Biography
Kyle Richards was an American actress, philanthropist, and reality TV star who began acting when she was a child, but attained fame later in life by playing herself on the reality TV staple "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" (Bravo, 2010-). Born on January 11, 1969 in Hollywood, CA, Richards lived an affluent lifestyle from the start: her mother, Kathleen Mary Richards, was a socialite who married four times in her life, Richards' half-sister, from her mother's first marriage was Kathy Hilton, hotel magnate and mother to Paris and Nicky. She also had an older sister, Kim, with whom she shared a father, Kenneth Edwin Richards. Both sisters began acting at a young age, Richards was only 7 when she landed her first big role, appearing as Alicia Sanderson Edwards on "Little House on the Prairie" (NBC, 1974-1982), a role she would play throughout the series' entire run. Young Richards also appeared in a number of horror films, including Tobe Hooper's killer alligator picture "Eaten Alive" (1977), John Carpenter's classic slasher "Halloween" (1978), and the cult hit "The Watcher in the Woods" (1980). Richards married Guraish Aldjufrie, the father of her first child, in 1988, but the pair were divorced by 1992. Richards' next marriage proved to be more fortuitous: in 1996, she married high powered real estate agent Mauricio Umansky, going so far as to convert to Modern Orthodox Judaism for him. The couple had three daughters together. Her next big role came in 1998, when she was cast as Nurse Dori on the hit medical drama "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009), a role she would play on and off until 2006. While she still occasionally acted, Richards soon gained notoriety for another role entirely: herself. In 2010, she was cast in the sixth installment of Bravo's highly successful "Real Housewives" series of reality TV shows, "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" (Bravo, 2010-). This led to other instances of Richards playing herself on TV, on such shows as "Betty White's Off Their Rockers" (NBC/Lifetime, 2012-17), "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" (The CW, 2013-), and "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce" (Bravo, 2014-16). Richards also came in 12th place on "The New Celebrity Apprentice" (NBC, 2017).
