Born December 3, 1973 in San Diego, California, Holly Marie Combs is an American film and television actress and producer whose roles have included a portrayal in Charmed as Piper Halliwell and another in Picket Fences, where she received a Young Artist Award for her role, as Kimberly Brock.  She now stars in the ABC family original series Pretty Little Liars as Ella Montgomery.  She was in the movie Sins of Silence.

Combs was raised by her mother, Laralei, Berckhem Combs, who was only 16 years old at the time of her daughter’s birth, her father was 17.  Combs’ biological parents married, but the two split up after two years, feeling they were too young to make a marriage work.  While Combs was learning to walk, she hit her head on a marble table, resulting in a scar over her right eyebrow.  She went through many different homes with her mother, often having very little privacy, while her mother attempted to pursue an acting career.  When Combs was seven, she and her mother moved to New York City.  Landing print ads and a number of commercials by the age of 10, Combs followed her mother’s footsteps, deciding to pursue acting even further.  She was 12 when her mother married her stepfather.  In New York City, Combs attended Beekman Hill Elementary and then the Professional Children’s School.

Holly Marie Combs started out by tagging along with her actress mother in the film Walls of Glass, in 1985.  She had minor parts in the 1988 film Sweet Hearts Dance, with Don Johnson and Susan Sarandon, and director Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July in 1989, with Tom Cruise, before landing her breakthrough role in the CBS series Picket Fences in 1992.  While working on the David E. Kelley series, she appeared in films like Simple Men, Dr. Giggles, Chain of Desire, and A Reason to Believe, as well as the made-for-TV movies A Perfect Stranger and Sins of Silence. Once Picket Fences’ run came to an end, she kept busy with starring roles in the TV movies Love’s Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder and Daughters (a.k.a. Our Mother’s Murder).

In 1998, Combs was cast in the highly successful WB series, Charmed, and has also demonstrated her talent off camera as one of the show’s producers, since 2002.  Combs made her television comeback in June 2010 on ABC Family’s new show Pretty Little Liars.  Combs plays Ella Montgomery, the mother of main character Aria Montgomery (played by Lucy Hale).  The new series premiered on ABC Family June 8, 2010.  Pretty Little Liars has been extended for another 12 episodes, making Season 1 a total of 22 episodes.

In 1993, Combs married Bryan Travis Smith; they divorced in 1997.  She then went on to marry former Charmed key-grip and long-time boyfriend David Donoho on February 14, 2004.  They are the parents of three sons: Finley Arthur Donoho, (born April 26, 2004), Riley Edward Donoho, (born October 26, 2006) and Kelley James Donoho, (born May 26, 2009), all born by caesarian section (with Kelley being an emergency C-section).  Combs kept her third pregnancy a secret due to it being high risk with a delivery at 35 weeks.  Holly Marie Combs filed for divorce for her second marriage on November 11, 2011 blaming irreconcilable differences.

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The 37-year-old Charmed actress, Holly Marie Combs, has filed for divorce from her husband of seven years, David Donoho.  The actress recently began legal proceedings, citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason behind the split.  TMZ reports that the relationship between Combs and Donoho had been strained for quite a while.  Though with the courts being closed for Veterans Day, her documents are not immediately accessible, her publicist and lawyer are not commenting and no further details of the demise of their marriage have been revealed.

The couple originally met on the set of Charmed and has dated for more than ten years.  Combs starred in the show and Donoho was a key-grip (a director of lighting and rigging technicians in the film-making and video production industries) of the show’s production back in 2001.  The two made it official in 2004 as they say I do on Valentine’s Day.  They have three kids together namely Finley Arthur, 7, Riley Edward, 5 and Kelley James, 2.  They will share joint custody of the children.  No pre-nuptial agreement had been signed.

This is the second divorce of the actress as she was previously married to Bryan Travis Smith in the early nineties divorcing him in 1997 after four years of being together.  Combs is best known for her role as witch Queen Piper Halliwell in the television series Charmed, which aired for eight seasons and ended in 2006.  Combs starred in the show alongside Alyssa Milan, Rose McGowan and Shannen Doherty.  The show originally aired in 1998 and it was basically about four hot witch sisters.  Kaley Cuoco also made a guest appearance on the show.  Combs said of the gig that she just had to accept that what she does is basically entertainment and it cannot be ground-shaking moral dilemmas all the time.

The 37 year-old actress first appeared in the 1992 TV drama, Picket Fences.  The series won Combs a Young Artist award.  Combs talks of her younger days on the show saying she was the angriest little person imaginable waking up with a frown every morning, barely talking, wearing black all the time and had some serious teenage rebellion years.  In 1997, Shannen Doherty was given the pilot script for Charmed, and she took her friend, Holly, with her. The two ended up getting the part and then became producers for the show in its fourth season.

Doherty said that Holly is fiery and feisty noting she knew she would be perfect.  Alyssa Milano praised her co-star’s talents as well saying that she can be dry like Bob Newhart or physically hilarious.  Combs said that the idea of playing a witch was fun to do pure fantasy.  According to her, everyone keeps comparing them to Charlie’s Angels and she is always compared to Kate Jackson noting that it is alright with her.  Combs made a TV comeback in June 2010 in the ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars playing Lucy Hale’s mother Ella Montgomery.