Denise Richards American Actress From Downers Grove

Early life

Denise Lee Richards was born on 17 February 1971 in Downers Grove, Illinois, and spent her childhood there and in nearby Mokena. When she was fifteen her family moved to Oceanside in California. She is recorded as a student at Downers Grove North High School and El Camino High School, from which she graduated in 1989. Soon afterwards she began modelling and travelled for photo shoots and commercials to cities including Paris, New York and Tokyo.

Career

Richards started as a teenage model and appeared in print advertising for cosmetics in 1991. Her first screen credit on record is a guest part in Beverly Hills, 90210, which dates from 1990 in her filmography. During the early 1990s she appeared in the comedy Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and the film Tammy and the T-Rex (1994), and she made guest appearances in a number of television series.

Her first lead in a wide cinema release was Starship Troopers (1997), which brought a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination for favourite female newcomer. She followed it with the thriller Wild Things (1998). In 1999 she played the nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, which gave her a wider audience, and she starred in the beauty-pageant satire Drop Dead Gorgeous the same year.

In the 2000s she worked steadily in films and on television. She guest-starred in Friends in 2001 and appeared in the sitcom Spin City, where Charlie Sheen was her on-screen partner, and later in Two and a Half Men. Her films of the decade included Valentine (2001), Good Advice (2001), Undercover Brother (2002), The Third Wheel (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), a short appearance in Love Actually (2003), Elvis Has Left the Building (2004), Edmond (2005) and Jolene (2008). Scary Movie 3 grossed about 221 million dollars worldwide. She led the series Sex, Love & Secrets in 2005. In 2008 the cable channel E! broadcast Denise Richards: It's Complicated, a reality series about her family life that ran for two seasons. In 2009 she competed on the eighth season of the dance contest Dancing with the Stars.

In the 2010s she took roles in the sitcom Blue Mountain State, in which she played Debra Simon, and in the mystery series Twisted. Her film credits included Blue Lagoon: The Awakening (2012) and Madea's Witness Protection (2012). In 2011 she published a memoir, The Real Girl Next Door, which reached the New York Times best-seller list. From 2019 she was a cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and she also joined the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful as Shauna Fulton.

Her recent work includes the 2020 films Money Plane and Switched, and a guest return to the Housewives franchise in 2023. She took part in the reality competition Special Forces: World's Toughest Test in 2024, and starred in Denise Richards & Her Wild Things in 2025. The most recent title in her credits is Dirty Hands (2026).

Recognition

Richards received two Blockbuster Entertainment Award nominations in 1999 and 2000, for Starship Troopers and for her role in the Bond film. A later nomination for best supporting actress at the Northeast Film Festival came for American Satan (2017). In 2026 an asteroid, 212501 Deniserichards, was named after her.

Public roles

Richards has supported a range of charities, among them the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Feeding America and the Kidney Cancer Association, for which she helped raise money through a shoe design in 2012. She has worked with the Best Friends Animal Society on programmes that move rescue dogs between shelters, and she took part in the NOH8 Campaign.

Personal life

Richards married the actor Charlie Sheen on 15 June 2002. The couple divorced in 2006. She has three children: two daughters from her marriage to Sheen and a third daughter whom she adopted. She later married the businessman Aaron Phypers.