Jordana Brewster

Jordana Brewster (born April 26, 1980)[1] is a Brazilian-American actress. She began her acting career in her late teens, with a 1995 episode of the soap opera All My Children. She followed that appearance with the recurring role as Nikki Munson in As the World Turns, for which Brewster was nominated for Outstanding Teen Performer at the 1997 Soap Opera Digest Award. She was later cast as Delilah Profitt, one of the main characters in her first feature film, Robert Rodriguez's 1998 horror science fiction The Faculty. She also landed a starring role in a 1999 NBC television miniseries entitled The 60s.

Her breakthrough role came in the 2001 action film The Fast and the Furious. Other film credits include the 2004 action comedy film D.E.B.S., the 2005 independent drama Nearing Grace and the 2006 horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, for which she received two Teen Choice Award nominations. She had a recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck and starred in the 2009 film Fast & Furious, the fourth installment of the The Fast and the Furious film series. After guest roles in several television shows such as Dark Blue and Gigantic, she appeared in the fifth film in the franchise, 2011's Fast Five. She stars as Elena Ramos in the television series Dallas, and appeared in the 2013 film Fast & Furious 6.

Amanda Blake

Amanda Blake (born Beverly Louise Neill, February 20, 1929 – August 16, 1989) was an American actress best known for the role of the red-haired saloon proprietress "Miss Kitty Russell" on the television western Gunsmoke. She and her husband Frank Gilbert also ran one of the first successful programs for breeding cheetahs in captivity.

Ronee Blakley

Ronee Blakley (born August 24, 1945) is an American entertainer. Although an accomplished singer, songwriter, composer, producer and director, she is perhaps best known as an actress. Her most famous role was as the fictional country superstar Barbara Jean in Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville, for which she won a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a notable role in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

Jolene Blalock

Jolene Blalock was born and raised in San Diego, California, with three siblings.[2] She spent her childhood developing surfing and artistic skills.[3] She said of her childhood:

“ I was such an awkward-looking child, I've no idea what happened. I didn't have a good childhood because I never could get along with other kids. I was the child that sat in the corner eating lunch by herself. I worked in the library at lunchtime because I had no real friends. I read a lot and educated myself a different way because me and school didn't get along. Even boys were never interested in me. I remember playing kiss-chase in the first and second grade. I would run but no one would ever chase me

Alexis Bledel

Bledel was born in Houston, Texas to Nanette (née Dozier), who worked as a gift processor and flight attendant, and Martin Bledel.[1][2] She has a younger brother, Eric.[3] Her father was born and raised in Argentina.[4][5] Her paternal grandfather, Enrique Einar Bledel Huus, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was of Danish and distant German descent; Enrique was Vice President of Coca-Cola Latin America and the Coca-Cola Inter-American Corporation. Bledel's paternal grandmother, Jean (née Campbell), was originally from New York, and had Scottish and English ancestry.[6][7][8] Bledel's mother, Nanette was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, at the age of eight; Nanette was raised there, and in Mexico City.[9][10] Of her parents' upbringing in Latin America, Bledel has stated "It's the only culture my mom knows from life, and my father as well, and they made the decision to raise their children within the context they had been raised in".[2][9] Bledel grew up in a Spanish-speaking household, and did not learn English until she began school; she considers herself Latina.[2][11]

Bledel attended Catholic St. Agnes Academy in Houston, as well as Baptist and Lutheran schools.[12] Her mother encouraged her to try community theater to overcome her shyness.[13] As a child, Bledel appeared in local productions of Our Town and The Wizard of Oz.[14] She was scouted at a local shopping mall and given work as a fashion model. She went to Page Parkes Center for Modeling and Acting and attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for one year

Yasmine Bleeth

Bleeth was born in New York City, the daughter of Carina, a model, and Philip Bleeth, a business proprietor.[1]Her father Philip is of Russian and German extraction, her late mother Carina was of French and Algerian descent. ((IMDB)) Her earliest known acting role was in a Johnson & Johnson's No More Tears baby shampoo television commercial at age 10 months in 1969. At the age of six, she appeared on Candid Camera. Later that year she appeared in a Max Factor cosmetic advertising campaign with model Cristina Ferrare. Her work in this campaign caught the eye of fashion photographer Francesco Scavullo, who subsequently included her and her mother in his book entitled Scavullo Women.

Total Film magazine quoted Bleeth stating: "When I was a girl I used to have to force boys to kiss me. My toughest friend had to hold them down."[2] She has also stated that she was popular with the boys, and that female classmates had beat her up as a result.[3]

Bleeth starred in her first movie in 1980 at the age of 12. She was cast opposite Buddy Hackett in the feature film Hey Babe!. By the time she graduated from high school, she had already been working on the soap opera Ryan's Hope since the age of 16. In 1991, she created the role of LeeAnn Demerest on the soap opera One Life to Live.

