Cara Wakelin

Cara Hain Wakelin was born on February 8, 1977, in Melbourne, Australia. Since the day she was born, Cara has had it tough, which turned her into a survivor. She was part of a quadruplet pregnancy, but only Cara and her fraternal twin, Bain, survived the troubled birth. Cara never met her Australian father and was raised by her mother in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Further tension came when Cara's mother married, then divorced; Cara's family was always short of money and moved as many as 15 times in 10 years.

Even by the time she began attending high school at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, Cara was still struggling. She was very shy and introverted, even though she showed artistic promise and was quite athletic. She felt more at home with animals than with people during her adolescence, and Cara had a menagerie of pets at home.

Cara Wakelin answers play..boy's call
Nevertheless, Cara was determined to get an education, feeling that it was the only way she could make it. She enrolled in McMaster University, in the nearby city of Hamilton, Ontario, where she studied philosophy and sociology. During her last year of study, Cara was flipping through an ex-boyfriend's Play..boy magazine and discovered that Play..boy was on tour searching for a millennium Play..mate. Thinking it might be a good way to pay off her large student loan, Cara decided to audition when the Play..boy bus came to Toronto in 1998.

Cara's mother was hugely supportive, and even went along with Cara when she auditioned for Play..boy. Cara recalled that her mother kept her from chickening out: "'You've come this far,' she told me, 'so you obviously wanted to do it in the first place. Why back out now? You'll regret it for the rest of your life.'" Sure enough, the experience was a positive one, and within a few months, an excited Cara was invited to Chicago for a test shoot.

Cara Wakelin becomes canada's play..mate
Cara was selected as Play..boy's Miss November 1999. Hugh Hefner had rejected Cara's first centerfold because there were too many peanuts on the floor of her set (it was in a roadside bar), but decided to put Cara on the cover of the Canadian edition of Play..boy in a hockey jersey. It was only the second time Hef had put a current play..mate on the cover, and the edition sold out within two weeks. Cara became a celebrity in Canada overnight.

Cara continued to work as a Play..boy model and traveled throughout America, Russia, Japan, and even Chile; most recently, she graced the cover of the 2005 Play..boy Swimsuit Calendar (Play..boy 's first). She's been in commercials and ads for Sears, Ford, Coca-Cola, Miller, and Budweiser. Cara has also tried her hand at acting, taking roles in Death to Smoochy (2002) and TV's Relic Hunter. Cara currently divides her time between Los Angeles and Toronto.