Brooke Elizabeth Burns (born March 16, 1978) is an American actress, model, and game-show host. She first broke out on television as Jessie Owens on Baywatch and Baywatch: Hawaii, joining the franchise in 1998 and appearing through the early 2000s, where her athletic, sun-lit lifeguard persona became her signature acting role.
After stepping back from acting for a period, Burns shifted into hosting, a lane where she’s been steadily visible for two decades. She led NBC’s reality game show Dog Eat Dog (2002–2003) and later hosted Fox’s Hole in the Wall. She became especially associated with quiz formats as the face of GSN’s The Chase, which earned her a Daytime Emmy nomination for host. She has continued in that space with GSN’s Master Minds, and in January 2025 she began hosting the revived Tic-Tac-Dough, expanding her résumé as one of the network’s main on-air anchors. Burns’s personal story includes a serious diving accident in November 2005 that broke her neck; she recovered fully but has spoken about living with surgical hardware in her spine. She was married to actor Julian McMahon from 1999 to 2001, and they share a daughter. In 2013 she married director Gavin O’Connor, and they have a second daughter.
