Rachael Leigh Cook Biography

Posted by Smollett
May 9, 2008

Rachael Leigh Cook.jpg

Actress Rachael Leigh Cook began her career in the public eye at a young age, deciding she wanted to model in the second grade. Before she tried her hand at acting, Cook appeared extensively in print campaigns and was featured in a public service announcement encouraging people to be foster parents. The Minnesota native began acting at age 15, a career choice that would have her working steadily through her teen years, appearing as co-star, and later the lead of numerous films and television programs. Petite, with expressive pixyish features and hair that has been sandy blonde, chestnut brown and everything in between, the actress was drafted to play younger versions of performers as varying as Holly Hunter, Angelina Jolie and Parker Posey.

Cook made her film acting debut in the 1994 short “26 Summer Street” and then landed a role in the first feature for which she auditioned, playing Mary Anne in the film “The Baby-sitter’s Club” (1995), based on the popular children’s book series. That same year, she co-starred as Becky Thatcher in “Tom and Huck”, an adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic novel starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro. An auspicious beginning with impressive performances in these family films led to a role in the forgettable “Carpool” (1996). She had a small turn in the 1997 indie comedy “The House of Yes” playing the ubiquitous Parker Posey’s obsessed Jackie-O as a child. 1998 saw the young actress co-starring in “Strike!/The Hairy Bird”, a teen comedy set in the 1960s about a girls’ boarding school fighting the admittance of boys and featuring such up and comers as Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann and Monica Keena. As the mischievous and mean-spirited Abby Sawyer in “Strike!”, Cook played a role quite unlike her previous good girl roles. Later that year, the busy actress appeared in “Living Out Loud”, as the teenaged Judith (portrayed as an adult by Holly Hunter).

Perhaps most familiar to TV viewers for her riveting performance in a 1998 anti-heroin public service announcement, Cook has done notable work in movies for television. She starred as a rape victim fighting for custody of her son in the CBS drama “Country Justice” (1997) and essayed the younger version of Angelina Jolie’s character in the miniseries “True Women” (CBS, 1997), a period piece about the women who helped settle Texas. Cook earned favorable notices as a traumatized assault victim in Showtime’s “The Defenders: Payback” (1997), and while the role of the quiet and withdrawn girl called for little dialogue, Cook capably conveyed the character’s emotional fragility.

Cook continued to rack up more film credits, this time in starring roles. As the title character in the teen comedy “She’s All That” (1999), featuring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Anna Paquin, she starred as a high school nobody that a popular boy bets he can turn into a prom queen. Cook was featured in “The Bumblebee Flies Anyway” with Elijah Wood, and starred in “The Hi-Line” (both 1999), a drama about an adopted girl searching for the truth about her origins. While she was wasted as a computer programmer in the pallid thriller “Anti-Trust”, the petite actress shone as an aspiring rock singer and de facto leader of a girl group in “Josie and the Pussycats” (both 2001). Having formed her own production company, Ben’s Sister Prods., Cook went on to co-executive produce and star in the indie thriller “Invisible Girl” (lensed 2001).

Cook’s talent—along with others—was wasted in “Blow Dry” (2001), an overblown romantic comedy set in the world of the National Hairdressing Championships where the more outlandish and hair-sprayed styles win the day. In “Texas Rangers” (2001), an earnest but ultimately failed western about the forming of the famed group of lawman, Cook starred as the daughter of an aging sheriff who falls in love with one of the Rangers (James Van Der Beek). After a role in the bank heist comedy “Scorched” (2002), she appeared in “Tangled” (2003), a revenge thriller about a young man (Shawn Hatosy) who pieces together for police the savage beating that landed him in the hospital, including his involvement with his now-missing girlfriend (Cook) and obsessive roommate (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). She then starred in the coming-of-age drama “Stateside” (2003), playing a schizophrenic singer in love with a rich but lonely teenager (Jonathan Tucker) whose mutual love endures despite his forced entry into the Marines and her admittance to a mental institution.

Cook continued appearing in low-budget features, though given the quality of the finished product an astute observer would question why. In “Bookies” (2003), she played a college student wooed by a small-time bookie (Nick Stahl) who uses his newfound wealth to impress her. Then after a supporting role in the sci-fi noir “The Big Empty” (2003), Cook appeared as a waitress in the indie thriller “29 Palms” (2003), about a drifter (Jeremy Davies) who steals a bag of money and is hunted down by a hitman (Chris O’Donnell) hired by the owners of a Native American casino. Cook then appeared in the French-made “Tempo” (2004), a run-of-the-mill heist picture in which she played a jewelry store clerk with access to the safe who’s approached by a an antique smuggler (Hugh Dancy) to rob the store. She next played an inexperienced reporter who discovers she’s the target of a serial killer in the straight-to-video release “American Crime” (2005).

Cook went back to the suddenly more respectable small screen, starting with the epic miniseries, “Into the West” (TNT, 2005), playing a young woman who forges her own way in an unforgiving land. After an appearance on the sketch variety show “Weekends at the D.L.” (Comedy Central, 2005) and an episode of the animated satire “Robot Chicken” (Cartoon Network, 2004- ), she landed a recurring role on the hit primetime drama, “Las Vegas” (NBC, 2003- ), playing a real estate agent who falls into a steamy affair with Danny McCoy (Josh Duhamel), understudy to the head of security (James Caan) for several Vegas casinos.

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