Holly Marie Combs

**Holly Marie Combs** is an American actress and television producer. Known on Charmed for portraying the powerful witch, Piper Halliwell.

## Biography

* Early Life
* Career

Combs was born in San Diego, California and has described herself as being of Irish descent. At the time of her birth, her mother, Lauralei Combs (née Berckhem), was sixteen years old and her father was seventeen. Combs's biological parents married, but the two split up after two years, feeling they were too young to make a marriage work, Holly has two younger half-sisters through her father.

While Combs was learning to walk, she fell and hit her head on a marble table, resulting in a noticeable 'split' at the top of her right eyebrow. She went through many different homes with her mother, near the beach in San Diego often having very little privacy, while her mother attempted to pursue an acting career. When Combs was seven, she and her mother moved to New York City where she spent most of her growing years.

She was 12 when her mother married her stepfather. In New York City, Combs attended Beekman Hill Elementary and then the Professional Children's School. In an interview when she was in Sydney, Australia for Supanova, she said that she was a certified Scuba Diver at 13.

When she was 14 years old, Combs landed her first major role in Sweet Hearts Dance (1988), a comedy drama film directed by Robert Greenwald. She played Debs Boon, the daughter of Wiley Boon (played by Don Johnson) and Sandra Boon (played by Susan Sarandon).

In 1998, Combs landed a lead role in The WB television series Charmed, in which she portrayed Piper Halliwell, the middle of three sisters who are witches. Combs was with her friend Shannen Doherty when Doherty was given the pilot script for Charmed. Doherty took Combs along to the audition when Combs said she wanted to take part in the audition. When they did, Combs auditioned for the role of Prue Halliwell and Doherty for Piper Halliwell, apparently because Spelling still saw them as little girls, but after some time he decided to give Doherty the part of Prue, and Combs the part of Piper. Following Shannen Doherty's departure after season three (2000–01), Combs's character became the eldest sister for the remaining five seasons of the show, even though she was the youngest of the four actresses.. Combs also became a producer for Charmed from season five onwards. The series ended its run on May 21, 2006. In 2008, AOL named Combs's character Piper the third greatest witch in television history. Combs is the only cast member to appear in the unaired pilot and every episode of the series.

During Charmed, Combs made a cameo appearance in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001), and starred opposite Charisma Carpenter in the romantic comedy film See Jane Date (2003), portraying the role of "a struggling actress whose career benefits from an affair with an A-list actor." In 2007, she starred in the Lifetime television film Point of Entry (also titled Panic Button) as Kathy Alden, a wife and mother of a single child whose family moves to a "beautiful and supposedly secure gated community after she's the victim of a violent house break-in." The following year, Combs signed a contract with Lifetime to produce and star in a series Mistresses, based on the British series of the same name. However, that version of the show never made it to air. (ABC later made a version featuring Combs's former Charmed co-star Alyssa Milano.) In 2010, Combs was cast in the Freeform series Pretty Little Liars as Ella Montgomery, the mother of one of the main characters, Aria Montgomery (played by Lucy Hale). Combs was a series regular for the first three seasons, but beginning in season four, became credited as a special guest star.

On July 24, 2014, it was announced that Combs and Doherty would be starring in their own road trip reality show called Off the Map with Shannen & Holly, which premiered on Great American Country on January 2, 2015. The six-episode series follows the pair traveling across southeastern United States, with stops in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Viewers were able to vote on activities Doherty and Combs would partake in at each destination on Great American Country's official website.

In 2016, Combs starred in a television movie Love's Complicated, playing the lead role Leah. The film premiered on the Hallmark Channel on January 9, 2016.
## Personal Life

In 1993, Holly married actor Bryan Travis Smith; but they divorced a few years later in 1997.

On February 14, 2004, she married her long-time boyfriend and the former Charmed key-grip David Donoho. They are the parents of three sons: Finley Arthur Donoho (born April 26, 2004), Riley Edward Donoho (born October 26, 2006), and Kelley James Donoho (born May 26, 2009). All three boys were born by Caesarian section (Kelley was an emergency C-section). She kept her third pregnancy a secret because it was high risk, with a premature delivery at 35 weeks. In November 2011, she filed for divorce from Donoho, citing irreconcilable differences.

