Denise grew up in Downers Grove, a middle-class suburb of Chicago, where she attended Pierce Downer Elementary School and Herrick Middle School until she completed the eighth grade. Then she went to Tinley Park High School for her freshman year until at the age of 12, when her parents, Joni and Irv, moved to the San Diego area, where they still currently own a chain of coffee shops called Jitters.

She graduated from El Camino High School in Oceanside, California in 1989. She did some modeling as a teenager and briefly moved to New York where she lived in a model apartment with six other girls.
After a while she became a make-up girl for Bonné Bell. During this time she appeared in a lot of swim suit magazine articles. But being a short 5ft 6in, Denise knew that she was never going to get much further than the J Crew catalog so she moved to Los Angeles and started taking acting classes. Before long she was landing small roles in shows like Doogie Howser, MD and Saved By The Bell.

Her first role on TV was on the drama "Life Goes On". After that she made guest appearances in "Melrose Place", "Married with Children", "Seinfeld", "Lois and Clark", and "Weird Science". Her debut feature appearance was in 1993's "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 ".
One of her first breaks came when she got the part of Ben Affleck's girlfriend in an NBC show called "Against The Grain" in 1993, but it was canceled after only eight episodes. Denise Richards was finally noticed when she appeared in "Seinfeld", and was cast into "Tammy and the T-Rex" in 1994. After completing that, she appeared in a TV- movie called "Fifth Avenue". Her next role was in "Nowhere", and finally she landed a part in "Starship Troopers".

"Starship Troopers" was Denise's first major film. She played a young starship officer, Carmen Ibanez, in the futuristic movie. The film itself was troubled by an expanding budget, film delays, and a poor release date. While it did well in the box office, the profits were not that good. There is some talks about a sequel, and hopefully we can see Denise as ms. Ibanez again with perhaps no raunchy scenes being deleted.
Anyway Denise's real life boyfriend is Patrick Muldoon, the same person who played her co-pilot in the film.

Denise then played a small part in Gregg Araki's Nowhere, but just afterwards landed the role of Kelly Van Ryan in Wild Things. Wild Things really established her as a sex symbol in Hollywood. She played a young and spoiled high school girl who wanted more than she already had. The movie in itself is a thriller and also starred Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon and Kevin Bacon. The most famous scene in the picture is the threesome between Denise, Neve and Matt. This scene represented a real dilemma for Denise: what to do about her parents. "They definitely want to see the movie," she says, "but I don't want my dad to see my breasts. I'm just hoping he'll cover his eyes."
It is rumored that Denise is talking to the producers of "Wild Things" about a sequel.

Denise have really been successful so far when it comes to acting and has many fans who are all waiting with anticipation for the next scantly clad scene she will appear in.

According to the reporter Toby Young Denise is among the most desirable women in Hollywood, around 90 % of the people in the business would like to sleep with her. Denise Richards may not have cut it as a catwalk model but she could have a great career as a centerfold. In addition to her classic, Coca Cola bottle figure, she has a face that combines the soap commercial prettiness of an all-American, High School sweetheart with just a hint of depravity.