Jenny McCarthy

Jennifer Ann McCarthy-Wahlberg is an American actress, model, television personality, and activist. She first gained widespread public attention in 1993 as a model for Playboy magazine, eventually being named Playmate of the Year. She subsequently expanded her public profile through television hosting, acting in feature films and television series, authoring books, and engaging in high-profile advocacy surrounding autism and vaccines.

McCarthy was born on November 1, 1972, in Evergreen Park, Illinois, and raised in the West Elsdon neighborhood of Chicago. Born into a working-class Catholic family with German, Irish, and Polish roots, she is the second of four daughters raised by Linda, a housewife and custodian, and Dan McCarthy, a steel mill foreman. She attended Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, worked as a cheerleader at nearby high schools, and later attended Southern Illinois University for two years.

Her career began in 1993 when she was chosen as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for October, which led to her being named Playmate of the Year with a $100,000 salary. Moving to Los Angeles in 1994, she hosted Playboy TV's Hot Rocks before transitioning to mainstream television as the co-host of MTV's dating game show Singled Out from 1995 to 1997. She subsequently launched an MTV sketch series, The Jenny McCarthy Show, and starred in her own NBC sitcom, Jenny, from 1997 to 1998.

McCarthy developed an extensive feature film credit list starting with her first major movie role in the 1998 comedy BASEketball. Her subsequent film appearances included roles in Diamonds, Scream 3, Scary Movie 3, John Tucker Must Die, and Santa Baby. In 2005, she wrote, produced, and starred in the film Dirty Love, which resulted in her receiving Razzie Awards for Worst Actress, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Picture. She also made guest appearances on various television programs such as Wings, Charmed, Two and a Half Men, and Stacked.

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, McCarthy remained active in broadcast media. She hosted E!'s Party at the Palms in 2005, season 2 of NBC's Love in the Wild in 2012, and served as a correspondent for ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve from 2010 to 2019. In July 2013, she joined the ABC talk show The View as a co-host for one season. She launched a SiriusXM radio show in 2014, and in 2019, she became a panelist on the Fox musical competition series The Masked Singer.

In addition to broadcast hosting, McCarthy participated in online media, gaming, and commercial campaigns. She starred in the 2007 web series In the Motherhood, appeared in video games such as Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, and modeled for Candie's shoes in notable advertising campaigns. She also authored an autobiography titled Jen-X: Jenny McCarthy's Open Book along with several books on parenting.

Following her son's autism diagnosis in 2005, McCarthy became a prominent activist for alternative medical treatments and environmental autism causes. She served as a spokesperson for Talk About Curing Autism and led the non-profit organization Generation Rescue as president until it ceased operations in 2019. McCarthy publicly promoted the disproven claim that vaccines cause autism and advocated for alternative treatments like chelation therapy. Her views attracted significant public criticism and earned her the James Randi Educational Foundation's Pigasus Award in 2008.