In 1989, she moved to New York City to pursue more rigorously a parallel career as a sports fashion model and also continue in her pro volleyball career. In 1997, she was selected for induction into the Florida State University Athletic Hall of Fame. Reece set two school volleyball records in solo blocks (240) and total blocks (747), both of which still stand. FSU inducted Reece into the Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997.
She trained hard to hone her skills in 2-person beach volleyball and competed domestically in the 1999-2000 Olympic Challenge Series and the 1999-2000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. In 1997, competing with the best global beach volleyball players ever assembled, Gabby’s 4-person team took first place at the first-ever Beach Volleyball World Championships.
She also appeared as a guest on Extreme Makeover Home Edition and America's Next Top Model and The Tyra Banks Show. In 2007, Reece and her husband Laird Hamilton, appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, featuring a dozen celebrities in a stock car racing competition. In the first round of competition, she matched up against the former NFL coach Bill Cowher and the actor William Shatner.
Michele moved on to another Broadway production, Ragtime, in 1995. She played the Little Girl, the quiet daughter of a Jewish immigrant. The cast included such well-known Broadway talents as Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell. She landed another break in 2004 with a role in a revival of Fiddler on the Roof starring Alfred Molina.
The production depicts a group of German teenagers who explore their sexuality. Michele had to handle some serious and sometimes explicit material in her role as Wendla. "I'm in a see-through nightgown and in a beating scene," she explained to WWD. Wendla becomes involved with Melchoir (played by Jonathan Groff) with disastrous results. Off stage, the two performers became best friends.
The role of an ambitious teenager who dreams of stardom appears to be a good fit for the actress. "Rachel is me when I was that age. She knows what she loves and who she is. She doesn't get caught up in what other people think is important," Michele told New York magazine. Her portrayal of Rachel earned Michele her first Emmy Award nomination in 2010.
She began modelling at age young of 13 after winning the Dolly/Impulse Modelling Competition in 1997. This win sparked significant media attention and controversy over her age and maturity, and the matter of paedophilia and child pornography. Kerr dismissed these claims in an interview, stating; "They were blowing out of proportion.
She was described by one fashionista as having an Audrey Hepburn look as well as being linked to the current 'baby doll alien' looks, similar to models Gemma Ward and Lily Cole. Many also cite her unique look somewhat as a combination of models Gemma Ward and Daria Werbowy.
So far she has modelled for Maybeline, Levis, Portmans, Jets, Blumarine Swimwear, John Richmond, Lisa Ho, Veet, Bonds and Peter Alexander, Elle, Harpers Bazar, Italian Glamour, Oyster, Squint and Australian Vogue as well as walked for big fashion designers such as Anna Mollinari, Just Cavalli, Blumarine, Baby Phat, Enrico Coveri, Amuleti J, Cia Maritima, Betsey Johnson and John Richmond to name a few.
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