Kelly Brook (born Kelly Ann Parsons in Rochester, Kent, England, on 23 November 1979(1979-11-23)) is an English model, actress, occasional swimwear designer and television presenter.
Early life
She is the daughter of Sandra, a cook, and Ken, a scaffolder. Ken Parsons died from cancer on 26 November 2007, during Brook's time on Strictly Come Dancing. Kelly attended The Thomas Aveling School in Warren Wood, Rochester, Kent. She then studied at the Italia Conti stage school in London for three years before becoming a professional model.
Modelling career
Brook's modelling career began at 16 after winning a beauty competition for which her mother entered her. Following this success she worked on a range of advertising campaigns, including for Foster's Lager, Renault Megane, Walkers crisps, Piz Buin and Bravissimo, a company that specialises in bras and lingerie for large-breasted women. Her figure eventually caught the eye of the editorial team of the Daily Star tabloid, which began featuring her as a Page Three girl.
Brook's picture soon began appearing in other lad mags such as GQ, Loaded and FHM. In April of the same year, a poll over 5,000 women for Grazia magazine considered her to have the best British female body. She also topped the 'FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World' list in 2005, which was said to have polled 15 million people. She later ranked 5th in FHM's '100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006', 17th in 2007 and 34th in 2008.
Brook has also done a large amount of commercial swimwear, sportswear and hosiery modeling. Her work for Triumph bras caused quite a stir because of specially commissioned 50-foot (15 m) high billboard of Brook's bust, said to be the largest billboard in the world. In 2005, Brook posed for a ten-page, nude black-and-white photo spread for the photographer David Bailey, which appeared in the British design magazine Arena, in the November 2005 issue. In 2006 she signed a contract, reported to be worth around £1m, to present Unilever's Lynx body spray, known as Axe in the US and in continental Europe. She has appeared on billboards, in newspapers, and on-line as part of an advertising campaign. She has also appeared in commercials for Sky + & T Mobile and modelled for Reebok. In 2010, fourteen years after she started off her career as a lingerie model, she was chosen as the "new face and body" of lingerie maker Ultimo's advertising campaign.$PAGE$
Clothing range
In 2006, she introduced her own range of swimwear and lingerie at New Look stores in the United Kingdom.
Television
Presenter
In 1997, aged eighteen, Brook started presenting youth television programs on MTV, Granada Television and the Trouble TV channel. 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 hosting team, alongside Johnny Vaughan. She left the show in July, 1999. Reports claimed that she was sacked after a series of on-air gaffes, and problems reading and pronouncing polysyllabic words from the autocue machine. Following her departure she picked up roles presenting for MTV. In 2005, she hosted the reality television program Celebrity Love Island for ITV.
Reality TV appearances
Strictly Come Dancing
In 2007 Brook participated in the celebrity dancing competition Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1, for which her professional ballroom dance partner was Brendan Cole. During the TV series, her father Kenneth Parsons died from cancer, and although she initially decided to continue dancing in his memory, she withdrew from the competition in week nine.