Carol Alt BiographyConstantly in search of new frontiers, Carol Alt is the ultimate chameleon. Since her days as the world’s most renowned Supermodel, Carol Alt has gone on to be author, actress and entrepreneur. Having had enormous success in all her endeavors such as being a USA Today Best-Selling Author for her books on Raw food; a multi- award winning actress; the face of her own line of cosmetics; having a number one hit in Europe in the music industry; providing voiceovers for such hits as “King of the Hill”; and as the host of various TV and radio morning shows and newscasts, including Fox’s “Good Day Live”.
Called “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World” by Playboy Magazine and “The Next Million Dollar Face” by Life Magazine, Carol has not disappointed. Gracing the covers of over 700 magazines, several posters, two workout videos and numerous calendars, she is a one-woman conglomerate! She has lost track of the number of advertising campaigns, commercials, interviews, hosting jobs and endorsement contracts that have created this enormously successful and lasting career.
Forever touted as “The model that started the Supermodel trend” by John Casablancas, the owner of Elite Models, Carol Alt tosses off that title as the result of necessity being the mother of invention. The necessity of a fourth Elite division of models who worked every day - who were career professionals - made Carol the first ever “Super Elite Model in the Super Elite Division.” The press therefore dubbed her the first “Supermodel.”Hitting the highest echelons of the fashion industry did nothing but fuel Carol Alt’s thirst for new projects and new venues, so, making good use of her fame, she self- produced her highly successful series of posters and calendars when Elite rejected the idea. These posters and calendars became the benchmark for any and every rising young supermodel. Carol Alt thereby created a new business for all supermodels to come and in the process, became the object of fantasy for every young boy in America who had her poster plastered on his bedroom wall.
No other model can boast an uninterrupted 27 year career. Having twice graced the cover of the coveted Sports Illustrated Magazine’s Swimsuit Edition, Carol Alt has gone on to star in over 50 movies, series, miniseries and episodic television in America and abroad.
Carol Alt's highly acclaimed series “Amazon”, written by Peter Benchley, debuted as Variety’s “Number One New Dramatic Syndicated Series”, much to the delight of CBS and Alliance Atlantis, and paved the way for today’s hit “Lost”.
Carol Alt has also had great success for her role in “Howard Sterns Private Parts”. She is the recipient of Three European Telegattos (Emmy awards), one European “Oscar” Moda, The Mont Blanc Award, The Best Award, The Golden Ticket Box-Office Award ( for the most box office sales for a film in one year), The Certificate del Arte from The European Film Commission and The Umbra Award.
Prince Albert still holds a slight grudge that Carol Alt did not come to the Monaco Film Festival to pick up her award for the portrayal of the life story of Rosanna Benzi, a woman with genetic polio living in an iron lung, in the film “Vice for Life.”
Not content to “just act”, she re-wrote the medical aspects, co-produced, and directed the children in a series of 12 films about a female doctor with a practice in an African clinic called “Under the African Sun.”
Her independent films include “Hitters”, which won the Westchester Film Festival, “The Look” which was the talk of The Tribeca Film Festival and “Signs of the Cross” which won The Catskills Film Festival. Her sci-fi hit, “Snakehead Terror”, based on a true story, is still scaring people on the Sci-Fi Channel where it became not only a hit, but now a cult film.
Her recent films include: “Fatal Trust” for Lifetime, “Totally Awesome” for VH1,”Homo Erectus”, an Adam Rifkin comedy starring Ali Larder, Tom Arnold and David Carradine, a new Sci-Fi Channel film called, “Swarmed” and “The Town that Banned Christmas”, an independent film which joined the roster of Lionsgate Films for 2006.
Preparing to do another series of books for publishing in 2008, Carol Alt just keeps working and silencing the critics who insist: Supermodels are just beautiful, not smart.
The Carol ALt Playboy Shoot
Carol Alt's long-anticipated Playboy layout has been shot, the December, 2008 issue in which she appears is available right now and Carol Alt couldn’t be happier with the results.
As mentioned in a previous article on this site, strong>Carol Alt was very concerned about finding the best photographer – someone with the same artistic values as hers, as well as someone with whom she could feel completely comfortable.
“We searched out a lot of photographers – both fashion photographers and several that Playboy recommended. We had narrowed it down to three terrific people. What happened next was that Timothy White called me and said that this would be his first Playboy shoot. Well, that struck a chord with me – I love being “first” – and I understood him, because he was speaking to me in my language. So, I told him, ‘Look, Timothy, let me come and see your work’, which I did and it was fantastic!
