Kelly Ripa

Kelly Maria Ripa (; born October 2, 1970) is an American actress and talk show host. Since 2001, she has been the co-host of the syndicated morning talk show Live! with Kelly and Mark in various formats. As an actress, Ripa's best known roles include Hayley Vaughan on the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children (1990–2002, 2010) and Faith Fairfield on the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith (2003–2006). Ripa and her husband, Mark Consuelos, own a New York–based production company, Milojo. In 2014, The Hollywood Reporter named her one of the Most Powerful People in Media. Early life Kelly Maria Ripa was born and raised in Berlin, New Jersey, the daughter of Esther, a homemaker, and Joseph Ripa, a labor union president and bus driver who attended Rutgers University. She has a sister, Linda, who is a children's book author. She was on a local PHL17 dance show, called Dancin' on Air, before it got picked up by USA Network and was renamed Dance Party USA. Ripa did several chat line commercials asking guys to call the "hot line" where us "hot girls" are always on the phone. Commercials always aired after midnight in the local Philadelphia market. She has three-quarters Italian and one-quarter Irish ancestry. Ripa was raised Catholic. Her father, a Democrat has been the County Clerk for Camden County, New Jersey, since June 2009. Ripa graduated from Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees Township, New Jersey. During her high school years she was a cheerleader and was encouraged by her drama teacher to pursue acting. "I owe so much of my career to Jim Boeckle," she said. "He thought I was a natural performer and so he gave me the lead in the next show." She starred in local theater productions and was discovered while performing in The Ugly Duckling during her senior year. She attended Camden County College studying psychology, but dropped out and moved to New York City to pursue an acting career.