Born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, the daughter of two college professors, Holly grew up in the upstate New York town of Geneva. Holly credits her talent for acting to her great-grandmother, who performed in musical theater in Liverpool and London.
Holly spent time traveling in Europe and lived for a year in London, where she studied languages and flute at the Sarah Siddons School. At Sarah Lawrence College, Holly majored in literature and economics, intending to become a lawyer. Instead, during her freshman year she signed with the Elite modeling agency. By her sophomore year, her talent had landed her a theatrical agent and a series of television commercials. During her last year of school, Holly made the Francis Ford Coppola-produced Seven Minutes in Heaven, and after graduating, she starred in Michael Mann's production, Band of the Hand.
Since then, she has worked nonstop, with film credits including Turbulence, Sydney Pollack's Sabrina, Beautiful Girls, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and Down Periscope. She also co-starred on David E. Kelley's critically acclaimed television series Picket Fences as the feisty, ambitious Maxine Stewart, and is currently starring in Kelley's series Chicago Hope.
Holly's breakthrough performance, however, was as Mary Swanson in the box-office hit Dumb and Dumber, starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, and directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly.
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