Early life

Wagner was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was raised primarily by her father, David Wagner, a U.S. Marine, and her grandmother. She attended Ledford Senior High School in Wallburg, North Carolina and North Carolina State University at the same time as Rhett and Link. She graduated in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in business management. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California. As a teenager Jill also graduated from the Barbizon Modeling and Acting School in Raleigh and went on to be named Miss Barbizon.

Career

After completing college, Wagner moved to California to further her modeling career. In 2003, she was selected as a cast member on the MTV series Punk'd, participating in about a dozen sketches.

She appeared in Stuff magazine following her appearances in Punk'd. Wagner was ranked #90 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2004. She posed in the American July 2006 issue of FHM magazine.

She was featured as the Ford Motor Company's Mercury brand spokesmodel in television ads from 2005 to 2011, and soon became known as "The Mercury Girl." In 2006, she co-starred in the Spike TV television show Blade: The Series as Krista Starr. Jill has also appeared in a variety of shows including Quintuplets and Bones. Her features include JuneBug in a minor role and leading in the horror film Splinter in 2008. She is a co-host of Inside the Vault on WGN America.

In January 2007, Wagner stated that she had been interviewed about the possibility of portraying Wonder Woman in the upcoming movie version, saying, “I met with the guys over at Silver pictures about some things and Wonder Woman was one of them.”

In the summer of 2008, Jill became a co-host for the ABC summer reality show Wipeout. In April 2011, Wagner (confirmed by ABC) announced that she would be leaving Wipeout to focus on her acting career. She was on the show through the 2011 summer season and was succeeded by Vanessa Lachey. In June 2011, Wagner appeared on the new show Teen Wolf, airing on MTV.

In late August 2012, Wipeout executive producer Matt Kunitz announced Wagner would return to the program for its sixth season. She returned for the seventh season, it finished on September 7, 2014. Then it was renewed for an eighth series, but then was quietly axed before the eighth series began.

In 2013, she appeared on Rhett and Link's 3rd episode of their YouTube series The Mythical Show. This was in response to an episode of their talk show Good Mythical Morning, where they mentioned they had gone to college with a girl who had caught their interest, but never had the courage to talk to, who is revealed to be Jill Wagner.

Filmography