Early life

Pressly was born in Kinston, North Carolina, the daughter of Brenda Sue (née Smith), a dance instructor, and James Liston Pressly, a car salesman. In 1992, she moved with her family to Costa Mesa, California, where she spent the first semester of her high school sophomore year.

By age 14, she had appeared on her first cover (Teen Magazine) and had become the official spokesmodel for the International Cover Model Search. At 15, she left school and went to Japan on a modeling contract. She succeeded in having herself legally emancipated from her parents at the age of 15 so she could travel to Japan, as neither of her parents could make the trip.

Career

Pressly starred as "Violet" in the 1997 film Poison Ivy: The New Seduction. In 1998 she starred as "Nikki" on the short-lived TV series Push, and also played a recurring role as the undead assassin Mika in the TV action series Mortal Kombat: Conquest. From 1999-2001, she played "Audrey" on the drama series Jack and Jill. Pressly starred in the independent film Poor White Trash, playing scheming gold-digger Sandy Lake. She subsequently appeared in a number of films, including Not Another Teen Movie (playing Priscilla, a high school cheerleader) and Torque, as a crazed, motorcycle-riding criminal.

In 2001, she was made the new spokesmodel for Liz Claiborne Cosmetics and its fragrance Lucky You. In 2002, she was ranked #8 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World". In 2003, she launched a lingerie line, J'Aime, which later became a full sleepwear and ready-to-wear line. In 2006, Maxim magazine named her #34 on its annual list; she is also featured in its gallery. Pressly posed nude for the March 1998 and February 2004 issues of Playboy. She also appeared nude in the May 2006 issue of Allure.

Pressly guest-starred in episodes of several TV shows. In an episode of the WB series Charmed, she played Mylie, a mermaid trying to find love; (Alyssa Milano, who played Phoebe, later guest-starred on My Name is Earl.) Other series on which she made guest appearances were The Twilight Zone, Fastlane, Las Vegas, Becker, Night Man, Silk Stalkings, and others. She appeared in an episode of the prank series Punk'd.

In 2005, Pressly was cast in the NBC sitcom My Name Is Earl, as Joy Turner. In 2007, she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on the show.

Pressly sang "Fever" in an appearance with the band The Pussycat Dolls. She has appeared in a number of music videos, including "The Space Between" by Dave Matthews Band, "Girls of Summer" by Aerosmith, and the Marilyn Manson cover of "Tainted Love". On May 31, 2006, she hosted the first annual VH1 Rock Honors.

Pressly was a producer, as well as a star, in the 2005 movie Death to the Supermodels. She hosted the October 7, 2006, episode of Saturday Night Live. She guest-starred on an episode of MADtv (season 11), playing Hillary Clinton in a parody of My Name Is Earl, "My Name Is Dubya", in which George W. Bush (Frank Caliendo) makes a list of all the bad things he has done in the past and rectifies them one by one.

On December 3, 2009, it was announced that she would guest-star on an upcoming episode (series 4, episode 10) of the CBS comedy, Rules of Engagement. She would play a possible surrogate mother for Jeff and Audrey (Patrick Warburton and Megyn Price). She reprised her role in the fifth-season premiere (series 5, episode 1). She appeared in the Fox sitcom I Hate My Teenage Daughter, which aired from November 30, 2011 to March 20, 2012. In July 2012, Pressly starred in Jimbo Lee's Abby in the Summer.

In 2013, TV Land announced that Pressly was cast in the lead role for Jennifer Falls as Jennifer Doyle, a mother of a teenaged daughter, who must move in with Doyle's mother after being fired from a high-paying job. Doyle becomes a waitress in her brother's bar.

Personal life

Friends since 1996, she started dating DJ Eric Calvo (DJ Eric Cubeechee) in 2004. After Pressly became pregnant, the two were engaged in October 2006. Pressly gave birth on May 11, 2007, in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to their child, Dezi James Calvo. In a February 2007 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Pressly said she wants the child to be bilingual (English/Spanish) to reflect Calvo's Cuban heritage. Pressly told People the name is part of a running joke, as Cuban-American Calvo does a Desi Arnaz impersonation, calling Pressly "Luuucy" when he comes home at night. In November 2008, the couple announced their separation.

Pressly said in a 2006 interview with Esquire that she almost purchased a ticket for a flight on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, but decided not to take the flight, because she felt it left too early in the morning.

In July 2009, Pressly was engaged to entertainment lawyer Simran Singh. They wed on September 26, 2009, at the Dick Clark estate. Guests, including Pressly's two-year-old son, attended the ceremony on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. On January 21, 2011, Pressly filed for divorce from Singh, citing irreconcilable differences.