“So that, coupled with the advice we received from Playboy, helped me decide on Timothy. Playboy had wanted to give him a chance, so it all worked out just perfectly for everyone involved.”
Being a fashion photographer, Timothy approached the shoot with the eye of someone accustomed to working in the world of high fashion. His shots are probably less explicit – and, as Carol says, “less in your face” – about the nudity than is typical of the genre. Everyone who has seen them so far thinks they are simply exquisite, artistic photos and strong>Carol Alt agrees.
“My goal, as I’ve said before, was to promote raw eating and to show women that they, too, can look their best at any age. I know that Playboy likes to retouch their photos, so that everyone looks absolutely perfect. I told Timothy that if he intended to retouch my photos, it really wasn’t what I wanted. Granted, you have to have the basic body to begin with, but come on – let’s get real. I’m really fed up with looking at models who are 20 years old touting skin creams that they’ve never used, telling older women that they can look like that, too.
“I want women to understand that I’m no different than anyone else out there. It’s just that I’m extremely careful about my diet and I don’t mean ‘dieting’. If you watch what you eat, as I do with the raw foods, your body will find it’s own ideal weight. As long as the food is processed in the right way, you won’t have to starve yourself with crappy little meals; you’ll be able to eat whatever you want whenever you want, and both your body and your health will reap the benefits!”
Timothy and the crew took Carol down to Ballast Key, near Key West, Florida - http://www.privateislandsonline.com/ballast-key.htm. It’s a gorgeous park-like little gem, part of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge, although ironically, prior to being designated as such, it had been a military bombing range.
“The water is only about chest-high leading to the island. We could have literally walked there! The place is stunning; everywhere you look, there’s something interesting to see, from the foliage to the rock formations. Timothy had such an amazing eye – he could take a tree and turn it into a shower. He knew exactly how to use the lighting during the various times of day and that is a sign of a great photographer.
“We shot the entire thing right on the beach and that’s exactly what I wanted to do. I know that shooting on a beach was expensive, but Playboy was so generous and open to my ideas, it was just wonderful. I think they were really intrigued, because this was the first time a woman had ever used Playboy as a platform for health and nutrition. But what better place could there be than Playboy, which, after all, is about beauty and the art, so to speak, of a woman.
“So it was a first for Playboy, a first for Timothy White and a first for me. How much more perfect a marriage could it be?!”
Now, in case you’re wondering how a shoot like this is staffed and handled, Carol says there were about 10 people there the entire time, including her personal manager, Scott Hart; a representative from Playboy: hair stylist Steven Knoll: makeup artist Sandy Littner: the overall stylist Maya and her assistant: and then there were the four gorgeous, hunky male assistants who were handling all of the heavy equipment…! “I told Timothy that the next time, he should bring 4 nerdy guys, especially for someone as shy about this kind of thing as I am!”, Carol laughs. Speaking of which, when asked how long it took her to become comfortable with the situation, Carol says point-blank, “I was never comfortable, per se. But because I was shown the shots as we went along and was allowed to veto the ones I didn’t like on the spot, I felt as if I was in control. That really helped. What also helped was how sweet Timothy was throughout the shoot in the way he handled me.
“We wound up with over 30 photos and Playboy is giving us a 12 page spread, as well as the cover. In every respect, this experience turned out better than I could ever have imagined it to be.
“I put a great deal of thought into doing this shoot and ultimately, it was the opportunity of possibly saving just one person’s life by opening his or her eyes to the benefits of the raw lifestyle (no pun intended!) that sealed the deal. How could I possibly reach a wider audience than this?”
strong>Carol Alt had another happy surprise when she met the writer for Playboy who was assigned to write the article that accompanies the photos. He had a story to share with strong>Carol Alt and he could hardly wait to tell her.
“A few years back,” strong>Carol Alt says, “he was standing on the street in front of the Playboy offices with his wife and little daughter. A white limo pulled up next to them, the window rolled down, and a hand reached out, clutching a whole bunch of balloons, which were then given to this man’s daughter. The person in the limo popped her head out of the car and said something to the effect of ‘I hope you love these balloons as much as I love giving them to you’. End of story. Except…not quite, since that person in the limo was me!”
Talk about wild coincidences and chance encounters. Carol Alt remembers the event, but not why she had a car full of balloons on 5th Avenue! Needless to say, the interview was off to a great start and both Carol and the writer were able to hit all the right notes!
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