Denise Richards

Denise Lee Richards is an American actress, model, and television personality. Born on February 17, 1971, she rose to prominence with roles in the science fiction film Starship Troopers (1997), the erotic thriller Wild Things (1998), and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999), in which her performance as nuclear physicist Christmas Jones served as her mainstream breakthrough. Over her career, she has appeared in a wide variety of feature films, television series, and reality programs, and she authored a New York Times Best Seller.

Richards was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, to Joni, a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. Raised Catholic, she grew up in Downers Grove and Mokena, Illinois, before moving with her family to Oceanside, California, at age 15. She graduated from El Camino High School in 1989. Following high school, she began working as a teenager in modeling, appearing in print ads for Bonne Bell cosmetics in 1991, the cover of Teen magazine, an instructional video titled Modeling: What It Takes, and later the Max Factor Premiere 2K campaign. Her international modeling assignments took her to Paris, New York, and Tokyo.

Richards began her acting career in the 1990s with television guest spots on shows such as Saved by the Bell, Married... with Children, Seinfeld, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Melrose Place, as well as a role in the drama series Against the Grain (1993). After appearing in films like Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Tammy and the T-Rex (1994), she landed her first starring role in a wide theatrical release in Starship Troopers (1997). She followed this with Wild Things (1998), The World Is Not Enough (1999), and the beauty pageant satire Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999).

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Richards expanded her film repertoire with comedy, drama, and horror titles, including Valentine (2001), Undercover Brother (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Love Actually (2003), Edmond (2005), Jolene (2008), Madea's Witness Protection (2012), American Satan (2017), and The Toybox (2018). Her television work included recurring and guest roles on Friends, Spin City, Two and a Half Men, 30 Rock, and Jane the Virgin, alongside main cast roles in the sitcom Blue Mountain State (2010–2011), the mystery-thriller series Twisted (2013–2014), and the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful (2019–2022, returning in May 2026).

Richards has also been a prominent figure in unscripted television. She starred in her own reality series, Denise Richards: It's Complicated (2008–2009), participated in season 8 of Dancing with the Stars (2009), joined the cast of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2019–2020, with guest appearances in 2023–2024 and 2026), and starred in Denise Richards & Her Wild Things (2025). In late 2024, Fox announced her participation in the third season of the reality series Special Forces: World's Toughest Test.

Beyond acting and unscripted television, Richards has maintained a notable modeling career, appearing on the covers of magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Details, Esquire, GQ, and Shape, as well as posing for Playboy in December 2004. In July 2011, she published her memoir, The Real Girl Next Door, which achieved New York Times Best Seller status. Throughout her career, she earned Blockbuster Entertainment Award nominations for Starship Troopers and The World Is Not Enough, alongside a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Northeast Film Festival for American Satan.