Film Hotel Caledonia and provide the voice of "Tiffany", a French Fashion obsessed Hamster in the animated series Hungry Hamsters which will also feature Jack Davenport and Harry Hill.

Strictly Come Dancing
On 13 September 2007 it was announced that Brook is participating in the 2007 celebrity dancing competition Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1 with professional ballroom dance partner Brendan Cole.