Name	Karen Duffy
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	23 May 1961
Place of Birth	New York, USA
Famous for

Before entering showbiz, Karen Duffy worked as a recreational therapist at an old age nursing home in New York City. She started modeling and appearing in television commercials when she was 27, and was launched to fame as a VJ for MTV in 1992. Known as “Duff,” she had the chances to entertain audiences and interview a number of musicians, while sealing her personal mark of humor on her work.

Duffy's big breakthrough as a model arrived when she signed as a spokesperson for the prestigious Revlon cosmetics in 1994, a fruitful affiliation that she would continue until present days. She next appeared in many national print and broadcast campaigns, and is probably best remembered as a “Charlie Girl”in one of the most well-known and recognizable advertising campaigns to date. She is now the philanthropic spokesperson for the company's extensive charity work.

The popularity she gained as a VJ and model landed Duffy a series of appearances on TV shows like “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” as well as appearances on many national magazines covers. Additionally, she was once named one of People magazine's “50 Most Beautiful People.”

The success also led Daffy into an extensive acting career. Kicking off her movie career with a bit part in the 1991 James Glickenhaus war film “McBain,” starring Christopher Walken, the New York-born beauty went on to take small roles in such movies as “29th Street” (1991), about father and son relationship, Spike Lee's “Malcolm X” (1992), playing Kate Vernon's friend, and Ted Demme's “Who's the Man?” (1993). After scoring a high-profile contract with Revlon, her film career enjoyed significant boost. In 1994, she could be seen acting in three movies. She first costarred with Brian Bonsall in the Disney successful “Blank Check” and then appeared with Hollywood's big names such as Ben Stiller, Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Jeneane Garofalo in “Reality Bites,” a comedy about love in the 1990s which was helmed by Stiller. It was her last film, however, that really made her an unforgettable present on the screen when she was cast as J.P Shay on “Dumb and Dumber,” a comedy classic starring Jim Carrey. Still in 1994, she also emerged as a corespondent for the activist film director Michael Moore Emmy award-winning television show “TV Nation,” a gig she hold for a year until 1995.

Duffy was running a comparatively untroubled youth in the blossom of her modeling career, parting with film star friends like George Clooney, when she was diagnosed with the relatively uncommon disease Sarcoidosis, which attacks the central nervous. She left the limelight for a time to undergo treatment with cherotherapy and morphine. In 1996, Duffy returned to film when she starred as Celeste/Josette in the actioner “Memory Run,” which she followed with parts in the independent films “Nothing Sacred” and “Fool's Paradise,” and the Peter Baldwin-directed “Meet Wally Sparks” (all 1997). She appeared as TV Reporter at Premiere in Woody Allen's “Celebrity” in 1998 and in 1999 she costarred with Rosie Perez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Patti LuPone in “The 24 Hour Woman,” an indie-comedy directed by Nancy Sacova.

Entering the new millennium, Duffy launched a career as an author with the release of her memoir, “Model Patient: My Life as an Incurable Wise-Ass,” in 2000. A story of her carefree days as a young adult, how she discovered prominence and the big fun that she has had with it, and how she found and dealt with Sarcoidosis, a disease may have changed her body, but it did not change her, the book became a New York Times bestseller. Explaining about the book, she said, “I tried to write a book not for sick people, but for people with a sick sense of humor ... (this) is not a typical book about illness.”

2000 also saw Duffy serve as a correspondent for “The Awful Truth,” a TV show that reunited her with the controversial documentary film-maker Micheal Moore. After hosting “Hollywood at Large” (2003), she took on a supporting role in the film “Marmalade” (2004), a romantic comedy about a fashion model who gets too aged to continue her work. She returned to hosting gigs in “Random Acts of Duff” (2005), an opening show for TLC about her adventures and friends in New York City, and the reality-TVs “House of Tiny Terrors” (2006) and “Crafty” (2006), both were also for TLC. Duffy published her second book, “A Slob in the Kitchen,” in 2004. It was released by Random House. Aside from publishing books, she also has acted as contributing editor for Glamour magazine and written articles for magazines like YM, British Esquire and Cosmopolitan.

On July 2007, Duffy served as a co-host on the Live Earth telecast on the Bravo channel at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.