## Filmography

* Films
* Television

## Trivia

* Her parents were teenage parents.
* Holly has a scar on her right eyebrow from when she hit a marble table at the age of three.
* Holly is Protestant.
* Holly is 5 feet 2 inches (157 cm) tall.
* Both Alyssa and Holly married a David.
* Her favorite color is blue.
* Her favorite books are The Garden of Eden (Ernest Hemingway) and Practical Magic (Alice Hoffman).
* Her favorite band is Remy Zero.
* Holly kept her third pregnancy a secret due to it being high risk with a delivery at 35 weeks.
* All three of her sons were born on the 26th and all by C-section, Kelly by emergency C-section, at 35 weeks. There names also all end in Ley.
* Holly has four tattoos: she has a rose on her right shoulder blade, a butterfly on the inside of her right wrist, an Anglo-Saxon design around her left wrist, and a Tribal design around her right wrist.
* When asked on Twitter if people actually called her **Piper** in real life, Holly answered: *"'Pipe down Piper' is sadly one of my husband's favorite sayings."* However, she tweeted that he doesn't tell her this since she started boxing.
* She said that the Glinda costume in "All Halliwell's Eve" was "the worst costume ever". Holly says there's a Polaroid of her wearing the dress, laying in the grass with the dress all over her.
* Holly suffers from vitiligo in both of her hands. It's quite visible in some pictures and episodes of Charmed.
* Holly refuses to watch any of the eight season finales of Charmed because she has a superstition that something bad will happen, even now (nine years after the show had finished) she has not seen a full season finale.

* She loves country music.
* Holly enjoys horror movies.
* She remains best friends with Shannen Doherty.
* She remains good friends with Alyssa Milano, Brian Krause, Finola Hughes, Charisma Carpenter and Kaley Cuoco.
* Holly is the only cast member to have appeared in every Charmed episode.
* Holly's stunt double in Charmed is Nancy Thurston.
* Nearly every season of Charmed, for promotional photos, Holly is photographed by the doorstep.
* In her teenage years, Holly was quite rebellious. She was often mean to her mom and was punished by her teachers. Holly once said, "Black clothes, black makeup, I guess I was an angry teen."
* Holly's favorite Charmed episodes are Awakened and Sword and the City. She also enjoyed the Unaired Pilot with Lori Rom.
* Holly currently uses an iPhone. She used to use BlackBerry.
* During season 6 Alyssa called Brad Kern and said that Holly was pregnant, his reply was "she's a season too late." This is why Chris was created and became Piper and Leo's son who traveled from the future instead of Wyatt.
* Although she portrays the second oldest and oldest sister on Charmed Holly was the youngest of the four leading actresses. Holly is younger than Rose McGowan by about 3 months in real-life.
* She stated in an interview that she has dinner with Rose a couple of times a year and Alyssa lives just down the street from her.
* Her hobbies include; Gardening and Horseback Riding.
* Her Pets:- 3 horses - Jake, Jezebel and Jesse. 4 fish - all unnamed. 4 birds - only two of which are named, Lollie and Flower. 6 dogs - Travis, Hugo, Sugar, Thunder, Lola and Fly Guy. 2 Cats - Lou and Selena. 2 rabbits - Thumper and Jack. The cats and rabbits are the only pets that live indoors. In 2010, one of her pets, a cat named Blue, was attacked by a Coyote.
* Holly stated she still has the coat Piper worn as the Angel of Death.

* Holly, along with Shannen Doherty were bridesmaids at the wedding of friend and co-star Alyssa Milano in 1999.
* She (along with actresses Tangi Miller and Alyson Hannigan) is a spokesperson for breast cancer, she appeared in a four-page brochure (featured in Vogue, Glamour, Self, Mademoiselle, and Women's Sports and Fitness) to raise awareness about the disease.
* Turned down a role in The Craft to do Sins of Silence. Ironically the theme song for the show Charmed is the same song as featured in the soundtrack of the movie. The movie also had the same theme as Charmed which was witchcraft.
* She has considered removing her tattoos.
* In The Men of Charmed Documentary on the Limited Edition Book of Shadows DVD set, Holly stated that during the final season when Brian Krause wasn't around it was like losing her right arm.
* Agreed to her likeness being used for the Charmed comics in early 2010.
* On October 7th, 2010, the 12th anniversary of the first episode of Charmed, Holly tweeted "I will never forget the thrill I got watching the credits for the first time with Shannen. It was a feeling I had never felt before or since."
* Her work on Charmed won her sixth place in Huffington Post's Top 10 Best Witches of All Time category in 2016. She also won sixth place in E! Online's Top 10 Most Bitchen' Witches category in 2011.

## Social Media Accounts

* Twitter - @H\_Combs
* Instagram - @thehmc