When Bleeth was 20, her mother, Carina Bleeth, died from inflammatory breast cancer at the age of 47. Bleeth said that she never accepted the fact that her mother was dying until she took her last breath

Joan Blackman

Blackman made her television acting debut as a guest performer in a 1957 series, Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, and then appeared in her first motion picture, Good Day for a Hanging, in 1959. She had a significant role in two Elvis Presley films. She played Maile Duval in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii and the following year played Rose Grogan in Kid Galahad. She also appeared with Dean Martin in Career (1959), and played Ellen Spelding vis-à-vis Kreton, the character of Jerry Lewis in 1960's Visit to a Small Planet. She later returned to motion pictures in Max Baer, Jr.'s Macon County Line (1974).

Among her television appearances was her role as Hilary Gray in the 1964 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Ruinous Road." She also made single appearances on Bonanza, I Spy and Gunsmoke.

During the 1965-66 season, Blackman was part of the regular cast of the prime time television soap opera, Peyton Place. On that show, she played "Marion Fowler," the wife to the District Attorney.[2] She and her ex-husband, Joby Baker, met in drama school.[3] Joan appeared once in each of the television series; Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason and I Spy.

Betsy Blair

Betsy Blair (December 11, 1923 – March 13, 2009) was an American actress of film and stage, long based in London.

Blair pursued a career in entertainment from the age of eight, and as a child worked as an amateur dancer, performed on radio, and worked as a model, before joining the chorus of Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe in 1940. There she met Gene Kelly; they were married the following year, when she was seventeen years old, and divorced sixteen years later in 1957.

After work in the theatre, Blair began her film career playing supporting roles in films such as A Double Life (1947) and Another Part of the Forest (1948). Her interest in Marxism led to an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee and Blair was blacklisted for some time, but resumed her career with a critically acclaimed performance in Marty (1955), winning a BAFTA Award and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Patricia Blair

Patsy Lou Blake was born in Fort Worth, Texas and grew up in Dallas. She became a teenage model through the Conover Agency. While acting in summer stock, Warner Bros. discovered her and she began acting in films under the names Patricia Blake and Pat Blake. In the late 1950s she appeared as the second female lead in several films for Warner Bros. and later for MGM.[3] Her first movie was Jump Into Hell (1955), about the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in French Indochina.[4]

She had a recurring role as Goldy, one of Madame Francine's hostesses, on the 1958 TV series Yancy Derringer. In 1962, she starred as Lou Mallory in The Rifleman, replacing actress Joan Taylor as Chuck Connors' love interest on The Rifleman. In 1963 she made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as murderer Nicolai Wright in "The Case of the Badgered Brother." She also made guest television appearances on The Bob Cummings Show, Rescue 8, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, The Virginian, and Bonanza.

She had considered moving to New York City in 1964 when screenwriter Gordon Chase helped her get a role in the series Daniel Boone. She played wife Rebecca Boone, opposite Fess Parker for six seasons, with Darby Hinton as son Israel and Veronica Cartwright as daughter Jemima. After the show ended in 1970, she appeared in a few minor films and television spots. Her last appearance on film was as the fashion narrator in the 1979 feature film The Electric Horseman. starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. In later years she produced trade shows in New York and New Jersey.

On February 14, 1965, the 30-year-old Blair married 42-year-old[5] land developer Martin S. Colbert in Los Angeles, California. They were divorced in 1993.[6]

She died at home in North Wildwood, New Jersey

Selma Blair

Blair was born Selma Blair Beitner in Southfield, in the Metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan; the youngest child of judge Molly Ann (née Cooke) and Elliot I. Beitner.[8][9][10]

Blair had a Jewish upbringing; her Hebrew name is Bat-Sheva.[11][12] Her father was an attorney, active in the U.S. Democratic Party and labor arbitrator until his death on November 17, 2012, at the age of 82.[13] Her parents divorced when Blair was 23; she subsequently legally changed her surname. She has three older sisters, Katherine (a book publicist), Elizabeth and Marie Beitner.[14]

Blair attended Hillel Day School, a Jewish day school in Farmington Hills[15] and Cranbrook Kingswood in Bloomfield Hills; soon after, she spent her freshman year (1990–91) in Kalamazoo College,[16] where she studied photography and acted in a play called The Little Theater of the Green Goose.[17] At that time, she wanted to be a ballerina and a horse trainer.[18]

Later, at the age of 20, Blair moved to New York City, where she lived at The Salvation Army, in poor living conditions.[18][19] She attended NYU as well as acting classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory, the Column Theatre and the Stonestreet Screen Acting Workshop; later, she returned to Michigan to finish her studies.[20][21][22] After transferring from New York University, she graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1994 with a BFA degree in Photography, BA in Psychology as well as Double major in Fine Arts and English.[10][14] [23][24][25] One week later, after graduating from Michigan, Blair returned to New York City to pursue her photography career or start an acting career

Kathy Baker

Baker was born in Midland, Texas, and raised a Quaker[1] in New Mexico, the daughter of John Seawand Baker, a geologist and educator, and his French-born wife, Helene Andree (née Whitton).[2] She studied acting at the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1970s She later earned a B.A. degree in French in 1977 from UC Berkeley. She lives in Southern California with her husband, Steven Robman.