Pressly was arrested in Santa Monica, California, on the night of January 5, 2011, for suspicion of driving under the influence, a charge to which she eventually pleaded no contest and received three years of informal probation.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Mercenary	Pre-teen American Girl
1997	Poison Ivy: The New Seduction	Violet
1997	The Journey: Absolution	Allison
1997	Against the Law	Sally
1998	Can't Hardly Wait	Beth	Credited as "Jamie Pressly"
1998	Ringmaster	Angel Zorzak
1999	Inferno	Dottie Matthews
2000	100 Girls	Cynthia
2000	Poor White Trash	Sandy Lake
2001	Not Another Teen Movie	Priscilla	Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Line
2001	Ticker	Claire Manning
2001	Joe Dirt	Jill
2001	Tomcats	Tricia
2002	Demon Island	Tina
2004	Torque	China
2005	Death to the Supermodels	Tiffany Courtney	Producer
2006	Bachelor Party Vegas	Herself
2007	DOA: Dead or Alive	Tina Armstrong
2008	Horton Hears a Who!	Mrs. Quilligan	Voice
2009	I Love You, Man	Denise McLean
2010	Beauty & the Briefcase	Kate White
2010	6 Month Rule	Claire
2012	The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure	Lola Sombrero
2014	Finders Keepers	Alyson Simon
2014	A Haunted House 2	Megan
2014	Making the Rules	Abby	Executive producer

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Push	Nikki Lang	Main cast
1998	Silk Stalkings	Kara Delaney	Episode: "Teacher's Pet"
1998	Night Man	Yvette	Episode: "Double Vision"
1998-99	Mortal Kombat: Conquest	Mika	3 episodes
1999-2001	Jack & Jill	Audrey Griffin	Main cast
2000	Best Actress	Karen Kroll	TV movie
2001	Going to California	Kylie Guartz	Episode: "This Year's Model"
2002	Charmed	Mylie	Episode: "A Witch's Tail, Part 1"
2002	The Twilight Zone	Cindy	Episode: "Sensuous Cindy"
2002	The Johnny Chronicles	Charlie	TV movie
2003	Fastlane	Sara Matthews	Episode: "Strap On"
2003	Becker	Grace	Episode: "Sister Spoils the Turkey"
2004	Happy Family	Alex	2 episodes
2004	The Karate Dog	Ashley Wilkenson	TV movie
2004	Even Knievel	Linda Bork	TV movie
2005	Entourage	Herself	Episode: "My Maserati Does 185"
2005-09	My Name Is Earl	Joy Turner	Main cast Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
2006	Mad TV	Herself	Episode: "11.13"
2006	Las Vegas	Kerry Kowalski	Episode: "Coyote Ugly"
2006	Saturday Night Live	Herself/Host	Episode: "Jaime Pressly/Corrine Bailey Rae"
2009	Rex	Jaime	TV movie
2010	Beauty and the Briefcase	Kate	TV movie
2010	Rules of Engagement	Pam Milton	2 episodes
2010	Smoke Screen	Britt Shelley	TV movie
2010	Livin' on a Prayer	Steph	TV movie
2011-13	Raising Hope	Donna	3 episodes
2011-12	I Hate My Teenage Daughter	Annie Watson	Main cast
2012	Bad Girls	Melinda	TV movie
2012	The Greatest Footie Ads Ever	Deneice	TV movie
2013	Two and a Half Men	Tammy	2 episodes
2013	Phineas and Ferb	Rosie	Voice, Episode: "Mind Share"
2013	Melissa & Joey	Meredith	Episode: "A New Kind of Christmas"
2014	Hollywood Game Night	Herself	Episode: "50 Charades of Grey"
2014	RuPaul's Drag Race	Herself (Guest Judge)	Episode: "Drag Queens of Comedy"
2014	Hot in Cleveland	Kelly	Episode: "Surprise!"
2014	Jennifer Falls	Jennifer Doyle	Main cast
2014-present	Mom	Jill Kendall	Recurring Season 2; Regular Season 3

Music videos

Year	Artist	Song
2001	Dave Matthews Band	The Space Between
2002	Aerosmith	Girls of Summer
2002	Marilyn Manson	Tainted Love
2003	Youngbloodz	Lean Low
2013	Michael Bublé	It's A Beautiful Day

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Saints Row 2	Jessica	Voice

Charities

Jaime Pressly supports the following charitable cause: AIDS.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]