Jaime Pressly


Jaime Pressly
  • Birthdate: July 30, 1977
  • Birthplace: North Carolina
  • Known For: My Name Is Earl

Emmy Award-winning actress Jaime Pressly has seen plenty of action on both the big and small screen. Over her career, she has been part of over 40 TV shows and 25 feature films, including Baywatch and Charmed. Let’s take a look at her career.

Jaime Pressly Got Her Start In The Poison Ivy Series

Poison Ivy

Jaime Pressly’s career got off to a fast start. Not a big one, just a fast one as she appeared in three movies in 1997. Her feature role was playing Violet/Ivy in the third movie of the Poison Ivy series called Poison Ivy: The New Seduction.

Jaime Pressly
Jaime Pressly in Poison Ivy: The New Seduction

No, Poison Ivy 3 was not a hit, but it did enough for Jaime Pressly that work continued to come at a fast pace for the young actress.

If snagging three roles in 1997 wasn’t enough, Pressly went on to grab six more roles in 1998.

She was seen on the TV series Silk Stalkings, Night Man, Push, and Mortal Combat: Conquest while also appearing in the movies Can’t Hardly Wait and Ringmaster.

She Continued Her Hollywood Run With Films Like Joe Dirt And Jack & Jill

Teen Movie

Jaime Pressly didn’t slow down. Which, if one is trying to work in Hollywood, is a good thing. If the roles are offered, take them and that is exactly what Jaime Pressly did.

She parlayed her early career hard work into more roles throughout the rest of the ‘90s and into the early 2000s.

Pressly was seen in feature films such as 100 Girls, Tomcats, Joe Dirt, and Not Another Teen Movie. She was also seen in Ticker and Survival Island plus, while in these movies, Jaime Pressly was also starring in the TV series Jack & Jill.

Jaime Pressly
Jaime Pressly in Not Another Teen Movie

Her relentless pace continued. She was seen in episodes of Entourage, Charmed, The Twilight Zone, and Fast Lane. After that, she finally, sorta, settled down.

Jaime Pressly Had Massive Success On My Name Is Earl

My Name is Earl

2005 was the year the sitcom My Name Is Earl became a surprise hit. The series was about a loser named Earl (played by Jason Lee) who wins money from a lottery scratcher and decides to turn his life around by making amends for all the wrongs he has done. Jaime Pressly played Earl’s trailer park ex-wife.

Jaime Pressly in Earl
Jaime Pressly in My Name Is Earl

She played that role to a tee. So well, in fact, that Jaime Pressly won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. The series was a hit and ran for four seasons, where Jaime appeared in all of My Name Is Earl’s 96 episodes.

She Was On Raising Hope And Two And A Half Men

Jaime Pressly

Even during My Name Is Earl’s four-year run, Pressly did not slow down. She continued to grab roles during the show’s hiatus and then after the show was canceled, she put her pedal to the metal, just like she had done early in her career.

She went on to star in TV shows such as Rules of Engagement, Raising Hope, and Two and a Half Men.

In Torque
Jaime Pressly in Torque

Pressly has even done a bit of voice work. She lent her sound to Phineas and Ferb. Additionally, she voiced characters on BoJack Horseman.

Jaime Pressly in DOA
Jaime Pressly in DOA: Dead or Alive

Throughout the 2000s and the teens, Jaime Pressly continued to crank it out. She was in the movies Venus & Vegas, The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, Torque, DOA: Dead Or Alive, and A Haunted House 2. She did, however, have one slip-up.

Jaime Pressly Was Arrested In 2011 For DUI

DUI

In 2011, Jaime Pressly was arrested on suspicion of DUI. When she was caught, Pressly blew a .22 blood alcohol level, which is nearly three times the California legal limit of .08. At the time, she was also going through a divorce with her then-husband, entertainment lawyer Simran Singh.

Of course, the media tried to equate the two but Pressly ended up setting them straight by telling Extra, “People [are] thinking my divorce is happening because of the [DUI] situation. Truth is: These are all isolated incidents.”

Pressly ended up striking a deal to the first charge, then pleading “no contest” to the second. In exchange, she received three years’ probation and has since not had an incident.

Pressly Puts On Fatsuit In Mom During Pregnancy With Twins

Jaime Pressly Mom

Jaime Pressly joined the hit TV show Mom on CBS in 2014. The show itself, while it is a sitcom, deals with many serious issues, mainly the recovery of alcoholics. The show stars Anna Farris and Alison Janney.

Pressly was not part of the cast during the show’s first season but came aboard during the second and has been a regular since. But in 2017, life happened.

Jaime Pressly became pregnant with their boyfriend, Hamzi Hijazi. They announced they were having twins. Obviously, Pressly would be written out of the show, right? Not so fast.

Jaime Pressly fat suit

The producers came up with a brilliant idea to not only keep Jaime Pressly on the show but to also cover another serious topic.

They gave Jaime’s character Jill an eating disorder. Pressly, who says she suffered from bulimia as a young woman, was all in. They put her in prosthetics and a fat suit to deal with the issue, all while allowing her to remain on the show during pregnancy with her twins.

Mom Cancelled After Eight Seasons

jamie pressly

For eight seasons the CBS sitcom Mom ran at a nice clip. The show touched on addiction in many forms, many times with a good laugh, but also many times with the seriousness it deserved.

The series was led by Anna Faris (Scary Movie films, The House Bunny) and award-winning actress Alison Janney (Drop Dead Gorgeous, 10 Things I Hate About You). Jaime Pressly joined the cast in a recurring role during the series’ second season and was bumped up to a full-time regular in season 3.

Faris decided to leave her role as Christy after the seventh season, leaving season eight to be led by both Janney and Jamie Pressly and both did fantastic work.

But unfortunately, it was Faris who was the heart of the show, and her departure was seen and felt. CBS saw the numbers declining and decided after eight seasons, it was time to pull the plug on the show.

Janney reflected on the loss of Anna Faris during her interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show saying, “It was very odd, and she’s very missed. Anna is missed, and her character on the show is missed,” Janney explained to Ellen.

“We’re just happy that she’s doing what she wants to do now, and we’re happy even more so that we’re able to tell these stories about these great women in recovery. And I think there have been some really wonderful characters that have been established, and people love the show, so we’re going to keep telling the stories as long as we can.”

Jaime Pressly Joined The Cast Of Welcome To Flatch For Season 2

That being said, even before this, the wait to see Pressley on television was already over. In 2022, Jaime Pressly joined Fox’s Welcome To Flatch. The mockumentary follows the peculiar lives of small-town residents in Flatch, Ohio.

Pressly took on the role of Barb Flatch. She’s a realtor returning home following a nasty divorce. She made her debut in the character when the first episode of season two premiered.

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