Leslie Bibb

Winning a national modeling contest on The Oprah Winfrey Show at 16 (chosen from 6,000 applicants, with Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista as judges) wasn't the start of an acting career, just a head start. She trained at the William Esper studio in New York for three years, then ground through guest spots until Popular gave her 43 episodes as Brooke McQueen, the kind of role that looked like typecasting but turned out to be the launch.

White Lotus Season 3 gave her something a decade of solid supporting work couldn't: actual cultural saturation. She played Kate Bohr, a tightly wound Texas country-club type whose polished exterior cracks over a Thailand vacation, and the show became appointment television in 2025. Palm Royale on Apple TV+ had earned 11 Emmy nominations the year before. The running joke used to be that she was the actress people half-remembered from Iron Man. That joke is over.

The modeling contest was weirder than it sounds. Her mother submitted the photos, and the judges who picked her included Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Iman. She met Sam Rockwell in the Chateau Marmont lobby in 2007, reportedly told him she loved him three weeks later, and when he accepted his Oscar for Three Billboards in 2018 he said 'My beloved Leslie Bibb, you light my fire, baby.' They've been together 18 years without marrying. She also holds a black belt in Taekwondo.