Barbara Bach

Bach was born in Rosedale, Queens, and grew up in Jackson Heights, the daughter of Marjorie and Howard I. Goldbach (1922–2001), a policeman. Her mother is Irish Catholic, while her father was Jewish (from a family from Germany, Austria, and Romania).[1] She attended a Catholic high school, Dominican Commercial, in Jamaica, Queens.[2] Bach left school at age 16 to become a model. She is not related to Catherine Bach, whose birth name is Bachman.

Catherine Bach

Bach was born in Warren, Ohio,[1] the daughter of Norma Jean Kucera (née Verdugo), an acupuncturist, and Bernard Bachman, a rancher.[4][5] Her mother was of Mexican descent and her father was of German ancestry.[6][7] She is descended from the Verdugo family,[8] one of California's earliest landed families.[9] She grew up on a ranch in South Dakota,[10] where she visited her grandparents in Faith, South Dakota, and graduated from Stevens High School (1970) in Rapid City, South Dakota. She studie

Mary Badham

Mary Badham (born October 7, 1952) is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. At the time, Badham (aged 10) was the youngest actress ever nominated in this category.

Jane Badler

Badler spent her teen years in Great Neck, New York, moving to Manchester, New Hampshire, when she was in high school. Badler won the title Miss New Hampshire and competed at the 1973 Miss America Pageant. Subsequently, she enrolled at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, to study drama.

Beverly Archer

She was born in Oak Park, Illinois, but raised in California. She attended Alverno Heights High School (Sierra Madre, California), and both San Francisco State University and UC Santa Barbara, majoring in drama. She may be best known for her television roles as Iola Boylan on Mama's Family[1] and as Gunnery Sgt. Alva Bricker on Major Dad.[2]

She appeared in other programs such as The Young and the Restless, ALF, and the movie Project ALF, along with many other guest appearances. She played a thieving teacher in The Brady Bunch Movie, who was caught by Bobby Brady. She also appeared in two episodes of Married... with Children as Miss Hardaway, a sexually repressed librarian and abstinence counselor who is in love with Bud. In addition, she appeared in a 1994 episode of Full House, where she played the role of an unsympathetic SAT test monitor. She made guest appearances on episodes of Grace Under Fire, Family Ties and The Fall Guy. She portrayed Nancy Walker's daughter in The Nancy Walker Show. Aside from acting, Archer wrote episodes for both Mama's Family and ALF. She retired in 2000.

Eve Arden

Eve Arden was born Eunice M. Quedens (pronounced qwi-DENZ) in Mill Valley, California, to Lucille and Charles Peter Quedens. Her parents divorced when she was a child. Arden claimed to have been an insecure child, declaring later in life that she needed therapy because her mother was so much more beautiful than she.[citation needed]

Some sources indicate that Arden was Catholic based solely on the fact that she had, at one point, attended a Roman Catholic convent school. However, at age 16, she left Tamalpais High School, a public high school, and joined a stock theater company.[3] She made her film debut, under her real name, in the backstage musical Song of Love (1929). She played a wisecracking showgirl who becomes a rival to the film's star, singer Belle Baker. The film was one of Columbia Pictures' earliest successes.

Arden's Broadway debut came in 1934, when she was cast in that year's Ziegfeld Follies revue. This role was the first in which she was credited as Eve Arden. She chose that name after being told by producer Lee Shubert to drop her real name and claims she was inspired by two cosmetics bottles in her dressing room, one labeled Evening in Paris and the other by Elizabeth Arden.[

Ashley Argota

Argota was born in Redlands, California and her background is Filipino, her parents and family being from the Philippines. She began her professional career as contestant on the Arsenio Hall-hosted Star Search on CBS in 2003. She began acting at the age of 14. In 2007, she starred in an independent film titled Schooled. She also appeared in a Nickelodeon celebrity-episode of the series BrainSurge during which she lost during a Sudden Death round to Jerry Trainor. She appeared again in 2011 with other various Nickelodeon celebrities and won. Argota confirmed on July 5, 2012 that Nickelodeon has cancelled Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures. It is unknown if the remaining episodes will be shown,[3] however all episodes were broadcast in other countries. On December 22, 2012 TeenNick aired the previous never before seen in the US, Christmas episode. Starting March 27, 2013, the previous 7 never before aired in the US episodes aired on TeenNick in the US. Argota attended Connections Academy in Los Angeles, CA.

As a singer, Argota has released two independent albums Dreams Come True (2006)[4] and Ashley (2008).[5]

Argota is currently attending New York University, majoring in nursing.[6] In December of 2013, Ashley starred in the show Aladdin and His Winter Wish at the Pasadena Playhouse. She plays the princess or Jasmine. The show has received mainly positive feedback. This same month, she was nominated for the Libby Award by Peta2 for her work with adoption practices.

Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Joanna Aniston was born on February 11, 1969,[6] in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California[7] to actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow.[7] Her father is Greek and a native of Crete, while her mother was born in New York City. One of her maternal great-grandfathers was an Italian immigrant,[8] and her mother's other ancestry is Scottish, Irish, and a small amount of Greek.[9] Aniston has two half-brothers, John Melick, her maternal older half-brother, and Alex Aniston, her younger paternal half-brother.[7] Aniston's godfather was actor Telly Savalas, one of her father's best friends.[7]

As a child, Aniston lived in Greece for a year with her family. They moved to Eddystone, Pennsylvania, then to New York City.[7] Despite her father's television career, Aniston was discouraged from watching TV, though she found ways around the prohibition. When she was six, Aniston began attending the Rudolf Steiner School, a Waldorf educational school that applied the Rudolf Steiner philosophy.[10] During that time, Aniston's father and mother split when she was nine years old.[3]

Meanwhile, after discovering acting at eleven while attending Rudolf Steiner,[3] Aniston enrolled and graduated at Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she joined the school's drama society.

Odette Annable

Annable was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Lydia (née Nodarse), is Cuban. Her father, Victor Yustman, who is of Italian and French descent, was born in Bogotá, Colombia and raised in Nicaragua.[2][3] She graduated from Woodcrest Christian High School in Riverside, California. After graduating, she had planned on getting a degree in business finance at Loyola Marymount University before she decided to pursue a career in acting

Susan Anton

Anton attended Yucaipa High School in Yucaipa, California, and graduated in 1968. After high school, Anton attended San Bernardino Valley College. She first experienced fame by winning the nearby Miss Redlands and later the Miss California beauty contests in 1969[1] and tied as second runner-up in the 1969 Miss America Scholarship Pageant held September 6 that year.[2] She appeared on the game show Password when she was 19 but did not win the game.

Christina Applegate

Christina Applegate (born November 25, 1971) is an American film, television and stage actress who gained fame as a child actor, playing the role of Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children for the series' duration, from 1987 to 1997. In her adult years, Applegate established a film and television career, winning an Emmy and earning Tony and Golden Globe nominations.

She has had major roles in several films, including Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), The Big Hit (1998), The Sweetest Thing (2002), Grand Theft Parsons (2003), Anchorman (2004) and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), Farce of the Penguins (2007), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) and Hall Pass (2011). She has also starred in numerous Broadway theatre productions such as the 2005 revival of the musical Sweet Charity. She also played the lead role in the sitcoms Jesse (1998–2000) and Samantha Who? (2007–09) and starred in the NBC comedy Up All Night (2011–12) before leaving over the creative direction of the series, which was canceled shortly afterward.

Anne Archer

Anne Archer (born August 24, 1947) is an American actress. She has appeared in films such as Paradise Alley, Short Cuts, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Man of the House and Fatal Attraction, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She was named Miss Golden Globe in 1971.

Gillian Anderson

Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Rosemary Anderson (née Lane), a computer analyst, and Edward Anderson, who owned a film post-production company.[2][3] Her father was of English descent, while her mother was of Irish and German ancestry.[4] Soon after her birth, her family moved to Puerto Rico for 15 months; her family then moved to the United Kingdom where she lived until she was 11 years old. She lived for five years in Rosebery Gardens, Crouch End, London, and for 15 months in Albany Road, Stroud Green, London,[5] so that her father could attend the London Film School. She was a pupil of Coleridge Primary School. When Anderson was 11 years old, her family moved again, this time to Grand Rapids, Michigan.[6] She attended Fountain Elementary and then City High-Middle School, a program for gifted students with a strong emphasis on the humanities; she graduated in 1986.[5]

Like some other actors (notably Linda Thorson and John Barrowman) Anderson is bidialectal. With her English accent and background, Anderson was mocked and felt out of place in the American Midwest and soon adopted a Midwest accent. To this day, her accent depends on her location — for instance, in an interview with Jay Leno she spoke in an American accent, but shifted it for an interview with Michael Parkinson.[7][8][9]

Anderson was interested in marine biology,[5] but began acting her freshman year in high school productions, and later in community theater, and served as a student intern at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre & School of Theatre Arts. She attended The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago (formerly the Goodman School of Drama), where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990.[10] She also participated in the National Theatre of Great Britain's summer program at Cornell University.[5]

Anderson's brother died in 2011 of a brain tumor, at the age of 30

Loni Anderson

Anderson was born on August 5, 1945 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Maxine Hazel (née Kallin), a model, and Klaydon Carl "Andy" Anderson, an environmental chemist, and grew up in suburban Roseville. As a senior at Alexander Ramsey Senior High School in Roseville in 1963, she was voted Valentine Queen of Valentine's Day Winter Formal.[1] She attended the University of Minnesota.[2] As she says in her autobiography, My Life in High Heels, her father was originally going to name her "Leiloni" but then realized to his horror that when she got to her teen years it was likely to be twisted into "Lay Loni." So it was changed to just plain "Loni".

Mary Anderson

Mary B. "Bebe" Anderson was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She attended Howard College (now Samford University).[2]

Her younger brother James Anderson (1921-1969) was also an actor

Melody Anderson

Melody Anderson (born December 3, 1955) is a Canadian social worker and public speaker specializing in the impact of addiction on families. She is a retired actress, whose most high-profile role was playing Dale Arden in the 1980 adaptation of Flash Gordon. While doing singing, she also trained as an actress, leading to roles in films and television during the 1970s and 1980s.

