Kelly Brook (born Kelly Ann Parsons; 23 November 1979(1979-11-23)) is a British model, actress, occasional swimwear designer, television presenter and Playboy Girl.Brook was born in Rochester, Kent, England. She is the daughter of Sandra, a cook, and Ken, a scaffolder. Ken Parsons died from cancer on 26 November 2007, during Brook's time on Strictly Come Dancing. Kelly attended The Thomas Aveling School in Warren Wood, Rochester, Kent. She then studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London for three years before becoming a professional model. Brook's modelling career began at 16 after winning a beauty competition, in which she was entered by her mother.Following this success, she worked on a range of advertising campaigns, including for Foster's Lager, Renault Megane, Walkers crisps, Piz Buin and Bravissimo, a company that specialises in bras and lingerie for large-breasted women. Her figure eventually caught the eye of the editorial team of the Daily Star tabloid, which began featuring her as a Page Three girl.
Kelly Brook's picture soon began appearing in other lad mags such as GQ, Loaded and FHM. In April of the same year, a poll over 5,000 women for Grazia magazine considered her to have the best British female body. She also topped the 'FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World' list in 2005, which was said to have polled 15 million people. She later ranked 5th in FHM's '100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006', 17th in 2007 and 34th in 2008. She was the cover star of FHM's World Cup 2010 special issue, her first shoot with the magazine in five years. Brook has also done modeling of commercial swimwear, sportswear and hosiery. Her work for Triumph bras caused a stir because of a specially commissioned 50-foot (15 m) high billboard of Brook's bust, said to be the largest billboard in the world. In British design magazine Arena's November 2005 issue, Brook posed for a ten-page, nude black-and-white photo spread for the photographer David Bailey. In 2006, she signed a contract, reported to be worth around £1m, to present Unilever's Lynx body spray, known as "Axe" in the US and in continental Europe. She has appeared on billboards, in newspapers, and on-line as part of their advertising campaign.
She has also appeared in commercials for Sky + and T Mobile, and modelled for Reebok. In 2010, fourteen years after she started off her career as a lingerie model, she was chosen as the "new face and body" of lingerie maker Ultimo's advertising campaign. Kelly Brook appeared in the September 2010 issue of the American edition of Playboy magazine.
