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Revision as of 05:32, 17 February 2018

Elizabeth Berkley is an American television, theatre, and film actress. Berkeley's most notable roles were as the brainy girl from Bayside High on television show Saved By the Bell and as exotic dancer Nomi Malone in the 1995 Paul Verhoven film Showgirls.


Early Life

Berkeley was born and raised in Farmington Hills, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit in Oakland County. She is the daughter of Jere, a gift basket business owner, and Fred Berkley, a lawyer. Her family is Jewish [3], she was raised in the Conservative tradition of Judaism, and at age 13 became bat mitzvahed. Berkley was born with heterochromia, the condition of differently colored irises; her right eye is half green and half brown, and her left eye is all green. From a young age she danced, and she practiced in a room that her parents arranged for her in the basement of their house. When Elizabeth was five her parents enrolled her at Detroit Dance Company. In 1982 at age ten she auditioned for the lead role in the film Annie, but was turned down because she was too tall. As her love for dancing increased, she became more interested in pursuing it professionally, traveling to New York to train with other dancers and choreographers. She began to take part in several ballets, including Swan Lake and in 1983 she appeared in some musicals (sometimes singing in Italian). She graduated in 1990 from North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills after previously having attended the Cranbrook Kingswood School, a private school in Bloomfield Hills. She attended at the same time as actress Selma Blair.

Television & Film Career

Besides dancing, Berkeley's tall, slender figure won her a contract as a model with the Elite Modeling company. She made her television film debut in 1987 with a role in the television film Frog and following this, made a number of guest appearances on several television shows including Gimme A Break! (1986), Silver Spoons (1986), Day by Day (1988), and Valerie (1988). In the summer of 1989 Berkeley was in Los Angeles and auditioned for the part of Kelly Kapowski for the upcoming after-school teen comedy Saved by the Bell. Berkely however did not get the part she auditioned for (it went to Tiffani Thiessen and instead had the role of Jessie Spano created for her by the show's producers. She played from 1989 to 1993, as well as in both of the show's television film installments.

During her run on Saved By the Bell Berkeley made a number of other television appearances as a guest star, most notably on Life Goes On (1990), Raven (1992), Step by Step (1992), Baywatch (1993), and Crossroads (1993). In 1994, Berkeley began taking and filming for theatrical releases as well as continuing to guest star on popular television shows including Diagnosis Murder in 1994. Her first film appearance came in the small independent film Molly & Gina.

Screen capture from Showgirls 1995

In 1995, Berkley's film with Paul Verhoven called Showgirls hit theatres. The sex- and nudity-laden film was given a controversial NC-17 rating in the United States (the first big budget film that was deliberately intended to receive this rating), was a box office bomb and was universally panned by critics. Berkeley received $100,000 for the role and eventually left her feeling like she would be typecast in Hollywood. [4] Despite it's poor showing, the film has gone on to become a cult movie classic and is the top 20 highest grossing films ever for production company MGM. Shortly after her appearance in the film Berkeley graduated from UCLA with a degree in English literature. She eventually was signed to United Talent Agency and began receiving more film roles.

Her first role post-Showgirls was a supporting role in the all-female led cast First Wives Club in 1996 and was a Madonna body double in the independent film The Real Blonde in 1997. She continued to appear in films both in big budget and independents including Random Encounter (1998), Last Call (1999), Taxman (1999), Tail Lights Fade (1999), and a small role alongside Al Pacino in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday also in 1999. In 1999 she performed on stage in London as Honey in Lenny, opposite Eddie Izzard, and was directed by the legendary Sir Peter Hall. In 2001, Berkeley began to turn the heads of film credits when she played a key supporting actress in Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. Her performances in Roger Dodger (2002) opposite friend Jennifer Beals and Moving Malcolm (2003), two independent movies released in 2002 and 2003, impressed the critics. She made her Broadway debut in Sly Fox in February 2004, three months after her marriage to New York nude artist Greg Lauren. She then returned to New York City in the Off-Broadway production Hurlyburly directed by Scott Elliott and co-starring Ethan Hawke, Parker Posey and Wallace Shawn. She received some of the best reviews of her career for her performance as Bonnie. In 2006 stage she appeared at the sixth annual 24 Hour Plays alongside Jennifer Aniston, Rosie Perez, and Lili Taylor, in which six writers, six directors, twenty-four actors, and production crews have twenty-four hours to write, direct, and perform six ten-minute plays.

