PHOTOS How tall is the My Giant Life cast? Heights and bios for current and past members
It’s the one question that gets asked more than any other about the show: How tall is the My Giant Life cast on TLC? The hit is well-known for its portrayal of, in the network’s own words, women who are “seemingly too tall and lofty for the average-sized world.” And, in keeping with the baseline the show has set for itself, every one of the members of the My Giant Life cast is at least six-foot-six inches tall. (By comparison, Michael Jordan, still the most famous six-sixer in the world, is actually closer to six-four-and-a-half without shoes.)
Without further ado, then, here’s a handy alphabetical reference list for the complete cast, including newest member Alicia Jay and former member Nancy Mulkey, who departed after Season 1:
German-born Katja Bavendam is 6′ 8″. My Giant Life has made much of the especially lengthy discrepancy between Katja, 32, and her wife, Julie, who stands 5′ 2″. Katja is actually the second-tallest member of the My Giant Life cast so far; shortly before her Season 2 debut, Katja told the New York Post that she barely fits into the city’s subway cars (and posed for pictures to that effect).
“I usually get in at the middle door,” Katja explained, “because at the end of the car there’s the AC units, so there’s less headroom. When it’s really crowded…if I turn around and make a wrong move, I literally elbow people in the face, and I don’t want to do that.”
Haleigh Hampton is 6′ 7″; her husband, Bryan Carvalo, is 5′ 8″. It turns out there’s actually some controversy on this point, since Haleigh’s official bio for the Clemson University volleyball team lists her height as 6′ 6″. However, the similarly official People article on Haleigh and Bryan finally getting the good pregnancy news they’d been hoping for gives the taller height (and Haleigh’s final season with the Tigers was 2010, so it’s likely she just grew one more inch since then).
Lindsay Kay Hayward was already fairly well-known before My Giant Life, thanks to a steady career as a professional wrestler and an extra and supporting actress in TV and film. The 30-year-old is often listed as 6′ 9″, but her height lost 3/4 of an inch when she slipped a disc–something that Lindsay’s own Twitter bio acknowledges:
So Lindsay is *only* 6′ 8 1/4″. That’s still enough to make her the tallest current member of the My Giant Life cast. And, in case you were wondering, Liam, her one-month-old firstborn, was 21.5 inches at birth, putting him at the extreme upper end of the “normal” spectrum.
Alicia Jay is 6′ 6″, meaning she juuust barely qualified to be a cast member 😉 But she’s getting even more attention of late thanks to the reveal that she’s still a virgin. Though Alicia explained that she considers herself a “sexual person,” she’s also waiting for marriage before having sex.
“When I was 16,” I made that choice,” said Alicia, now 36. “I thought maybe it’d be ten years from then that I’d be having sex.” She “definitely” wants to be married and frolicking before 40, so it’s entirely possible that we’ll see a My Giant Life wedding special devoted to Alicia tying the know.
Krista Kay–pictured with her grandmother above–is also 6′ 6″. Growing up, the South Dakotan was often bullied and made to feel different because of her height, which ultimately led her to devote much of her energy to motivational speaking. Speaking of self-confidence, Krista also became a successful basketball player–a four-year starter for Northern State University in Aberdeen SD, and a one-year professional with the Ringwood Hawks of Melbourne, Australia.
Krista was actually in contact with the producers of My Giant Life before Season 1: they found her on Twitter and considered her for the show before ultimately passing. When the cast expanded for Season 2, though, Krista was chosen, and the result has been a budding comedy caeer:
Colleen Smith rounds out the current My Giant Life cast; like Krista and Alicia before her, Colleen is also 6′ 6″. (Though, if we’re getting technical, this feature claims she’s actually a half-inch taller than that.) Colleen is a former pro volleyball player who says the My Giant Life producers found her completely by accident. From the Union-Tribune:
She was working at Trader Joe’s in Liberty Station when TLC network asked her last November to join the cast of its new reality show, My Giant Life….She decided to do it because, if a genie were to grant Colleen one wish, it would be that people could get along, embrace diversity and accept everyone’s differences….Her philosophy: “I just smile and don’t pay attention to people who are mean and rude… I’m used to it.”
Finally, there’s My Giant Life Season 1 star Nancy Mulkey. Though she left the show after its debut season, Nancy, 6′ 9″, still has the distinction of being the tallest woman ever to feature on My Giant Life. She’s currently a student at Rice University in Houston, and, yes, is a member of the women’s basketball team. Though it’s been two years since Nancy was a member of the cast, she’s still listed at 6′ 9″ in her official Rice bio. (Nancy mentioned in a 2015 interview that she agreed with her doctors’ belief that she’s “stopped growing because all of [her] growth plates have closed.”)
You can catch the cast of My Giant Life in action Sunday nights at 10 on TLC.
(Photo credits: How tall is the My Giant Life cast via Instagram, Twitter, TLC)
