Christina Hendricks Celebrity Photo Gallery.

About Christina Hendricks:

This ravishing redhead was actually born a blonde in Knoxville, Tennessee, circa 1978. She didn’t really have a chance to acclimatize to that southern city’s charm, as her parents moved to Twin Falls, Idaho, when she was just starting grade three.

It wasn’t until high school, this time in Virginia, that Christina Hendricks was bitten by the acting bug. She had taken on a Goth persona and was ostracized by her preppy classmates.

Shaken, Christina Hendricks went to one of the only places outcast teens can find solace; her high school drama department. It was there, amongst the downtrodden and nerdy, that her long journey to stardom began.

The young American spent a few years modeling in those venerable cities’ fashion industries -- this not only gave her the nest egg required to make a go of it in Hollywood, but it also gave her confidence in front of the camera.

Christina Hendricks went through the usual early career struggles of fruitless auditioning, but eventually broke through with a role in the TV movie Sorority.

Armed with obvious talents both physically and professionally, Christina Hendricks began getting bigger and bigger roles, including reoccurring ones on ER and the underappreciated sci-fi series Firefly.

"It was a crazy night!" she says, whipping off a brown suede hat to reveal a very un-Joan-like pageboy haircut. "Everyone was saying it was excruciatingly long—and let's face it, even the hosts knew it was terrible—but it was the fastest three hours of my life! When our category came up, I told myself, "You're not gonna win, and that's OK, but the cameras are on you, so when you lose, don't look like a jerk.' Then they announced Mad Men and I remember feeling high, like after an operation or something. It was awesome!"

In case you've been living under a Nintendo Wii, AMC's critically acclaimed show revolves around the men and women of Madison Avenue's tony Sterling Cooper ad agency, circa the 1960s—a politically incorrect era when office decorum was tossed aside in favor of chain-smoking, booze guzzling and blatant sexual harassment. 

Christina's alter ego, Joan, is the queen bee of the secretaries, whose hourglass figure, tight dresses and whiplash-inducing wiggle have pitched a thousand trouser tents, making her an object of lust both on the show and off. In season one, she had a torrid affair with her boss. 

This year, in an episode called "Maidenform," when each secretary is categorized as either a Marilyn (Monroe) or a Jackie (Kennedy), Joan's co-worker and former beau Paul Kinsey put it best: "Well, Marilyn's really a Joan, not the other way around." 

"Joan is a person I sometimes wish I could be," Christina, 30, admits. "She's a presentation—I don't think she ever lets anyone see who she really is.

She's very confident and pulled together." And as for her trademark wiggle? "I've always had a bit of a walk—this girl's got hips—but on the show it's exaggerated.