Mary Carey (born Mary Ellen Cook on June 15, 1980 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American pornographic actress and was a candidate for Governor of California in 2003.Carey was born in 1980 to a schizophrenic mother and a father with cerebral palsy, and she was taken care of by her grandparents from the age of three months. After her parents divorced, her mother moved in with Carey and her grandparents. At seven years of age the family moved from Cleveland to Florida, and the next year Carey was legally adopted by her grandparents.
Carey studied ballet from the age of seven until she was 19 years old. She graduated in 1998 from the Pine Crest School, a Fort Lauderdale private preparatory school. At 19, she joined the dance team at Florida Atlantic University, where she was a student in the theater department. After her grandfather's death, her grandmother's health began to deteriorate, so Carey took a job as an exotic dancer to help the family financially. Upon noticing that the featured dancers made more money, she asked an agent how she could become featured as well, and the agent recommended that she star in adult films. Carey traveled to Los Angeles and made the rounds of the adult-film producers and studios, eventually landing a job with Playboy TV.
Recently, she was featured on VH1's reality series Celebrity Rehab, and has appeared in close to 100[citation needed] adult films. She has a product line with Doc Johnson adult toy company, she has authored a book, and she is currently developing a TV series with GoGo Luckey. She has recently completed filming VH1's new series Sober House, premiering in January 2009.