What is Kelly Monaco's Net Worth?
Kelly Monaco is an actress, model, and reality television personality who has a net worth of $4 million. Kelly Monaco is best known for playing Sam McCall on the ABC soap opera "General Hospital." She also won the first season of the dance competition series "Dancing with the Stars" in 2005. As a model, Monaco was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for April 1997.
Early Life and Education
Kelly Monaco was born on May 23, 1976 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the middle of five daughters of Carmina and Al. Her sisters are Christine, Marissa, Carmina, and Amber. The family eventually moved to the Poconos, where Monaco attended Pocono Mountain High School. After graduating from high school, she worked as a lifeguard at a local resort, and went on to attend Northampton Community College for two years.
Modeling Career
Aspiring to become a model, Monaco sent a photo of herself to Playboy magazine in 1996. This led to her becoming Playboy's Playmate of the Month in April 1997. Monaco continued appearing in the magazine over the subsequent years, and was also featured in Playboy Special Edition publications. She would later appear in other magazines, including Maxim. In 2009, Monaco was named Maxim's sexiest cover model of the decade.
Television Career
Monaco began acting in 1997 with a role on the series "Baywatch." She appeared in some more episodes of the show in 1998, playing both lifeguard Susan and serving as the body double for actress Carmen Electra. Monaco went on to make a cameo appearance in the 1999 television film "Late Last Night," starring Emilio Estevez and Steven Weber. She landed her first main role on television the next year, playing Livvie Locke on the ABC soap opera "Port Charles," a spinoff of "General Hospital." Monaco also played the character Tess Ramsey on the show from 2002 to 2003. For her work, she earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination. After "Port Charles" was canceled in 2003, Monaco joined the cast of "General Hospital" in the new role of Sam McCall, the daughter of mob boss Julian Jerome and attorney Alexis Davis. In 2006, she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for "General Hospital."
In 2005, Monaco competed on the first season of the ABC dance competition series "Dancing with the Stars." Along with her professional dance partner Alec Mazo, she won the competition. Monaco returned to "Dancing with the Stars" in 2012 to compete on the show's 15th season with dance partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy. This time, she finished in third place. Elsewhere on reality television, Monaco starred on the short-lived E! series "Dirty Soap" in 2011. She was joined in the cast by such fellow soap stars as Kirsten Storms, Farah Fath, Nadia Bjorlin, and Galen Gering. Monaco also appeared in the television film "The Edge of the Garden," and played herself in an episode of the sitcom "Baby Daddy." In late 2017, Monaco returned to "Dancing with the Stars" during the 25th season to participate in a trio rumba with Terrell Owens and his professional dance partner Cheryl Burke.
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Other Media Appearances
In the late 1990s, Monaco had small parts in the comedy films "BASEketball," "Welcome to Hollywood," "Idle Hands," and "Mumford." Beyond the screen, she has appeared in some stage productions, including the Las Vegas burlesque act "Peepshow," in which she starred as a precocious, sexually curious woman named Bo Peep. Monaco appeared alongside fellow "Dancing with the Stars" contestant Melanie Brown in the show during the first half of 2009.
Charity
In 2009, Monaco and a number of other daytime television celebrities traveled to Kenya as part of the Feed the Children program. They delivered food and various other supplies, and visited schools and orphanages. Later in the year, Monaco and many of her "General Hospital" costars volunteered to help beautify a school in Los Angeles.
Personal Life & Real Estate
Previously, from 1991 to 2009, Monaco dated her high school sweetheart Mike Gonzalez. Together, they worked as lifeguards and attended community college. The breakup was very difficult for Monaco, as seen in the first episode of her reality series "Dirty Soap."
In 2005 Kelly paid $795,000 for a home in the LA suburb of Sherman Oaks. Tragically, in May 2022 her house was destroyed by a fire after someone tossed a lit cigarette onto the empty lot next door.
