Denise Lee Richards (born on February 17, 1971) is an American actress and former fashion model. She became famous in the late 1990s, after a string of films that highlighted her sex appeal, including Starship Troopers, Wild Things, and The World Is Not Enough. She also has her own reality TV show, Denise Richards: It's Complicated which airs on E!.

Early life and career

Richards was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, the daughter of Joni, a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. She has one sister, Michelle, and grew up in both Mokena, Illinois and Downers Grove, Illinois. She graduated from El Camino High School in 1989, Oceanside, California. As a child, she was a "tomboy", the "only girl on the baseball team".

Before she was an actress, Richards was a fashion model. Richards spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in lower-budget films and TV shows like Saved by the Bell, television movies, and guest starring in episodes of several television shows. Her first starring role in a wide theatrical release was Starship Troopers in 1997, which was followed by her role in the moderately successful cult film Wild Things in 1998.

Richards was cast as the geo-physicist Christmas Jones in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999), which had a high box office gross. Though she considered her role "brainy", "athletic", and having depth of character, she was criticised as not credible in it. Her outfit, which often comprised a tank top and shorts, elicited comments. She was ranked as the worst Bond girl of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008, and was chosen as "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 1999 Razzie Awards for the role.

In addition to her film work, Richards made regular appearances in the situation comedies Spin City, Two and a Half Men, Friends and Seinfeld. She also starred in the short-lived UPN series Sex, Love & Secrets in 2005.

Throughout the early 2000s, Richards appeared in several film roles which both parodied and utilized her image as a sex symbol, including Valentine, Undercover Brother and Scary Movie 3. In December 2004, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine. Richards also posed semi-nude for the July 2006 issue of Jane magazine to raise money for the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation. In 1999, she ranked 9 in Maxim's 50 Sexiest Women and in 2001 she was voted 2nd in FHM's USA 100 Sexiest Women, 5th in FHM 100 Sexiest Women and 19 in AskMen.com 50 Most Beautiful Women.

Personal life

In 2002, she married actor Charlie Sheen, with whom she appeared in Scary Movie 3, in which she played his character's wife who was pinned to a tree in a car accident. They have two daughters, Sam J (born March 9, 2004) and Lola Rose Sheen (born June 1, 2005).