Kelly Monaco Biography

Kelly Monaco’s big 2005 win on the TV series Dancing With the Stars made her a household name in much of America. But her real fame comes from her years of work on the soap opera General Hospital.

5’1″, brunette and curvy, Monaco posed for Playboy magazine in April of 1997, then landed a small recurring role in the series Baywatch (1997-98). Her next stop was soap operas: she appeared on Port Charles from 1999-2003, then moved to General Hospital in 2003, where she played the rebellious Samantha “Sam” McCall. It became her best-known role as she played the character for the next two decades. (Late in 2024, the website Soap Opera Network reported that Sam McCall would be killed off by General Hospital that fall, ending Monaco’s 21-year run with the show.)

Dancing With the Stars featured celebrities like model Rachel Hunter and boxer Evander Holyfield paired with professional partners in a series of ballroom dance competitions. The show was the surprise hit of summer 2005, and Monaco and her partner Alec Mazo won the competition after a final dance-off with actor John O’Hurley (who played J. Peterman on the show Seinfeld) and his partner Charlotte Jorgensen.