Gwendolyn Osborne (born August 7, 1978 in Bath, United Kingdom, now known as Gwendolyn Osborne-Smith) is a British-American model, actress, and singer. She is formerly known as one of the models on The Price is Right for 12 years (2005-2017)
Early Life[]
Gwendolyn was born and raised in Bath, United Kingdom. She comes from Jamaican and British ancestry and has two older siblings. While growing up, Gwendolyn was a bit of a tomboy and enjoyed the outdoors, she enjoyed skiing, hiking, water sports, 4-wheelers, horseback riding, and biking.
Her diverse family upbringing prepared her for a future in one of the most diverse industries in the world: Entertainment. Osborne-Smith came to America when she was a teenager and attended the New World School of Arts in Miami, Florida. Being British and new to America, Gwendolyn faced sometimes difficult cultural challenges as people constantly asked her where she was from and shifted all their focus and energy on that rather than taking her seriously. Once Gwendolyn proved to be a team player and showed everyone she was serious about her art, the challenges went away.
Gwendolyn says it was her older sister who influenced her interest in the entertainment field. Her sister attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theater of Arts, sang and danced, and was a huge fan of the TV show Fame. Osborne-Smith also says she and her sister would imitate what they saw on Fame, dress up and make up stories and that's when she was bitten by the entertainment bug.
Early Career[]
In 2001, Gwendolyn, a single mother to a young daughter named Monique, packed up and moved to Los Angeles and said it was far different from Miami. She then began auditioning for TV and movie gigs. One of her very first was appearing in the movie Any Given Sunday and became a SAG member afterwards and soon began work with LA Models.
In addition to working with LA Models, Gwen continued to land other TV and movie gigs. She appeared in the 2002 movie Snow Dogs and soon landed a contract role on the TV show Ocean Ave. Her character was Jade Dominguez, a Hispanic as Gwendolyn comes from mixed heritage. Ocean Ave was a Swedish-American soap opera that only aired in Sweden and Gwen says she learned about the day-to-day operations of a TV show and enjoyed the experience.
After Ocean Ave, Osborne-Smith continued to book other TV and modeling gigs. She made a brief appearance on a 2003 episode of the primetime reality competition TV show Dog Eat Dog wearing a pink neon bikini as part of the introduction of an upcoming challenge that involved a contestant having to walk down a balance beam (suspended above a water tank) wearing six-inch stiletto heels as Gwendolyn had done (not above the tank) to show the contestants on how it's done although her name was never mentioned.
In 2004, she was a member of Team Dream during Lingerie Bowl I.
The Price is Right & Personal Life[]
One year before she ACTUALLY began appearing as a Barker's Beauty on the television game show The Price is Right during it's 33rd season on the air, Gwendolyn had previously auditioned for the show but unfortunately did not make the cut. She continued to book other gigs including a role as a Forrester model on the soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful and as luck would have it, a stagehand from Price happened to be working as a stagehand over at Bold and Beautiful and noticed Gwendolyn's body of work on the soap and convinced the staffers at Price to give her another chance at auditioning to be a Barker's Beauty and this time around, she nailed it and on (airdate) March 31, 2005, she made her national debut as the newest model to join ranks on The Price is Right.
She was not only thrilled to finally join The Price is Right family but also lucky in love. On September 2, 2006, Gwendolyn married retired NBA player (and current TNT basketball analyst) Kenny "The Jet" Smith (taking his last name). They met at a charity event back in 2004 and soon began dating.
Now as wife and mom (her daughter Monique & step-mother to husband Kenny's two children from his first marriage), Gwendolyn continued on as a rotating Barker's Beauty on The Price is Right as the show moved into a new era: the departure of Bob Barker, whose final appearance aired on June 15, 2007 after 35 seasons and the arrival of Drew Carey, who made his hosting debut on (airdate) October 15, 2007 (Gwendolyn was one of the models present during his debut week). Not only that, her family soon expanded as well.
On March 28, 2008, she gave birth to her second child, her son Malloy (named after husband Kenny's High School). Malloy appeared on stage with Mom Gwendolyn on (airdate) the February 4, 2010 episode as well as on (airdate) the May 11, 2012 Mother's Day episode. Malloy and husband Kenny appeared alongside Gwendolyn as they happily announced to the world that she was pregnant again and on September 29, 2012, she gave birth to her third child, London Olivia Smith.
Current Career[]
Today, Osborne-Smith no longer appears as a model on The Price is Right as she announced on Twitter that she had decided to part ways with the series after 12 seasons as her final appearance on aired on October 17, 2017 and (Season 33: 25, Season 34: 53, Season 35: 61, Season 36: 41, Season 37: 57, Season 38: 86, Season 39: 100, Season 40: 105, Season 41: 33, Season 42: 32, Season 43: 46, Season 44: 42, Season 45: 49) 730 total shows.
Following Gwendolyn's departure from The Price is Right, fellow model Rachel Reynolds, since June 2003, now holds the honor of being the one and only model to remain with the show since the tenure of 35-year veteran Bob Barker. Also, Gwen was the last ever model to pass the microphone to Barker as the former host made a surprise guest appearance on the April Fools Day 2015 episode (announcer George Gray announced Drew Carey's name and Bob appears as the studio audience erupted with thunderous cheering and applauding) and hosted the first pricing game lined up on that show which was Lucky Seven.
Gwendolyn and Rachel were also the models present on Bob Barker's then-90th Birthday Bash Celebration and "Pet Adoption Week" (aired on December 12, 2013).
In 2014, she appeared as a guest judge in the third episode of the short-lived, male-driven online reality competition series The Price is Right Male Model Search
Since leaving The Price is Right, Gwen wanted to turn her attention towards other projects and venues as well as devoted more time to her family. In 2015 (while still working as a model on Price), she and her family appeared in front of the cameras for a short-lived Reality TV series titled Meet the Smiths on the TBS network, which debuted on April 3rd. The series was a family-friendly show as it showed the home life of Gwendolyn and her husband, Kenny and also their five children: Monique, Malloy, KJ, Kayla and London as they wanted to show how a tight-knit blended family can work and play together and live their lives. The show also highlighted the challenges of raising an extended family with each parent bringing a different style of parenting and discipline to the table. The show only lasted 6 episodes and ended it's run on May 8th.
Gwendolyn also enjoys singing and has spent a lot of time in a recording studio as she's currently working on her very first studio album.
As a wife and mother of five children, Gwendolyn proves that the sky is the limit. She balances her work and family life extremely well. In a recent interview, Osborne-Smith had nothing but high praises for current Price is Right host Drew Carey and says that he was always supportive of her and that he celebrates women and uplifts them. When asked about her decision to leave The Price is Right after 12 seasons, Gwendolyn replied that she had grappling with her decision as to whether stay or go and ultimately deciding to part ways with the series as she not only wanted to focus more of her time to her family but to also getting back to what she truly loved doing which was acting and singing.
She and husband Kenny has also created a production company called SEG. She also said their production company eventually turned into a full-time job and that she found it difficult to work there and on Price is Right AND being a mother of five children so she had to let something had to go and that was her modeling job on Price.
Gallery[]
(Gwendolyn on Dog Eat Dog, 2003)
(on The Price is Right)
Links[]
Her Facebook Page
Her Twitter Page