Lynne McCarthy is a South African celebrity, actress, model, author, philanthropist, humanitarian, counsellor, chef, and a television presenter. She is best known for her roles in the popular serials Egoli: Place of Gold and Isidingo.^[1]

She was born on 29 November 1984 in South Africa. She is best known for her starring roles in EGOLI & Isidingo TV soaps. She graduated a D.Phil., doctorate in philosophy & human behavioural psychology from UCLA. Apart from psychology, she has also studied Public Relations and Marketing, Business Management.^[2]

After the graduation, she studied acting under Libbe Ferreira and the late Blaise Koch at Sesani Studios in Johannesburg. Then she studied voice coaching and acting with Johan van der Merwe at Katinka Heyns’ Sonneblom Studios in Honeydew. After the course, she trained under W. Morgan Sheppard at the Vincent Chase Workshop in Hollywood.^[2]

Her maiden television acting came through the 1991 popular M-Net soapie Egoli: Place of Gold. In the serial, she played the role of 'Zita'. Then in 2008, she played role of 'Elize' in television serial Isidingo. Apart from acting, she is also a journalist and narrator of a documentary Children of Fire. Then she became the co-presenter of the travel show Traveling Africa as well as her own talk radio show Radio Rippel in Pretoria.^[2]

As a journalist, she worked as celebrity and A-list events columnist for Citigaming in The Citizen newspaper. Then she became a columnist, and resident Agony Aunt for FHM magazine, under the pseudonym "MissHouston".^[2] McCarthy is a published author on two non-fictional titles, "The 5th date rule" and "Knowing boundaries". She is also a cookbook author, with her latest book titled "Lynne's family cookbook". McCarthy modelled in Europe and America as a signed face to Ford Modelling agency in New York. As actress she is represented by Stark Raving Management after part time appearance in the television serial Big Brother.