Nicole Gale Anderson

Anderson was born in Rochester, Indiana. Her father is American, served as a Commander in the United States Navy, and her mother is of Filipino ethnicity.[2] As a child, she won national gymnastics competitions, but retired due to injuries.[3] Anderson was awarded a scholarship to Georgia's Barbizon modeling school at the age of 13. She then began to study acting and attending auditions.[2] She landed several print ads and television commercials, including Mary-Kate & Ashley Online Clothing, Every Girl, Stand Up, and Bratz Pretty 'n' Punk & Treasures.

Daniella Alonso

Alonso was born in New York City. Her mother is Puerto Rican, and her father is Peruvian. She has a brother. She has participated in karate, in which she holds a fourth level green belt. She loves animals and supports PETA,[2] most recently posing in an ad campaign that asked consumers to wear synthetic leather.[3]

Discovered by the Ford Modeling Agency, Alonso began booking jobs for teen magazines like Seventeen, YM, and Teen, which led to her booking commercials for Clairol, Cover girl, Clean and Clear, Kmart, Target, Footlocker, Volkswagen, and others. She has done over thirty national commercials and approximately 20-plus Spanish market advertisements, as well.

Lauren Ambrose

Ambrose was born Lauren Anne D'Ambruoso[1] in New Haven, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Anne (née Wachtel), an interior designer, and Frank D'Ambruoso, a caterer. She is of Italian descent on her father's side[2] and German, English, and Irish on her mother's. Ambrose attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, Wilbur Cross High School, High School in the Community, and the ACES Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven. She is also a trained opera singer who studied voice and opera at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Mädchen Amick

Amick was born in Sparks, Nevada,[1] a few miles east of Reno, Nevada, the daughter of Judy, a medical office manager, and Bill Amick, a musician.[2] Amick's parents are German;[3] the name Mädchen (pronounced [ˈmɛːtçən] ( listen)), which means "girl" or "maiden" in German, was chosen by her parents because they wanted an unusual name.[4] As a young girl, Amick was encouraged by her parents to follow her creative instincts. She learned to play the piano, bass, violin and guitar and took lessons in tap, ballet, jazz and modern dance. In 1987, at the age of 16, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.

Suzy Amis

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Amis first worked as a Ford model before she began acting in the 1980s. She made her feature film debut in the 1985 comedy film Fandango, opposite Kevin Costner. Following Fandango, Amis next had roles in Rocket Gibraltar (1988), Where the Heart Is (1990), and Rich in Love (1993). In 1993, she appeared as Josephine "Jo" Monaghan in The Ballad of Little Jo. Amis later appeared in Blown Away (1994), The Usual Suspects (1995) and the blockbuster Titanic (1997) in which she played Lizzy Calvert, the granddaughter of Rose DeWitt Bukater (Gloria Stuart). That same year, she starred opposite Tom Selleck in the western Last Stand at Saber River and acted in the cult-classic Nadja. Amis quit acting after her last screen appearance in the 1999 film, Judgment Day.

In 2005, Amis co-founded MUSE Elementary,[1] a Reggio-inspired, independent, non-profit school in the Topanga, California area of Los Angeles.

Amis founded Red Carpet Green Dress, a sustainable fashion initative.[1] In 2014, for the fifth ananversery of the founding of Red Carpet Green Dress, Olga Kurylenko will model a custom sustainable fashion gown.[1] The gown was designed by Alice Elia, a student at ESMOD.

Eva Amurri

Amurri was born in New York City, New York, to Italian director Franco Amurri and American actress Susan Sarandon. She attended Friends Seminary (Manhattan) for middle school, and graduated from Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn, New York and Brown University in 2007, majoring in Italian studies

June Allyson

Allyson was born Eleanor Geisman,[2] nicknamed "Ella," in The Bronx, New York City. She was the daughter of Clara (née Provost) and Robert Geisman. She had a brother, Henry, who was two years older. She said she had been raised as a Roman Catholic,[citation needed] but there is discrepancy relating to her early life and her studio biography was often the source of the confusion. Her paternal grandparents, Harry Geisman and Anna Hafner, were immigrants from Germany,[2] although Allyson claimed her last name was originally "Van Geisman", and was of Dutch origin.[3] Studio biographies listed her as "Jan Allyson" born to French-English parents. On her death her daughter said Allyson was born "Eleanor Geisman to a French mother and Dutch father."[4][N 1]

In April 1918 (when Allyson was six months old) her alcoholic father, who had worked as a janitor, abandoned the family. Allyson was brought up in near poverty, living with her maternal grandparents.[5] To make ends meet her mother worked as a telephone operator and restaurant cashier. When she had enough funds, she would occasionally reunite with her daughter, but more often Allyson was "farmed" out to her grandparents or other relatives.[5]

