Eliza Dushku Biography
A talented, soulful child actress who segued into teen and adult roles beginning in the late 1990s, dark-haired, brown-eyed siren in the making Eliza Dushku displayed a refreshing edginess as a young performer that transcended the typical girl-next-door sweetness and moved on to her sultry and downright scary portrayal of the villainous Faith on The WB’s “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” (from 1998 to 2000). Raised in Massachusetts, Dushku appeared at the Watertown Children’s Theater beginning in the first grade, performing in productions and also serving as a sign-language interpreter for hearing-impaired audience members. In 1991, Dushku was discovered in a casting search for the small coming-of-age romance “That Night” and tapped to co-star as the young, awestruck neighbor of a troubled sixteen-year-old (Juliette Lewis), who helps the older girl navigate her forbidden romance with bad boy Rick (C Thomas Howell). Dushku made an impressive screen debut, evincing all of the dreamy idealism of her character’s youth without resorting to unrealistic sentimentality. The film was released in 1993, the same year that she was featured in her follow-up role as the daughter of Robert De Niro’s sadistic character in the critically acclaimed biopic “This Boy’s Life”. 1994 saw her call Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnold Schwarzenegger Mom and Dad in James Cameron’s humorous actioner “True Lies”.
Dushku made her TV debut at age 14 in the CBS “Hallmark Hall of Fame” presentation “Journey” (1995). After this, she returned to the big screen with featured turns as rebellious teens in the divorce-themed comedy-drama “Bye Bye, Love” (1995) and the Hawaii-set teen film “Race the Sun” (1996). Television beckoned again in the late 1990s, and Dushku made an auspicious comeback with a recurring role on The WB supernatural series “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer”, playing the eponymous heroine’s nemesis Faith, a fellow slayer with nefarious motives. Dushku’s portrayal of the striking, black leather-clad villain was appropriately chilling, and won the actress legions of fans while paving the way for a post-adolescent career. A surprise guest turn on a 2000 two-episode arc of the spin-off series “Angel” (The WB) reprised the role of Faith, and Dushku lightened up some that same year with a featured role in the sharp cheerleading comedy “Bring it On”. In “Soul Survivors” (2001), she was alongside other young Hollywood favorites like Casey Affleck and Wes Bentley. 2002, though, proved a banner year in the actress’ career, proving her ability and rising star status in two high profile features, “The New Guy”, which marked her return to teen comedy, and the crime drama “City By the Sea”, in which the spunky ingenue was reteamed with Robert De Niro. The following year, Dushku joined a series of young up-and-coming actors for the Rob Schmidt indie project “Wrong Turn” (2003).
- Also Credited As:
Eliza Patricia Dushku - Born:
on 12/30/80 in Boston, Massachusetts - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Brother: Nate Dushku. older; featured in “Antitrust” (2001)
- Brothers: has three, all older
- Father: teaches in Boston
- Mother: teaches in Boston
Significant Others
- Companion: Colby. featured in Ralph Lauren advertisements
Education
- Watertown High School, Watertown, Massachusetts
Milestones
- 1991 At age 10, co-starred in the 1961 coming-of-age drama “That Night” (released in 1993), playing an eleven-year-old girl who aids in the forbidden romance of the sixteen-year-old neighbor (Juliette Lewis) she idolizes
- 1993 Had a featured role in “This Boy’s Life” as the daughter of Robert De Niro’s character
- 1994 Played the daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in the action vehicle “True Lies”
- 1995 Had an early TV credit in the CBS “Hallmark Hall of Fame” presentation “Journey”
- 1995 Played Paul Reiser’s troubled daughter in the divorce-themed comedy feature “Bye Bye, Love”
- 1996 Acted in the ensemble of the Hawaii-set teen comedy-drama “Race the Sun”
- 1998 Had a recurring role on The WB’s popular series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, playing a morally corrupt fellow slayer named Faith
- 2000 Guest starred in a two-episode recurring role on the supernatural spin-off “Angel” (The WB), reprising the role of Faith
- 2000 Was featured in the cheereading comedy “Bring It On”
- 2001 Cast in Kevin Smith’s “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”
- 2001 Co-starred in the thriller “Soul Survivors”
- 2002 Acted in the teen comedy “The New Guy”
- 2002 Reteamed with Robert De Niro in the crime drama “City By the Sea”
- 2003 Starred in the Fax drama “Tru Calling,” where she played a city morgue worker who relives the past
- 2003 Co-starred in the indie horror thriller “Wrong Turn”
- Appeared on stage at the Watertown Children’s Theater, performing in productions and translating dialogue into sign language for hearing-impaired audience members
Nicole Eggert Biography
Lithe, blonde former child actor of films and TV who has grown into siren roles. Eggert made her TV debut in the telefilm, “When She Was Bad…” (1979). After making her feature debut in George Cukor’s “Rich and Famous” (1981), Eggert started appearing regularly in film and TV projects. Other feature credits include “The Clan of the Cave Bear” (1986), as the adolescent Darryl Hannah, and “Kinjite” (1989), as a pretty juvenile saved from the seamy world of prostitution by Charles Bronson. Eggert is probably best known for two-year turn as lifeguard Summer Quinn in the highly rated syndicated series, “Baywatch”.
