Who: The only daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, the former White House resident lives in New York these days where she attends Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

Backstory: Born in Little Rock, Clinton was named after the Judy Collins song "Chelsea Morning" and was thrust into the national limelight at the age of 12 (braces and all) when she became First Daughter. She attended D.C.'s exclusive Sidwell Friends School and went on to Stanford, where her dorm room on campus was outfitted with bulletproof glass and Secret Service agents masqueraded as students as they trailed her from class to class. (She was known as "Energy" to the agents; Chelsea and her friends made a game out of occasionally ditching them.) After finishing her honors thesis—the subject: her dad's mediation of the North Ireland peace agreement—the newly minted grad went to England to earn a master's in international relations from Oxford, then moved to New York in 2003 to take a job at the consulting firm McKinsey.

Of note: Chelsea departed McKinsey in 2006 to join the hedge fund Avenue Capital, which was founded by Clinton fundraisers and friends Marc Lasry and Sonia Gardner. She took a leave of absence from the $250,000-a-year job at the end of 2007 to stump for her mom. She later returned to her job before opting to go back to school and is now studying health policy and management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. In her off hours, Clinton—who had something of a glam phase during her London days, attending fashion shows and palling around with Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow—is an increasingly visible presence on the city's social/benefit scene. She now sits on the board of the American School of American Ballet.

Campaign trail: With the exception of her father, Chelsea was her mother's most important and active surrogate during the 2008 Democratic primary, criss-crossing the country, fielding questions from voters, and soliciting the youth vote at colleges. (She also played a vital role via telephone, making up to 60 calls a day to thank supporters and exhort super-delegates to commit to her mother.)

Personal: Chelsea's three-year relationship with Ian Klaus, an heir to an exercise fortune and a Rhodes Scholar whom she met at Oxford, ended in late 2005. Her current boyfriend is Marc Mezvinsky, a former summer intern in the Clinton White House and banker at Goldman Sachs. Mezvinsky is the son of two former members of the House of Representatives, Pennsylvania congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and Iowa congressman Ed Mezvinsky. (And like Chelsea's dad, Mezvinsky's father has witnessed his fair share of drama: He was implicated in a bribery scandal in 2002 and began serving a nearly seven-year prison sentence in 2003.) In late 2009, Clinton announced she and Mezvinsky were engaged. The couple is planning to tie the knot at the end of July at what promises to be a star-studded affair. Chelsea lives in the Flatiron district. At one point, she lived in Chelsea, a source of mild amusement to pun-inclined New Yorkers.

In person: Friends say Chelsea has her mother's ambition and her father's gift for remembering names and faces. Unfortunately, the teenage Chelsea also had an unfortunate combination of both of her parents' worst physical features, and she was mercilessly skewered in the press for being less than a beauty queen (poor Chelsea was just 13 when Rush Limbaugh publicly called her a "dog"; later, noted wit John McCain quipped, "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.") So it wasn't terribly surprising when, post-college, she had a major makeover including, it was whispered, plastic surgery. She's also significantly more svelte these days. She's known for being something of an exercise nut.

No joke: Kenyan electrical engineering graduate Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor offered Bill Clinton 20 head of cattle and 40 goats for Chelsea's hand in marriage and vowed to remain single until a formal answer was received.

[Photos via Getty Images, AP]

Vital Stats


Full Name: Chelsea Victoria Clinton
Date of Birth: 02/27/1980
Place of Birth: Little Rock, AR
High School: Sidwell Friends
Undergrad: Stanford University
Graduate: Oxford University
Residence: Union Square
Filed Under: Politics, famous offspring