In 1925 (when Allyson was eight) a tree branch fell on her while she was riding on her tricycle with her pet terrier in tow.[6] Allyson sustained a fractured skull and broken back, and her dog was killed. Her doctors said she would never walk again and confined her to a heavy steel brace from neck to hips for four years, and she ultimately regained her health. But when Allyson had become famous she was terrified that people would discover her background from the "tenement side of New York City," and she readily agreed to studio tales of a "rosy life" including a concocted story that she underwent months of swimming exercises in rehabilitation to emerge as a star swimmer.[5] In her later memoirs, Allyson does describe a summer program of swimming that did help her recovery.[7]

After gradually progressing from a wheelchair to crutches to braces, Allyson's true escape from her impoverished life was to go to the cinema, where she was enraptured by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies.[5] As a teen Allyson memorized the trademark Ginger Rogers dance routines; she claimed later to have watched The Gay Divorcee seventeen times.[8] She also tried to emulate the singing styles of movie stars, although she never mastered reading music.[9] When her mother remarried and the family was reunited with a more stable financial standing, Allyson was enrolled in the Ned Wayburn Dancing Academy and began to enter dance competitions with the stage name of "Elaine Peters."[10] With the death of her stepfather and a bleak future ahead, she left high school after completing two and half years, to seek jobs as a dancer. Her first $60-a-week job was as a tap dancer at the Lido Club in Montreal. Returning to New York, she found work as an actress in movie short subjects filmed by Educational Pictures at its Astoria, Long Island studio.[11] Fiercely ambitious, Allyson tried her hand at modeling, but, to her consternation became the "sad-looking before part" in a before-and-after bathing suit magazine ad.[12] Her first career "break" came when Educational cast her as an ingenue opposite singer Lee Sullivan, comic dancers Herman Timberg, Jr. and Pat Rooney, Jr. and future comedy star Danny Kaye. When Educational ceased operations, Allyson moved to Vitaphone in Brooklyn, and starred or co-starred (with dancer Hal Le Roy) in musical shorts.

Kirstie Alley

Kirstie Alley was born in Wichita, Kansas, the daughter of Lillian Mickie (née Heaton), a homemaker, and Robert Deal Alley, who owned a lumber company.[1] Alley is of Irish descent.[2] She has two siblings, Colette and Craig. Alley attended Wichita Southeast High School, graduating in 1969.[3] She attended college at University Of Kansas in 1969.[3] After moving to Los Angeles to pursue Scientology and work as an interior designer, she appeared as a contestant on the popular game show Match Game in 1979, where she won multiple games.[4] She also appeared on the game show Password Plus in 1980. In 1981, a car accident caused by a drunk driver killed her mother and left her father seriously injured. Her father eventually recovered.[3]

Nancy Allen

She was born in New York City, the youngest of three children of Eugene and Florence Allen. Her father was a police lieutenant in Yonkers,[1] where she was raised.

Allen was very shy as a child, so her mother enrolled her in dance classes at age 4. She attended the High School of Performing Arts, where she trained for a dancing career, and then attended Jose Quintano's School for Young Professionals.

Krista Allen

Allen was born in Ventura, California. Allen has an older brother, Dalton Earl Allen, Jr. She grew up in Houston and later lived in Austin, Texas, going to school at Austin Community College and majoring in education. Krista transferred to and graduated from the University of Texas with an education degree.[1] She considered teaching as a profession, interning as a kindergarten teacher, but decided to move back to California and pursue an acting career. Krista is also a certified yoga instructor.[2]

Karen Allen

Allen was born in Carrollton, in rural western Illinois, the daughter of Patricia Allen (née Howell), a teacher, and Carroll Thompson Allen, an FBI agent.[2] She is of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh descent.[3] Her father's job forced the family to move often. "I grew up moving almost every year and so I was always the new kid in school and always in a way was deprived of ever really having any lasting friendships," Allen said in 1987.[4] Although Allen says her father was very much involved in the family, she felt that she and her two sisters grew up in a very female-dominated household.[5] After she graduated from DuVal High School, in Lanham, Maryland, at 17, she moved to New York City to study art and design at Fashion Institute of Technology.[6] She later attended the University of Maryland, College Park for a year and a half,[6] and spent time traveling through South and Central America.[3] In 1974, Allen joined Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts.[7] Three years later, moved back to New York City and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.[3]

Joan Allen

Allen, the youngest of four children, was born in Rochelle, Illinois, the daughter of Dorothea Marie (née Wirth), a homemaker, and James Jefferson Allen, a gas station owner.[1][2] She has an older brother, David, and two older sisters, Mary and Lynn.[3] Allen attended Rochelle Township High School, and was voted most likely to succeed.[citation needed] She first attended Eastern Illinois University, performing in a few plays with John Malkovich, who was also a student, and then Northern Illinois University, where she graduated with a BFA in Theater.

Allen began her performing career as a stage actress and on television before making her film debut in the movie, Compromising Positions (1985). She became a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 1977 when John Malkovich asked her to join.[4] She's been a member ever since. In 1984, she won a Clarence Derwent Award for her portrayal of Hellen Stott in And a Nightingale Sang.[citation needed]

Elizabeth Allen

Born Elizabeth Ellen Gillease in Jersey City, New Jersey, she began her career as a Ford Agency high-fashion model before landing the television role of the “Away We Go!” girl on The Jackie Gleason Show in the 1950s. Thereafter, she honed her stage skills by joining and performing with the Helen Hayes Repertory Group before expanding into the big and small screens. Elizabeth made numerous television appearances in guest starring roles on such programs as The Fugitive, Kojak, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. She was also a regular cast member on TV's Bracken's World, The Paul Lynde Show, C.P.O. Sharkey, Another World and its spin-off, Texas. Her television, film and stage career spanned three decades.