- Also Credited As:
Nicole Elizabeth Eggert - Born:
on 01/13/72 in Glendale, California - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Daughter: Dilyn. born in 1998
- Father: Rolf Eggert. German
- Mother: Gina Eggert. British
Significant Others
- Companion: Justin Zonder.
- Companion: Scott Baio. had relationship when they co-starred on “Charles in Charge”
Milestones
- 1977 Won Miss Universe Petite Division at age five
- 1979 TV-movie debut, “When She Was Bad…”
- 1981 Feature debut, “Rich and Famous”
- 1987 Co-starred in the syndicated series, “Charles in Charge”
- 1992 Appeared in the short-lived series, “Home Fires”
- Appeared in commercials
- Episodic TV debut, as William Shatner’s daughter in “T.J. Hooker”
- Joined the cast of the syndicated series, “Baywatch”
- Raised in Huntington Beach, California
Zooey Deschanel Biography
An attractive young brunette with a style more reminiscent of an early Hollywood ingenue than the average crop of teen stars, Zooey Deschanel–the daughter of Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and actress Mary Jo Deschanel (”The Right Stuff” 1983) and named after the beloved J D Salinger character–began to quickly rack up credits starting in 1998, making her TV debut in an episode of “Veronica’s Closet”. The following year she was featured in her first film, “Mumford”, a comedy about a man (Loren Dean) posing as a psychologist in a small town. Here Deschanel played a troubled young woman obsessed with models and impressed critics and the film’s limited audience with her spot-on portrayal.
In 2000 she was featured in the ensemble of the long-awaited Cameron Crowe film “Almost Famous”, a semi-autobiographical look at a teenage rock journalist who goes on tour with an up and coming band. Deschanel played the older and musically influential sister of the character based on Crowe (played by newcomer Patrick Fugit). Decked out in timely miniskirts with teased hair, Deschanel was at ease in the period piece, lighting up the screen in her scenes and proving an asset to the film. The actress was poised to breakout into the big time in 2000, lensing featured roles in the mental institution-set drama “Manic”, the comedic crime caper “Big Trouble” and the romantic comedy “Beauty Loop”.
In 2002, Deschanel co-starred with Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal in the independent feature “The Good Girl” playing a drugstore cosmetics girl who indulges in some sadistic over-makeovers of her clueless customers. That same year, she was cast in the Stephan Gaghan action thriller “Abandon” and made a wildly funny guest appearance on the hit NBC sit-com “Frasier” as Roz’s cynical yet seductive young cousin Jen, who nearly derails the marriage of Frasier’s station manager Kenny (Tom McGowan) . The following year, Deschanel co-starred (opposite Paul Schneider) as a boarding school virgin who returns to her small town and falls in love with the town’s “lady’s man” in the romantic drama feature “All The Real Girls” (2003).
The actress returned to the eyes of more mainstream audiences when she co-starred in director Jon Favreau’s holiday charmer “Elf” (2003) as a comely department store Santa’s helper who befriends Buddy (Will Ferrell), a human raised by North Pole elves on a journey to discover his true heritage.
- Also Credited As:
Zooey Claire Deschanel - Born:
on 01/17/80 in California - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Father: Caleb Deschanel.
