Information about Kelly Ripa

Kelly Ripa
Birth name	Kelly Maria Ripa
Born	September 2 1970 (1970--) (age 37) Berlin, New Jersey,  United States
Died
Other name(s)	Regis calls her Pipa on Live! With Regis and Kelly
Spouse(s)	Mark Consuelos (1996-present)
Children	Michael Joseph, Lola Grace, Joaquin Antonio
Awards Emmy Awards Outstanding Special Class Special 2006 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade

Kelly Maria Ripa (born October 2, 1970, in Berlin, New Jersey) an American Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress, television personality and talk show host. Since February 2001, she has served as the co-host of Live with Regis and Kelly, alongside Regis Philbin, taking the show's rating to a new high when she replaced previous Live co-host Kathie Lee Gifford. She is also known for her acting on All My Children, playing the role of Hayley Vaughn Santos, and for playing Faith Fairfield, one of the main characters in Hope & Faith, both television series on ABC.

Biography

Kelly Ripa was born to a Italian father and a mother of Irish and Italian descent. While attending Eastern High School in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, Ripa began acting in high school plays. This led to roles at local theaters and a regular spot on the USA Network's Dance Party USA – an afternoon teen music program. She was then cast as gothic teen turned suffering heroine (in the hero sense, not the drug) Hayley Vaughan on the soap opera All My Children. Starting on the show in 1990, the character of Hayley quickly drew a large following. While she was selected to work alongside Regis Philbin for the long-running talk show, Live, Ripa was on double duty, but the following year in 2002, Ripa's character of Hayley left Pine Valley, hence, she left All My Children to spend more time co-hosting Live with Regis and Kelly, in New York.

In 1995, her character was paired with Mark Consuelos' character Mateo Santos. A romance blossomed between the castmates, with Ripa and Consuelos eloping in Las Vegas on May 1, 1996. She did not invite her parents to the wedding. Eventually, they had three children — Michael Joseph Consuelos, born June 2, 1997; Lola Grace Consuelos, born June 16, 2001; and Joaquin Antonio Consuelos, born February 24, 2003. In a mutual decision, the couple left All My Children in December 2002.

In September 2003, Ripa was back on double duty (after a one year hiatus) when she co-starred (with Faith Ford) on her first sitcom, Hope & Faith. She portrayed Faith Fairfield, a former soap star whose character is killed off and who moves in with her sister Hope's family, creating havoc for the family and often antagonizing Hope and her husband, Charlie. Hope & Faith was not renewed for a fourth season in May 2006 after the 2005-2006 season saw a significant decline in ratings.

In May 2007, Ripa stated that she most likely is done with acting for the time being. She said she is content to enjoy the light work schedule that Live with Regis and Kelly offers. She did say that she may be more inclined to return to acting once her youngest son, Joaquin, is old enough to be in school full-time.^[1]

Kelly's father, Joseph Ripa, is an elected official for Camden County, NJ. Joe Ripa is a union executive who was first elected to the county's governing body, the Board of Chosen Freeholders, in November 2003.^[2].

Self-parody

On Saturday Night Live skits about Live with Regis and Kelly, the role of Kelly Ripa is played by Amy Poehler. When Ripa hosted SNL in November 2003, in the Live with Regis and Kelly skit, Poehler appeared as Ripa and Ripa as Angelina Jolie. In another skit, Ripa spoofed the ubiquitous hair coloring ads in which she has appeared (in this skit, Ripa prefers Tressant Suprême because a main ingredient is crack cocaine, thus explaining her stereotypical "peppy" persona). In another episode, she had a cameo as herself in a skit about Bangkok, Thailand, with Ben Affleck. She also appeared in an opening skit with Steve Martin as the host, where they have dinner until Martin finds out that Alec Baldwin is about to host the show again (Baldwin was about to tie Martin for the most times hosting a show).

In Hope & Faith, sometimes Regis Philbin or others connected with her actual professional life would be brought into an episode. The scripts would lampoon Ripa herself, with jokes that required knowledge of her real-life career, and further the storyline about Faith, her narcissistic character on the show.

She has also made fun of herself on Family Guy, voicing herself. In the episode "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1," Peter Griffin found a genie in a beer bottle and his first wish was to see Kelly Ripa behind the scenes. The genie opened a magic window onto Ripa's Live with Regis and Kelly dressing room, showing Ripa ripping off her human face to show an ugly alien face, then going to a tied-up human, ripping his heart out and eating it.

