Gena Lee Nolin was born in Duluth, Minnesota. During her childhood, Nolin lived on a farm. An athletic child, she enjoyed ice fishing, basketball, volleyball and softball. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she worked as a waitress. She later entered the Miss Las Vegas beauty pageant--and went on to win the title. After becoming Miss Las Vegas, Nolin got the attention of several modeling agencies. She then moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue acting and study interior design at Santa Monica College. Nolin first worked as a waitress in Los Angeles.
In 1994, she saw a newspaper ad for the popular, long-running game show, The Price Is Right. She beat out 1,200 other women to become one of the show's Barker's Beauties. Soon afterward, Nolin appeared in the soap opera, The Young and the Restless as a model named Sandy.
In 1995, Nolin starred in her biggest role as Neely Capshaw in the television series Baywatch (becoming the second actress to play the controversial character, who was originally created to appear as a one-episode part). In June 1997, her only child with Fahlman, son Spencer, was born. Later in the year, Nolin began modelling, for the first time since her pregnancy, for Maxim. In 1998, Nolin quit Baywatch and started her own show, Sheena, in 2000. In late 2001, Nolin posed nude for Playboy magazine. In 2002, Sheena was cancelled.
She did a music video with Billy Currington called "I Got A Feeling".