She was featured with William Shatner in "The Hungry Glass", the 16th episode in the first season of Boris Karloff's Thriller in 1961.[3] In 1962, she played a leading role in the first season of 'Combat,' in the episode "No Hallelujahs for Glory" as a persistent war correspondent.

Allen is perhaps best known on TV for her role as the creepy saleslady in the first-season episode of Rod Serling's original version of The Twilight Zone, entitled "The After Hours", where actress Anne Francis (playing 'Miss Marsha White') finally realizes that she is a mannequin and that her month of freedom and living among the humans is over. Allen's saleslady character (seen by no one but Marsha) is the mannequin whose turn in the outside world is up next and has already been delayed by one full day, thus explaining her slightly peeved attitude.

In 1963, Allen starred with John Wayne, Dorothy Lamour and Lee Marvin in the John Ford film Donovan's Reef. She also starred in Diamond Head with Charlton Heston and Yvette Mimieux. Both movies were filmed on location in Hawaii. Allen also appeared with James Stewart in Cheyenne Autumn and won a Laurel Award in 1963 as the year's most promising film actress.

She was twice nominated for Tony Awards for her performances on Broadway in The Gay Life and Do I Hear a Waltz?. She can be heard singing beautifully throughout the original cast album of Waltz, available on CD. Her other notable stage productions on the Great White Way and beyond included Romanoff and Juliet, Lend an Ear, Sherry!, California Suite, The Pajama Game, The Tender Trap, Show Boat, South Pacific, and culminating in the 1980s Broadway musical 42nd Street, as fading star Dorothy Brock.

Allen quietly retired from show business in 1996, after touring numerous cities throughout the world for over a decade with her 42nd Street role from Broadway. This was her last, significant acting job after appearing in the 1980s TV series Texas for two seasons.

Debbie Allen

Allen was born in Houston, Texas, the third child to orthodontist Andrew Arthur Allen Jr. and Vivian (née Ayers) Allen, a poet (Spice of Dawns and other books) and museum art director.[3] She went on to earn a B.A. degree in classical Greek literature, speech, and theater from Howard University. She holds honoris causa Doctorates from Howard University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She currently teaches young dancers. She also taught choreography to former Los Angeles Lakers dancer-turned-singer, Paula Abdul. Her daughter, Vivian Nixon, played Kalimba in the Broadway production of Hot Feet.

Ana Alicia

She was born as Ana Alicia Ortiz in Mexico City to a clothing manufacturing executive mother and a father who worked in business.[1] Her family moved to El Paso, Texas when she was a child. Upon graduating high school in 1973, Ortiz earned a scholarship to Wellesley College, but eventually left, instead pursuing her bachelor's degree in drama at the University of Texas at El Paso to be closer to her mother and three brothers.[2] Her first professional role under an AEA contract was as one of the Pigeon Sisters in a production of The Odd Couple starring Bob Denver at The Adobe Horseshoe Dinner Theater in El Paso.[citation needed]

Tatyana Ali

Tatyana Marisol Ali (born January 24, 1979) is an American actress and R&B singer, best known for her childhood role as Ashley Banks on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.[1] Since January 2010, she has starred as Tyana Jones on the TV One original sitcom Love That Girl!, and has had a recurring role as Roxanne on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless.

Sasha Alexander

Sasha Alexander (born May 17, 1973) is an American actress.

She played the role of Gretchen Witter on Dawson's Creek. She also acted in feature films such as Yes Man (2008); and He's Just Not That Into You (2009). Alexander also acted as former Secret Service/NCIS Special Agent Kate Todd for the first two seasons of NCIS.

She currently stars as Maura Isles on the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles.

Khandi Alexander

Khandi Alexander (born September 4, 1957) is an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She is best known for the roles of Dr. Alexx Woods in the CBS police procedural series CSI: Miami, as LaDonna Batiste-Williams in HBO drama Treme, and as Catherine Duke in NBC sitcom NewsRadio. She also had a major recurring roles in NBC medical drama ER as Jackie Robbins, sister to Dr. Peter Benton, and as Maya Lewis, Olivia Pope's mother in ABC drama Scandal. Alexander also received critical acclaim for her performance in the HBO miniseries The Corner in 2000.

Jane Alexander

Jane Alexander (born October 28, 1939) is an American actress, author and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a Tony Award winner and two-time Emmy Award winner.

Alexander made her Broadway debut in 1968 in The Great White Hope and won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Other Broadway credits include, 6 Rms Riv Vu (1972), The Night of the Iguana (1988), The Sisters Rosensweig (1993) and Honour (1998). She has received a total of seven Tony Award nominations and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994.[1]

She went on to star in the film version of The Great White Hope in 1970 and received the first of four Academy Award nominations for her performance. Her subsequent Oscar nominations were for All the President's Men (1976), Kramer vs Kramer (1979) and Testament (1983). An eight-time Emmy nominee, she received her first nomination for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin (1976). A role that required her to age from 18 to 60. She has won two Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Playing for Time (1980) and Warm Springs (2005).

Jaimie Alexander

Alexander was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and moved to Grapevine, Texas when she was four years old. She is the only girl in a family of four boys.[1] Alexander first got into acting in grade school, where she took theater for fun. Alexander stated that she was actually kicked out of theater when she was in high school because she could not sing and went into sports.[2] When she was 17, she substituted for a friend at a meeting with a scouting agency and she met her manager, Randy James, who sent her some scripts. After graduation, a year and a half later, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting.[2]

Lola Albright

Lola Jean Albright (born July 20, 1925, Akron, Ohio) is an American singer and actress.

Albright worked as a model before moving to Hollywood. She began her motion picture career with a bit part in the 1947 film The Unfinished Dance, and followed it (after several unbilled parts) with an important role in the acclaimed 1949 hit Champion. For the next several years, she appeared in secondary roles in over twenty films, including several 'B' Westerns. Albright also acted in guest roles in several television series, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The People's Choice, My Three Sons, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, Medical Center, McMillan & Wife, Columbo. The Incredible Hulk, The Dick Van Dyke Show – in which she played the petulant and manipulative actress, "Paula Marshall" – Quincy, M.E. and the murderous bail bonds woman, Lola Turkel, in the first season (Episode 22) of Starsky and Hutch entitled "The Bounty Hunter."

In 1958, she won the role of Edie Hart on Peter Gunn, a television detective series produced by Blake Edwards and with the theme music that made Henry Mancini famous. Albright played a nightclub singer who was the romantic interest of Peter Gunn, played by Craig Stevens. In 1959 she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series. Her role required singing and led to the 1957 release of her music album Lola Wants You, as well as her album 1959 Dreamsville, in which her songs were accompanied by Henry Mancini and his orchestra.[2][3]

Albright's popularity led to several major film roles, including Elvis Presley's 1962 film, Kid Galahad; the 1964 French film Les Felins by director René Clément; and the epic western The Way West.

In 1964, she appeared as Duff Daniels in the episode "Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones" with her former Peter Gunn co-star Craig Stevens in his short-lived CBS drama Mr. Broadway.

In 1966, she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress award at the 16th Berlin International Film Festival for her role in Lord Love a Duck.[4]

Albright temporarily replaced Dorothy Malone as Constance Mackenzie on the hit primetime soap opera Peyton Place, when Malone had to undergo emergency surgery. Albright continued to perform both in films and as a television guest actor until her retirement in the mid 1980s.

Donzaleigh Abernathy

• Murder in Mississippi (TV) (1990) -- Sue Brown
• Ghost Dad (1990) -- E.R. Nurse
• Grass Roots (TV) (1992) -- Cora Mae Turner
• Ned Blessing: The True Story of My Life (TV) (1993) -- Effie Pettit
• Night of the Running Man (1994) -- Francine, The Hacker
• Out of Darkness (TV) (1994) -- MHA
• NYPD Blue (TV) (1994) -- Mrs. Danton
• Camp Nowhere (1994) -- Dorothy Welton
• Family Album (TV) (1994) -- Lorrie
• Dangerous Minds (TV) (1996) -- Irene Timmons
• Miss Evers' Boys (TV) (1997) -- Nurse Betty
• EZ Streets (TV) (1997) -- City Council Person Wyler
• The Burning Zone (TV) (1997) -- Nora Dawson
• Don King: Only in America (TV) (1997) -- Henrietta King
• The Pretender (TV) (1998) -- Susan Healy
• Chicago Hope (TV) (1998) -- Porschia Tate
• The Tempest (TV) (1998) -- Mambo Ezeli
• Stranger in My House (1999) -- Nurse
• Any Day Now (1998–2002) -- Sara Jackson
• 24 (2003) -- Assistant
• Gods and Generals (2003) -- Martha
• Strong Medicine (TV) (2003) -- Child Psychologist
• Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003) -- Esmerelda
• The Closer (2005) -- Mistress of Ceremonies
• House M.D. (TV) (2006) -- Brady
• Commander-in-Chief (TV) (2005–2006) -- Reporter Patricia
• Grilled (2006) -- Karen
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (TV) (2008) -- Carolina Bell
• Lincoln Heights (TV) (2008–2009) -- Hazel Glass
• The Walking Dead (TV) (2012–Present) -- Dr. Stevens

Amy Acker

Acker was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, to a homemaker mother and a lawyer father.[1][2] She graduated from Lake Highlands High School in Dallas. She subsequently earned a bachelor's degree in theater from Southern Methodist University.[3]

In her junior year of college, Acker modeled for J. Crew's catalog. In 1999 she was nominated for a Leon Rabin award for "Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role" for her performance in the play Thérèse Raquin. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the same year. She worked as a stage actress for several seasons, including a stint at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin.