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Keri Lynn Russell (born March 23, 1976)
is a Golden Globe-winning American actress and dancer.
After appearing in a number of made for television films
and series during the mid-1990s, she came to fame for
portraying the title role of Felicity Porter on the
series Felicity, which ran from 1998 to 2002. Russell
has since appeared in several films, including We Were
Soldiers, The Upside of Anger, Mission: Impossible III
and Waitress.
Early life: Russell was born in Fountain Valley,
California to David Russell, a Nissan Motors executive,
and Stephanie Stephens. She has an older brother, Todd,
and a younger sister, Julie. Russell grew up in Dallas,
Texas; Mesa, Arizona; and Denver, Colorado, moving
frequently because of her father's job.
Career: Russell first appeared on television as a
cast member of the New Mickey Mouse Club variety show on
the Disney Channel. She was on the show from 1991 to
1993 and co-starred with future pop stars Christina
Aguilera, Britney Spears, JC Chasez, and Justin
Timberlake. In 1992 she appeared in Honey, I Blew Up the
Kid alongside Rick Moranis. Russell subsequently
appeared in several film and television roles, including
the 1996 made-for-television film The Babysitter's
Seduction.
She also had a role on the short-lived
soap opera series Malibu Shores the same year. In 1994,
she appeared in Jon Bon Jovi's music video
"Always" with Jack Noseworthy and on Married
with Children. Russell has also appeared in the sitcom
Boy Meets World as Mr. Feeny's niece.
From 1998 to 2002, Russell starred as the title
character on the successful WB Network series Felicity;
she won a Golden Globe for the role in 1999. Russell's
long and curly hair was one of her character's defining
characteristics, and a drastic hairstyle change at the
beginning of the show's second season was considered to
be the cause of a significant drop in the show's
ratings.
As a result, new policies were enacted
at the network requiring hairstyle changes by cast to be
approved by the network's executives. Felicity 's
ratings drop also coincided with the show's move to a
Sunday night time slot, so it is unclear exactly how
much effect the hairstyle change actually had. During
the show's run, Russell appeared in the films Eight Days
a Week, The Curve and Mad About Mambo, all of which
received only limited releases in North America. Her
next role was in the Mel Gibson-directed film We Were
Soldiers, playing the wife of an American serviceman.
The film was released in March 2002, two months before
the end of Felicity 's run.
When Felicity ended, Russell took a break from acting
and even considered quitting the profession. She moved
to New York City and took two years off to avoid the
business of Hollywood, spending time with friends.
Russell subsequently made her off-Broadway stage debut
in 2004, appearing opposite Jeremy Piven, Andrew
McCarthy, and Ashlie Atkinson in Neil LaBute's Fat Pig.
In 2005, she returned to television and film, beginning
with an appearance in the Hallmark Hall of Fame
television movie The Magic of Ordinary Days and in the
theatrical film The Upside of Anger, where she appeared
alongside Kevin Costner, Joan Allen and Evan Rachel
Wood. In the same year, Russell also appeared in the
television miniseries Into the West.
Although a number of her Felicity co-stars went on to
appear in producer J. J. Abrams' series, Alias, Russell
declined invitations to be part of the show. In a
seminar at the Museum of Television and Radio, Abrams
said, "I've asked Keri if she would ever do it, and
I usually get this, sort of like, giggle—and then she
hangs up". In 2005, Abrams asked Russell to join
the cast of Mission: Impossible III, a film he directed,
and she accepted.
The film was released on May 5, 2006. In
the summer of 2006, Russell was chosen to be a celebrity
spokeswoman for CoverGirl Cosmetics. Before she was in
Mission Impossible: III she was screen tested for the
role of "Lois Lane" in Superman Returns but
lost the role to Kate Bosworth with whom she is
co-starring in The Girl In The Park.
Russell has taped two episodes as a guest character on
the NBC show Scrubs in 2007. She played Melody, a
sorority sister and good friend of Elliot (Sarah
Chalke). The first episode aired on April 26, and the
second on May 3. Her most recent film role was in
Waitress, a well-reviewed independent film in which she
plays Jenna, a pregnant waitress in the American South;
it was the fourth film in a row in which Russell had
played a pregnant woman.
The film opened on May 4, 2007 and
Russell's performance was positively received by
critics, with Michael Sragow of The Baltimore Sun
writing that Russell's performance had "aesthetic
character" and "welds tenderness and
fierceness with quiet heat". In June 2007, Russell
will appear in The Keri Kronicles, a reality show/sitcom
sponsored by CoverGirl and airing on MySpace; the show
is scheduled to be filmed at Russell's home in Manhattan
and will spotlight her life.
Russell has also appeared in three films that have yet
to be released in the United States: August Rush, a
drama, and Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story (titled
Rohtenburg for its German release), in which she plays
Katie Armstrong, a graduate student who writes a thesis
paper on an infamous cannibal murder case, and the
thriller The Girl In The Park, opposite Sigourney
Weaver, Kate Bosworth and Alessandro Nivola.
Personal life: In 2005, several reports claimed
that Russell was set to adopt Scientology, after working
with actor Tom Cruise, who is a Scientologist, on
Mission: Impossible III. Russell's representative
subsequently threatened to sue the reporter who first
made the claim. Stories about the incident had noted
that Russell is of Jewish heritage and religion; older
reports, which had originally suggested her conversion
to Scientology, had mentioned that she was once a member
of the Mormon church.
As of 2006, Russell resides in Manhattan. Russell and
Shane Deary, a carpenter she met through mutual friends,
became engaged in 2006 and were married on February 14,
2007 in New York. Russell gave birth to a boy, named
River Russell Deary, on June 9, 2007.Russell had a
midwife-assisted hospital birth; she has described her
pregnancy experience as "real great and easy".
She also dated Felicity co-star Scott Speedman
throughtout the show`s run. |
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