VideoDetective.com

Kristen Bell

Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell
Born: Jul 18, 1980 in Detroit, Michigan
Occupation: Actor
Active: 2000s
Major Genres: Comedy, Comedy Drama
Career Highlights: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Veronica Mars: Season 03, Reefer Madness
First Major Screen Credit: The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay (2002)
16 Videos for Kristen Bell
When in Rome (2010) Gossip Girl: Season 01 (2007) Veronica Mars: Season 02 (2005)
Astro Boy (2009) Heroes: Season 02 (2007) Reefer Madness (2004)
Couples Retreat (2009) Pulse (2006) Spartan (2004)
Serious Moonlight (2009) Veronica Mars: Season 03 (2006) Pootie Tang (2001)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) Deepwater (2005) Polish Wedding (1998)
Fanboys (2007)
Photos
IDImageUrlDescriptionCreditCategoryitem_Id
Biography:

For some actors, success just seems to come naturally. In the case of talented stage and screen beauty Kristen Bell, it wasn't so much a matter of if she was going to be a star after realizing her dream during an early performance as a banana in {+Raggedy Ann and Andy} at the tender age of 12 -- but when she would finally make the big time.

Paralyzed with stage fright as she waited for her cue off-stage, Bell was offered a word of encouragement by her supportive mother that would ultimately give her the drive to realize her life's calling. A native of Detroit whose early stage experiences eventually led her to study at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Bell saw her early dreams of on-stage success begin to come true when she was chosen to portray Becky Thatcher in a Broadway production of {+The Adventures of Tom Sawyer} shortly after arriving in the Big Apple.

Realizing that she had what it took to find success onscreen as well as on-stage, Bell was soon packing her bags for Los Angeles and landing small supporting roles in such features as Polish Wedding and Pootie Tang. She returned briefly to Broadway for a role in the 2002 revival of {+The Crucible}, playing alongside well-known stage and screen actors Liam Neeson and Laura Linney.

In 2003, Bell impressed television viewers with a solid performance in the made-for-television drama The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay before moving on to essay the unforgettable role of a young girl struggling to raise her three stepbrothers after their drug-addicted mother is sent to jail in Gracie's Choice.

If television had offered Bell her most successful roles to this point in her career, the magnetic young screen presence still had feature aspirations, as evidenced by her involvement in David Mamet's 2004 thriller Spartan. Of course, Bell wasn't about to turn her back on the small screen just yet, and following appearances on such popular series as Everwood and Deadwood, she took the lead as a sort-of new-millennium Nancy Drew on UPN's Veronica Mars.

If that, combined with a lively performance in the Showtime musical spoof Reefer Madness, wasn't enough to make young Bell a household name, subsequent performances in the college comedy Fifty Pills and the thriller Deepwater would at least serve to expand her feature-film resumé.

With Veronica Mars still pulling in impressive ratings in mid-2006, Bell took another brief break from television for a key role in the Wes Craven-produced technological shocker Pulse, an Americanized remake of Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's landmark 2001 frightener.

~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide.