Sara Jean Underwood (born March 26, 1984) is an American model who was chosen as the Playmate of the Month for the July 2006 issue of Playboy magazine and later became Playmate of the Year in 2007.
She was born in Portland, Oregon, graduated from Scappoose (Oregon) High School in 2002, and has been a student at Oregon State University. She worked in the Beaverton, Oregon branch of the Hooters chain of restaurants
Sara Underwood first appeared in Playboy magazine not only in its The Girls of the Pac 10 pictorial of the October 2005 issue, but as the model featured on the cover of that issue as well. That cover depicted her holding a football, clad only in a body painting of an Oregon State Beavers football jersey and a painted imitation of matching bikini briefs. She next appeared in the magazine in July 2006, as the Playmate of the Month. In June 2007, Playboy honored Underwood as its Playmate of the Year, the first Miss July to receive the title, although she herself said, "I didn't think I was pretty enough".. In March, 2008, Playboy ranked her at #25 on their "25 Hottest Playboy Celebrities" list.
Underwood appeared in episode #2 of the E! network's series The Girls Next Door, as a Playmate hoping to have her test shoot taken at Playboy Studio West. Subsequently, Playboy featured her as Miss July 2006. She has since appeared in several more episodes of The Girls Next Door.
On June 7, 2007, a group of Oregon State University women's studies students created a poster celebrating Underwood's selection as Playboy's 2007 Playmate of the Year, and posted it outside Bexel Hall, where it remained in place for only a few hours before Oregon State University staff took it down. The poster embraced the theme and the style of the "Achievement" posters that line Campus Way at the university. The poster read, "Sara Jean: First OSU Beaver Playmate of the Year, Playboy June '07, OSU CENTERFOLD, People, Ideas, Innovation. (Jodi Ann Paterson was the first Beaver to earn the title — in 1999.)
