Career
At age 12, she had the first individual girl's bat mitzvah in the state of West Virginia. She moved to New York City at the age of 15 to pursue a modeling career. Kay later worked at MTV and won $27,500 on Wheel of Fortune.
In 1997 she made her daytime debut as Molly Conlan on As the World Turns. For some time the character was not very popular due to Molly's villainous behavior, but she eventually won a 2001 Daytime Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in addition to charming viewers during her romance with Jake McKinnon (Tom Eplin). When Jake was killed off in 2002, Molly again became adrift, and Kay left the show in early 2004 after a number of promised storylines never appeared. Kay popped up a few months later to recast the popular, brassy character of Lois Cerullo on General Hospital. Kay (and the resurrected character of Lois) exited GH in early 2005 after mutually agreeing to part ways with the show.
In November 2005, Kay assumed the role of Felicia Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, taking over for Colleen Dion after a year's absence. Bold and the Beautiful Head Writer Bradley Bell had planned to kill her character off from cancer. However, a huge fan outpouring, including petitions and numerous letters, in addition to Ms. Kay's job of making the role her own, convinced Bell to keep Kay on the cast. Her character, Felicia Forrester was resurrected from the dead. Lesli Kay invested herself into the cancer storyline so much that she shaved her head for the role. Kay was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress at the 34th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards but lost to Genie Francis.
In November 2009, while continuing to play Felicia Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, Kay also returned to As the World Turns as the character she previously portrayed, Molly Conlan McKinnon. She stayed with As the World Turns until the show's final episode, on September 17, 2010.
Read more about this topic: Lesli Kay
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)