Gena Lee Nolin (born November 29, 1971 in Duluth, Minnesota) is an American Model, actress, and author. She is perhaps more for her signature roles as the devious bad girl Neely Capshaw on the long-running series Baywatch from 1995-1998 and as the starring role of the action-packed series Sheena from 2000-2002. To Game Show fans, she was known for appearing as one of Barker's Beauties on The Price is Right (one FULL season) from 1994-1995.
Early Life & Career[]
Gena hails from the intellectual capital of the Midwest, Duluth, Minnesota but she spent most of her childhood living in Colorado. From middle school until her junior year of high school, Nolin was a star athlete in track and basketball. When she was a senior in High School, the family packed up and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Not too long after making their new residence in Las Vegas, Nolin entered a Beauty Pageant where she won the title of "Miss Las Vegas" as well as having the honor of winning the "Look of the Year" award from the prestigious Elite and Ford modeling agencies, as well as the "Miss Barbizon USA" title, all of this at just the ripe old age of 18.
Price is Right Audition & Other TV roles[]
After competing and winning local beauty pageants, Gena was soon on the move again. She packed her bags and moved to Los Angeles to further her career in the entertainment field.
One day while at home, she was reading the newspaper and came across an ad announcing that the television game show The Price is Right (during it's 22nd season) was holding auditions to find a new Barker's Beauty, permanently replacing longtime ex-model Dian Parkinson, who departed the series back in June 1993. Feeling confident, Nolin decided to jump at the chance as she sent in her resume' and portfolio to the show's producers.
After reviewing Gena's resume' and headshots, the producers of The Price is Right liked what they saw and she was granted an audition. Gena made her tryout debut on (airdate) May 3, 1994 and continued on until the following Tuesday. The producers liked Gena so much, she was invited back to The Price is Right stages as she appeared in several more episodes, ultimately remaining for the remainder of that season. Gena was one of three tryout models whom the producers liked the best as they've got to do more shows that the rest of the Barker's Beauty hopefuls. The other two lucky ones were Cynthia Brimhall and Mindy Kennedy Alvarez and ultimately Gena was the one that was selected.
Hundreds of auditions and beating out hundreds of other tryout models, a then-22-year-old aspiring model and actress by the name of Gena Lee Nolin was selected as the new, permanent Barker's Beauty replacing Parkinson as she made her nationwide, OFFICIAL debut as announced on the 23rd Season Premiere episode (airdate: September 12, 1994) of The Price is Right.
Shortly after making her official debut as the new Barker's Beauty, Nolin became a rising young star and with her amazingly beautiful looks and figure, she soon began to be noticed by the producers of the soap opera The Young and the Restless (which tapes across the hall from Price) and wanted her to come in for a screen test for a new character. Gena aced the audition and soon began pulling double duty as she was now not only modeling sofas, boats, and cameras on The Price is Right, she was also posing in front of them on The Young and the Restless, playing a character named Sandy, a fashion model.
After her stint of Y&R, Gena continued on with The Price is Right as she completed her first official, full season with the series. Thanks to her exposure on the CBS Game Show, Gena began to receive offers for roles on other TV shows, one of them being Baywatch as a casting producer on the Lifeguard-Bikini-Beach-clad show spotted Nolin on an episode of Price and wanted her to come in and audition for the role of the controversial character (and residential bad girl) Neely Capshaw.
Nolin agreed to read for the role of Neely as she took a leave of absence from The Price is Right, with Cindy Margolis and Annette Marroquin, both of whom also auditioned for the new Barker's Beauty, rotated back and forth as the temporary fill-in.
Price is Right Departure & Baywatch Arrival[]
Some time after taping her auditions for Baywatch, Gena received word that she won the role of Neely on the program (the show's star, David Hasselhoff revealed the news to her by showing her a life preserver with a handwritten message that said "Congratulations, You've got the job!") which meant that she would have to bid adieu to being a Barker's Beauty on The Price is Right as she traded in modeling swimsuits to wearing that iconic red one on Baywatch (Gena would later make a surprise cameo appearance on the 5,000th episode of Price, which aired on April 9, 1998, she was seen wheeling out the cake and hugging several of the show's staff members and announcer Rod Roddy during the closing credits).
She was the second (and more well-known) actress to play Neely on Baywatch, following Heather Campbell (who played the character in a 1994 guest appearance, when Neely was first created as a one-off character) and preceding Jennifer Campbell. Gena continued on playing the role of Neely on Baywatch until 1998 when she decided to part ways with the series. She later reprised her role of Neely in the 2003 Baywatch reunion movie Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.
In May 1999, Gena appeared in the sketch comedy film The Underground Comedy Movie which was starred and directed by Vince Offer (real name Offer Shlomi who's mostly known from both the ShamWow and Slap Chop commercials respectively) it was considered by many as one of the worst films of all time. One of her skits included her posing as Marilyn Monroe in a parody of the famous aping subway grate pose scene from the classic 1955 film The Seven Year Itch where a 80s rock star looking guy (also played by Offer) in an underground lair uses a fan in order to blow up her white dress.
After Gena left the role of Neely on Baywatch, fans would soon see her on the small screen again. Two years later, she starred in her own TV series titled Sheena, a syndicated/action-packed series based off of the popular 1940s comic book: Sheena: Queen of the Jungle. The show ran for two seasons, debuting on October 7, 2000 and ending on February 23, 2002.
In July 2016, Gena appeared in the SyFy TV movie called Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens where she played as "ironically enough" Neely (named after her character from Baywatch).
Appearance in Playboy & other magazines[]
Aside from all of her TV credentials, Gena also graced the covers of various magazines including Maxim & For Him Magazine ("FHM" for short). Nolin also took on a new challenge by taking it all off for Playboy magazine. Prior to her posing nude of the popular men's magazine, Gena was offered to pose nude in the magazine several times by it's creator/founder Hugh Hefner but said "No". After being approached yet again by Hefner, Gena finally agreed to do a nude photo spread for Playboy as she posed in the Christmas 2001 issue of the magazine.
FHM magazine also listed Gena as one of sexiest women in the world.
Personal Life & medical diagnosis[]
Gena has married three times. She was first married to David Feiler in March 1991 but divorced just a month later. She then married Greg Fahlman in 1993 and divorced in 2004 and have one child together, a son named Spencer. Gena's current husband is retired NHL Hockey player Cale Hulse, they married in September 2004 and together they have two children: son Hudson Lee Hulse (born 2006) and daughter Stella Monroe Hulse (born 2008).
After giving birth to Stella, Nolin was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and has since become a strong campaigner for thyroid gland screenings. After Nolin gave birth to her first child, she was misdiagnosed and treated for postnatal depression and suffered greater symptoms during her second pregnancy and suffered Arrhythmia during her third pregnancy.
A thyroxine level check within a blood test found a low level, and she was immediately diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Nolin now campaigns for regular thyroid gland checks and blood tests.[1]
Besides her work with bringing global awareness to thyroid disease, Gena also worked with the Make A Wish Foundation and in 2007, she was named “Honorary Woman of the Year” by the Crohn's and Colitis foundation and in October 2013, Nolin released her book with Simon & Schuster titled Beautiful Inside and Out, Conquering Thyroid Disease with a Happy, Healthy, "Thyroid Sexy" Life.
Gallery[]
Gena on The Price is Right[]