Kelly is presently developing an untitled half hour sitcom with her husband for the CW network loosely based on the experience of herself and her husband. It would portray two actors who navigate the behind-the-scenes insanity of the soap opera in which they star. ^[3]

Controversies

• On August 14, 2002, guest Judith Light created a stir on Live with Regis and Kelly when she got into a shouting match with Kelly after Kelly corrected Judith's pronuciation of "worcestershire". This became a recurring topic on the show, with the on-air talent frequently making light of the incident. On November 3, 2002, Light made a public apology to Kelly, where she also admitted to having a dangerous prescription pain killer addiction. The two have since reconciled, and are regularly seen eating at the Payard Patisserie Bistro in New York.
• On November 17, 2006, Clay Aiken was a stand-in guest host on Live with Regis and Kelly. During an interview, Aiken covered Kelly Ripa's mouth with his hand.^[4][5] There was considerable reaction after Kelly mentioned the incident on her show 4 days later.^[6][7] Aiken mocked the controversy on the 2006 American Music Awards a few days later with Tori Spelling.^[8]

Awards and honors

Ripa won five Soap Opera Digest Awards for playing Hayley on All My Children in 1996, 1998 & 2000. She has been nominated for 8 Daytime Emmy Awards. Three of these nominations were for playing Hayley on All My Children, and 5 were for performing hosting duties alongside Regis.

In April 2006, she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Special for co-hosting the 2005 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade with Regis Philbin and Ryan Seacrest.

On September 15, 2006, Ripa broke the Guinness World Record for custard pie throwing, tossing 24 banana cream pies in one minute at actor Wilmer Valderrama, as part of a Guinness World Record Breaker theme week on Live with Regis and Kelly. She beat the record broken by NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth on the previous day, when he threw 17 pies at Ripa herself. ^[9]

References in pop culture

• Regis refers to Kelly as "Pipa."
• She can be heard at the end of Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like a Hole" single, saying "Let's hear it for Nine Inch Nails! Woo! They were good!" The clip was taken from a Nine Inch Nails appearance on Dance Party USA.
• On Scrubs, the characters have used "Kelly Ripa" as a verb (e.g. "You've been Kelly Ripa'd") to describe the act of intentionally and temporarily misleading someone for humorous effect, referencing something commonly done by Ripa on her show.
• Rock band Cowboy Mouth appeared on the show & performed a song called "Kelly Ripa"
• Is a fan of the New York Mets and is the spokesperson for ticket sales at Mets.com.
• Is a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles.
• Ripa hosted the 2007 TV Land Awards. The show opened with the parodies of the opening credits to a variety of TV classics, with Ripa playing one of the characters from each showhttp://www.tvland.com/awards2007/preview/kellyripa.jhtml.
• Her favorite city in the world, which she mentions quite frequently, is Montreal, Quebec.
• Has a song written about her entitled "Fantasy" written by Matt Perrone on the CD "Something I Wanted." On the April 23, 2003 Live show, Matt appeared and spoke with Regis & Kelly.
• Was on Maxim Hot 100 of 2006 and 2007
• David Letterman calls them "Regis Lee" and "Kelly Lee" when introducing them as guests on Late Show with David Letterman.

Television work

• Dance Party USA (1986-1992) (frequent regular)
• All My Children (cast member from 1990-2002)
• Someone to Love (2001)
• Live with Regis and Kelly (2001-present)
• It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002)
• Hope & Faith (2003-2006)
• (2003) (voice)
• Kelly Ripa's E! True Hollywood Story (2006)
• 50 Funniest Women Alive, Oxygen (2007) (also placed #6)
• ''Go, Diego, Go! - mother wolf (voice) (2006)

Filmography

• Marvin's Room (1996) Coral
• The Stand-In (1999) Jennifer
• (2003) (voice) (direct-to-video) Dr. Roxanne "Rocky" Ballantine
• Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) herself

Upcoming:

• Fly Me to the Moon (2007) (voice) Nat's mom
• Delgo (2007) (voice) Kurrin

References

External links

• Official website for Live with Regis and Kelly
• Kelly Ripa & Regis Philbin Fan Forums''
• Kelly Ripa at the Internet Movie Database
• Kelly Ripa Fansite Blog

Television Divas