- Mother: Mary Jo Deschanel. appeared in “The Right Stuff”
- Sister: Emily E Deschanel. born on October 11, 1976
Education
- Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
- Crossroads, Santa Monica, California
Milestones
- 1998 TV acting debut in an episode of “Veronica’s Closet”
- 1999 Film acting debut in “Mumford”, directed by Lawrence Kasdan
- 2000 Co-starred as the sister of the main character in Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical “Almost Famous”
- 2002 Co-starred in the Stephen Gaghan’s thriller feature “Abandon”
- 2002 Co-starred in the feature “The Good Girl”
- 2003 Starred as Will Ferrell’s love interest in the holiday movie “Elf”
- 2003 Starred as a virgin who captures the heart of a womanizer in the romantic drama “All The Real Girls”; received nomination for an Independent Spirit Award for best female lead
- 2004 Cohosted the Sundance Film Festival, with Jake Gyllenhaal
- 2004 Starred in the black comedy “Eulogy” which follows three generations of a family, who come together for the funeral of the patriarch
- 2005 Portrayed the daughter of a reclusive novelist (Ed Harris) in “Winter Passing”
- 2005 Starred as Trillian in the big-screen adaptation of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
- Played Little Red Riding Hood in the Interact Theater Company’s production of the musical “Into the Woods”
- Will join Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker in the comedy “Failure to Launch” (lensed 2005)
Jessica Capshaw Biography
Jessica Capshaw’s mother is actress Kate Capshaw and her stepfather is modern Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. One would assume her career in any facet of the entertainment industry would be ensured, but the enthusiastic and well-trained blonde actress has worked hard to prove her talent and make her way on her own. Capshaw’s debut screen credit was as an intern on her stepfather’s fact-based Holocaust film “Schindler’s List” (1993) and her first two big screen appearances were in films starring her mother. Still, Capshaw has insisted on being judged on her own merits rather than those of her accomplished parents and auditioned for and won the roles on her own. The actress made her feature debut in “The Locusts” (1997), altering her appearance, donning spectacles and darkening her hair to play a plain small-town girl in this family secrets drama starring Kate Capshaw and Vince Vaughn. Her next big screen appearance came with “The Love Letter” (1999), an ensemble romantic comedy starring and produced by her mother. A small role in this feature, which did little business at the box office and impressed few critics, did little to further her career. She broke away from family projects with a part in the independent feature “Denial”, which debuted on Cinemax in 1998.
Capshaw made her TV debut with a guest role on ABC’s short-lived police series “High Incident”, and guested on a 1999 episode of “ER” (NBC) before landing a regular role on the ABC sitcom “Odd Man Out”. This starring role would keep her in the public eye and establish her name and reputation apart from those of her famous relatives. On the series, Capshaw played a booker at a modeling agency who shares a home with her older sister Julia (Markie Post) and Julia’s son and three daughters. The Brown-educated actress has studied at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she performed in the company’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, as well as appearing onstage in “The Cherry Orchard” and “The Grapes of Wrath” at Harvard-Westlake High School and “Arcadia” at Brown University.
- Born:
on 08/09/76 in Columbia, Missouri - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Father: Robert Capshaw. met Kate Capshaw when he was principal of the school at which she was teaching; divorced c. 1978
- Grandfather: maternal grandfather
- Grandmother: maternal grandmother
- Half-brother: Sawyer Spielberg. born on May 10, 1992; son of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Half-brother: Theo Spielberg. born c. 1988; African-American; adopted son of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Half-sister: Destry Allyn Spielberg. born on December 1, 1996; daughter of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Half-sister: Mikeala George Spielberg. born on February 28, 1996; adopted daughter of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Half-sister: Sasha Spielberg. born in June 1990; daughter of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Mother: Kate Capshaw. divorced from Capshaw’s father c. 1978; later married Steven Spielberg
- Step-brother: Max Spielberg. born in June 1985, son of Spielberg and Amy Irving
- Step-father: Steven Spielberg. married Kate Capshaw on October 12, 1991
Education
- Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, English literature, BA, 1998
- Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England
- Harvard-Westlake High School, Los Angeles, California
Milestones
- 1978 Moved with family to New York at age two (date approximate)
- 1990 Discovered an interest in acting at age 14; went on to perform in high school productions of “The Cherry Orchard”, “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Tea & Sympathy” (date approximate)
- 1993 Had first screen credit as an intern for her stepfather’s acclaimed Holocaust film “Schindler’s List”
- 1996 Made TV debut with a guest starring role on ABC’s short lived police adventure series “High Incident”, executive produced by Spielberg
- 1997 Made big screen debut in “The Locusts”, co-starring her mother
- 1998 Was featured in “Denial”, an independent comedy screened at festivals and aired on Cinemax
- 1999 Was a regular on the ABC comedy series “Odd Man Out”
- 1999 Appeared in “The Love Letter”, starring Kate Capshaw
- 1999 Guest starred on an episode of NBC’s hit medical drama “ER”
- Relocated with mother to California