Berkley has been seen in many dramatic television roles, guest starring on series such as CSI: Miami, NYPD Blue, Without a Trace, Threshold, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She stayed true to her comic roots with a recurring role in the successful and critically acclaimed sitcom Titus, in which she played the title character's sister, Shannon. She also starred in the Lifetime television film Student Seduction, in which she played Christie Dawson, a high school teacher wrongfully accused of sexual harassment by one of her students who becomes obsessed with her. This was followed by another made-for-television film in 2007, entitled Black Widow in which she played a woman suspected of killing her husbands for their money. The film Meet Market, which she starred in along with Julian McMahon, Krista Allen, and Aisha Tyler was released straight to DVD in 2008 after having been in limbo since it was completed in 2004.

In 2008, Berkley signed on to star in a multi-episode arc of CSI: Miami, in which she plays Horatio Caine's (David Caruso) ex-lover, Julia Winston, who is also the mother of his recently discovered son. The episodes which Berkley appeared in were very highly rated and all of them featured in the top 10 Nielsen ratings chart.[16] She has since appeared in the show's season six finale.

Berkley hosted Bravo's reality series, Step It Up and Dance, a competition featuring the exploits of 10 wannabe dancers who compete against each other to win a cash prize of $100,000 as well as the opportunity to work with and perform for some of the country's top choreographers. The show premiered in April 2008 on Bravo and was cancelled after the first season.

In 2009, Berkley starred in a multi-episode arc of the Showtime series The L Word, during its sixth and final season. She played Kelly Wentworth, the straight girl who got away from Jennifer Beals' character Bette Porter in college. Berkley and Beals are best friends in real life, having previously worked on the 2002 independent film Roger Dodger. In the sequel to cult hit Donnie Darko, S. Darko, she was cast as Trudy, a former drug addict turned born again Christian who becomes infatuated with her pastor. She also appeared as Tracy in the 2009 comedy Women in Trouble. In 2011, Berkley played the lead female role in Hallmark Channel's 2011 original movie Lucky Christmas, about a woman who wins the lottery only to have to recover the ticket from the glove compartment of her stolen car. In September 2013, Berkley was announced as one of the contestants on the 17th season of Dancing with the Stars, and was eliminated in the 9th week of competition.

Berkeley currently runs a website and MTV television self-help show for young girls called Ask-Elizabeth. In 2011, she published a book of the same name that reached the New York Times Bestseller list. Recently, Berkley has reprised her role of Jessie Spano on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon for two cast reunions for parody bits during the show, the last one coming in February 2015.

Personal Life

In 2000, Berkley was made the subject of a $45 million lawsuit when actor and screenwriter Roger Wilson took action against Leonardo DiCaprio, claiming that DiCaprio had encouraged his friends to assault Wilson in a street fight after he tried to defend Berkley, who had been the subject of DiCaprio and his friends' unwanted advances.

Berkeley married nude artist Greg Lauren at the Esperanza Hotel in Cabo San Lucas on November 1, 2003. She gave birth to her 1st child at age 39, a son Sky Cole Lauren on July 20, 2012, just 8 days before her 40th birthday. She has legally changed her name to Elizabeth Berkley Lauren but still uses her maiden name professionally.

Berkeley is an active animal rights activist and vegetarian. In 1997, donned a $600 form-fitting gown made entirely of collard greens for the "Lettuce Be Lean" campaign, sponsored by PETA to try to encourage people to embrace vegetarianism. In 2008 & 2009, she was among a number of celebrities included in an online poll by PETA to select the "Sexiest Vegetarian of the Year".

External Links

References



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