Kelly Ripa

Ripa met actor Mark Consuelos in 1995 when he was cast as her love interest on the daytime drama All My Children. The couple eloped on May 1, 1996. Together they have three children: Michael Joseph, Lola Grace, and Joaquin Antonio.

For many years, the family lived in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan before moving to a townhouse on the Upper East Side in 2015. In 2011, Ripa discussed her experience with misophonia, a neurological condition characterized by intense sensitivity to specific everyday sounds.

Ripa grew up in Stratford, New Jersey, the daughter of Esther and Joseph Ripa. Her father worked as a bus driver, served as a labor union president, and later became the Camden County clerk. Encouraged by her high school drama teacher, Jim Boeckle, Ripa performed in local stage productions and was spotted by talent manager Cathy Parker during a senior production of The Ugly Duckling. She briefly studied psychology at Camden County College before leaving school to pursue acting in New York City.

Her earliest national television exposure came in the late 1980s as a featured regular dancer on Dancin' On Air and Dance Party USA. In November 1990, Ripa secured her breakthrough role as Hayley Vaughan on All My Children. Her twelve-year continuous run on the series earned her three Daytime Emmy Award nominations and five Soap Opera Digest Awards before she stepped back from the role in 2002. She returned to the show for two special anniversary episodes in 2010.

In late 2000, Regis Philbin began holding on-air auditions to replace his longtime co-host Kathie Lee Gifford on Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee. During Ripa's guest tryout on November 1, 2000, psychic guest Char Margolis correctly deduced that Ripa was pregnant on air. Philbin selected Ripa for the permanent role, and the newly named Live! with Regis and Kelly officially launched on February 5, 2001, quickly increasing the program's young-demographic viewership.

Philbin and Ripa hosted together for over a decade until Philbin retired from the series in November 2011. Ripa then became the primary head of the franchise. Michael Strahan joined her as co-host from 2012 to 2016 on Live! with Kelly and Michael, followed by Ryan Seacrest from 2017 to 2023 on Live with Kelly and Ryan. In April 2023, Consuelos joined as her permanent co-host on Live with Kelly and Mark. Across the various iterations of the show, Ripa has earned seven Daytime Emmy Awards for her hosting duties.

Ripa moved into primetime television in September 2003, starring alongside Faith Ford, Ted McGinley, and Megan Fox in the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith. Ripa played Faith Fairfield, an eccentric former soap opera actress who moves in with her sister's suburban family after her character is killed off. The series aired for three seasons, concluding in May 2006.

Her screen credits also include feature films and voice roles. In 1996, she appeared in the Miramax drama Marvin's Room alongside Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Diane Keaton. In 1999, she won the Best Actress Award at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival for The Stand-In. She has also provided voice work for animated projects such as Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, Delgo, and Fly Me to the Moon.

In 2007, Ripa and Consuelos launched the production company Milojo, titled using the first letters of their three children's names. The company's initial project was the 2008 high school wrestling documentary The Streak, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Ripa was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in October 2015 and was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2017. She published a collection of humorous autobiographical essays, Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories, in 2022.