Jill Wagner

Early life

Wagner was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was raised primarily by her father, David Wagner, a U.S. Marine, and her grandmother. She attended Ledford Senior High School in Wallburg, North Carolina and North Carolina State University. She graduated in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in business management. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California. As a teenager, Jill also graduated from the Barbizon Modeling and Acting School in Raleigh and went on to be named Miss Barbizon.

Career

After completing college, Wagner moved to California to further her modeling career. In 2003, she was selected as a cast member on the MTV series Punk'd, participating in about a dozen sketches.

Wagner appeared in Stuff magazine following her appearances in Punk'd. Wagner was ranked #90 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2004. She was featured in the July 2006 issue of American FHM magazine.

Wagner was featured as the Ford Motor Company's Mercury brand spokesmodel in television ads from 2005 to 2011, and soon became known as "The Mercury Girl". In 2006, she co-starred in the Spike TV television series Blade: The Series as Krista Starr. She is a co-host of Inside the Vault on WGN America. Wagner has also had guest roles on a variety of television series including Quintuplets and Bones. Her theatrical film roles include an appearance in Junebug, and a co-lead role in the horror film Splinter in 2008.

In January 2007, Wagner stated that she had been interviewed about the possibility of portraying Wonder Woman in the upcoming movie version, saying, "I met with the guys over at Silver pictures about some things and Wonder Woman was one of them."

In March 2008, it was announced Wagner would be the co-host for the ABC summer reality series Wipeout which premiered June 24, 2008. In April 2011 Wagner announced that she was leaving Wipeout after four seasons to focus on her career; she was succeeded by Vanessa Minnillo for the series' fifth season. In late August 2012, it was announced that Wagner would return to co-host Wipeout for its sixth season, a role she continued throughout the rest of the series' run.

In June 2011, Wagner appeared on the new show Teen Wolf, airing on MTV. In 2013, Wagner appeared on Rhett and Link's third episode of their YouTube series The Mythical Show; this was in response to an episode of their talk show Good Mythical Morning, where they mentioned they had gone to college with a girl who had caught their interest, but never had the courage to talk to, who was revealed to be Jill Wagner.

In 2015, Wagner was tapped to host an original series, Handcrafted America on INSP; the series begins its third season on August 11, 2017. In late 2015, Wagner was cast in the upcoming Canadian film Braven.