Kristen Bell

Biography: This petite actress is, as Abel Koontz's daughter's roommate described her Veronica character, "cute as a bug" and, I might add, sharp as a tack. Buffy with a brain, if you will. Kristen grew up in Huntington Woods, a suburb of Detroit. She has two sisters, Sara and Jody, and is of Irish and Polish ancestry. At age 11, she won her first audition and played a banana and a tree in a community theater production of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Kristen attended Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak, Michigan, where she starred as Dorothy in a production of The Wizard of Oz in 1997. She had supporting roles in Fiddler on the Roof (1995), Lady Be Good (1996) and Li'l Abner (1998). Kristen studied musical theater at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Yes, that was her hanging in Washington Square Park. She learned her craft well as evidenced in 2005 by her sly performance in Showtime's Reefer Madness. She has also comported herself admirably in recent talk show appearances. Kristen made her Broadway debut in 2001 as the original Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In 2002, she played opposite heavyweights Laura Linney and Liam Neeson as Susanna Walcott in the Broadway revival of the late Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

She has appeared Off-Broadway in Reefer Madness and also in productions of Hair, The Wizard of Oz and The Miracle Worker. No grass grows under this girl's feet unless it's in "Reefer Madness"!… Expand