Holly Marie Combs was born December 3, 1973 in San Diego, California. Holly's mother, Lauralei Combs, was only fourteen when she became pregnant with Holly. Although Holly's parents married, they divorced after only two years. Despite this unpropitious beginning, Laralei took good care of Holly.

Lauralei and Holly moved to New York City when Holly was eight. Holly studied acting at the Professional Children's School, where her teachers included Ernie Martin. Meanwhile, Lauralei pursued a career as a singer and actress. Holly's career started in television commercials and print ads when she was ten. Holly obtained her SAG card when she appeared in Walls of Glass aka Flanagan (1985), a film in which Lauralei also had a role. When she was thirteen, Holly landed a small role in the movie Sweet Hearts Dance (1988), which starred Don Johnson and Susan Sarandon. Later, she played a small part in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and she worked on the soap operas The Guiding Light and As The World Turns. She also made a cameo appearance in the movie New York Stories (1989) and appeared in a pilot for CBS, entitled Rockenwagner.

Holly's big break came when she landed the role of Kimberly Brock on Picket Fences, which won fourteen emmys in its four year run on CBS. Numerous critics praised Holly's performance as Kimberly . Holly has appeared in several theatrical movies, including Simple Men (1992), Dr. Giggles (1992), Chain of Desire (1992), and A Reason to Believe (1995), as well as four television movies, A Perfect Stranger (1994), Sins of Silence (1996), Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder (1997), and Our Mother's Murder (1997), and a short independent film Vector (1996). She also made a guest appearance on Relativity (1997). Holly currently stars in the WB supernatural drama Charmed.

Holly is divorced from actor Bryan Smith. She lives in Los Angeles, and her hobbies include gardening and horseback riding. She has a plethora of pets, including two dogs (Travis & Hugo), two cats (Blue & Selena), two love birds, and a horse (Jesse).

Actor Don Johnson gave Holly a dog when they were working on a film together. "When I made my first film, Don Johnson gave me a Siberian Husky, which was very impractical in New York City. Since it was from Don, my parents couldn't refuse it, so I got to keep him and we named him Wiley."

An acquaintance of Holly has told me that she goes by Holly and Holly Marie, but Holly Marie was especially used on Picket Fences because of Lauren Holly being on the same show. It stopped two people from yelling out "What!" each time "Holly" was called out.

Holly has said of her name: "My mother's very proud of the name she gave me. She thought it sounded rhythmically better. It doesn't really make a difference to me what people call me, but since my mother calls me Holly Marie when she's angry, I prefer just my first name."

I wouldn't ask Holly to take pictures at your next big event. She admitted on Regis and Kathy Lee that she had taken the pictures of Alyssa's wedding that showed up in The Star. I guess your can't trust your corner drugstore anymore.