She was born in St. Louis to Mark and Mary Paffrath. She has six siblings: Christy, Mark, Steven, Stacey, Matt and Brittany and she is the middle child. Her grandfather, Herman Paffrath, was also an actor. Her family used to put on plays and newscasts at family parties. Her mom enrolled her in ballet, tap and jazz class when she was just 3-years-old. At 9, she entered gymnastics and won many awards and medals in competitions. While at school, she used to experiment with theatre and performed in various plays. She is known to have a curious nature and extraordinary creativity. She decided to pursue a career in journalism and attended Missouri School of Journalism where she completed an internship at Entertainment Tonight in Los Angeles alongside TV veterans Mark Steines and Mary Hart under the leadership of Linda Bell Blue. After earning a degree in Broadcast Journalism in 2005, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams.

She also nabbed roles in film, commercials and music videos. After working in movies, "Moonlight on Ivy" (2006), "Fly Kidz" (2006) and "Dinner at Eight" (2007), she played the lead in "Huntsville" (2007). She also appeared in Paramore's number one hit Misery Business and Whitestarr's "Sunshine Girl".

She is married to Drew Seeley who is a Canadian-born actor, singer and Dancer. They married on 28 April 2013.

She is a budding standup Comedian and appeared in some guest-starring roles in Sitcoms. She acted in the American sitcom Hot in Cleveland, Sullivan & Son and 2 Broke Girls. She was also seen in the CBS pilot, Oh Fuck, It's You, directed by James Burrows. In 2014, she appeared in the American film The Purge: Anarchy.

But it was a little show called Jersey Shore (TV series) that put her on the map. She held court with the guidos and guidettes of Seaside Heights as the host of MTV’s Jersey Shore: After Hours and Jersey Shore: Reunion in fourth, fifth and sixth seasons. Then, she appeared on The Girl Spot on BiteSize TV as well as a red carpet correspondent for Yahoo! Movies. She also hosted in Top Story! Weekly on Improv Olympics. She also hosted in the popular reality series Dating Naked on VH1 which fetched her immense recognition. She hosted both the first and second seasons of the show. In 2016, she was later replaced in season 3 by former BET's 106 & Park personality Rocsi Diaz. Recently,she hosted the 2015 Mid-America Emmy Awards.