Irreverent actress and author Jenny McCarthy was born on November 1, 1972, in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up in a Catholic family, Jenny showed a penchant for the spotlight at an early age. She loved hosting neighborhood talent shows and impersonating the priests at her church. Jenny attended Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School where she was MVP of the softball and field hockey teams. She was also captain of the cheerleading squad for a nearby high school. As a teenager, McCarthy worked for seven years at a Polish deli in Chicago, where she would practice signing her autograph on grocery bags. After graduating high school, McCarthy enrolled at Southern Illinois University. She studied to become a nurse, but eventually decided to submit her picture to Playboy in the hopes of earning money for tuition.

In 1993, Playboy accepted Jenny as one of their models and promptly paid her $30,000 for her first photo shoot. Jenny was named Playboy’s Playmate of the Month, then Playmate of the Year, which garnered much media attention. She decided to capitalize on the exposure by making the move to Los Angeles in 1994, where she hosted Playboy’s uncensored music video show Hot Rocks.In 1995, Jenny was chosen to host an MTV dating show called Singled Out. By 1997, she had developed a sketch comedy called The Jenny McCarthy Show. NBC producers liked what they saw, and signed Jenny up for her own short-lived sitcom, Jenny. That same year, McCarthy released her autobiography, Jen-X.