Holly Marie Combs

**Holly Marie Combs** portrayed Piper Halliwell in every episode from the Unaired Pilot to the Season 8 of *Charmed*, making her the only actress to appear in every episode with a difference of one episode with Alyssa Milano.

She also portrayed P. Baxter in Season 2 of *Charmed* and the various beings that have used her main character's appearance, including Cynda, Terra, Zile, the Zen Master, Cole Turner, Leo Wyatt, Mabel Stillman, Zankou and Pilar.

Holly also portrayed Piper Halliwell in *The Charming Dead*, *Walking With The Witches*, *Apocalypse Halliwell?!?!*, *Something's End This Way Nears*, and the *Charmed Rewrites*.

Her IMDb can be found here.

## Biography

Combs was born in San Diego, California. At the time of her birth, her mother, Lauralei Combs (née Berckhem), was sixteen years old and her father was seventeen. Combs' biological parents married, but the two split up after two years, feeling they were too young to make a marriage work. While Combs was learning to walk, she hit her head on a marble table, resulting in a scar over 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. 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.

## Personal Life

In February 1993, Combs married Brian "Travis" Smith who she has been dating since 1992. They divorced in 1997. In May 2003, Holly started dating Charmed key grip, David Donoho. They got married on February 14th, 2004. They have three boys: Finley Arthur Donoho (born April 26th, 2004), Riley Edward Donoho (born October 26th, 2006) and Kelley James Donoho (born, May 26th, 2009). Holly filed for divorce for her second marriage on November 11, 2011, citing irreconcilable differences.

Combs has smoked since she was fifteen but only when she was nervous then she quit when she was pregnant with Finley. Holly has two younger half-sisters through her father.

## Career

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. Alyssa Milano and Combs both became producers for *Charmed* during the fifth season. For the first three seasons of *Charmed* (debuted in 1998 and was a hit TV series, which ended in May 2006), Combs played the second oldest of the three sisters. When the eldest, Doherty, left after the third season and Rose McGowan joined the cast, Combs played the eldest sister for the remaining five seasons of the show, even though she was the youngest of the four actresses.

Holly Marie Combs is also widely known for her multi-award-winning role as Kimberly Brock in "Picket Fences".

Combs portrayed Ella Montgomery (the mother of one of the main characters, Aria) in the Freeform series *Pretty Little Liars*from 2010-2017.

## References

1. Holly Marie Combs - visit them for more.