'I Wanna Marry Harry' reality TV show casts two Long Islanders

Two Long Island women are among the competitors who traveled to England for the upcoming Fox reality show "I Wanna Marry Harry," in which 12 American bachelorettes vie for the hand of "Prince Harry" -- in actuality, royal look-alike Matthew Hicks. The series premieres May 27.

Kimberly Birch, 24, is a model-actress born and raised in Malverne. She attended Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville and graduated cum laude from Marist College, where she made the dean's list multiple semesters. She went on to study acting and has appeared in the film "Beach Pillows" with Vincent Kartheiser of "Mad Men" and, she says, was recently cast in a production of John Patrick Shanley's 1984 play "Savage in Limbo" being mounted this September. She also spent a year at the Children's Home of Poughkeepsie as a case worker.

Birch joined the show after being approached by a casting director, she told Newsday, "and decided it would be good exposure and possibly lead to something else. It sounded like an exciting experience."

The other local contestant is her friend Jacqueline Conroy, 25, who says the two met while working for the Hart Agency as promotional models "for the last couple of years." She calls Birch "one of my closest friends. Being on this show wouldn't have been such an exciting experience without her."

Conroy, who lives in Rockville Centre, was born in Oceanside, raised in Freeport and attended the St. Christopher School in Baldwin and the all-girl Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead. She studied nutrition at Nassau Community College and LIU Post's Brookville campus, getting her degree from the latter, "and I'm currently working on my master's in sports nutrition."