fashion night out: Shiri Appleby

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Shiri Appleby

Shiri Freda Appleby (born December 7, 1978) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her leading role as Liz Parker in the television series Roswell. Her film credits include A Time for Dancing, where she was one of the two female main characters; Swimfan; Havoc with Anne Hathaway; and Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. In 2008, Appleby joined the cast of the final season of ER, playing an intern named Daria Wade, and starred in the CW drama Life Unexpected as Cate Cassidy. Life Unexpected was cancelled in its second season. Appleby was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Dina (née Bouader), an Israeli-born Hebrew school teacher, and Jerry Appleby, a Jewish-American telecommunications executive. She and her younger brother Evan were raised in Calabasas in Los Angeles County. Her mother is of Sephardic Moroccan Jewish background. In Hebrew, shiri means either "my song" or simply "sing." She has a scar above her left eyebrow, which resulted from a dog bite when she was young.

To get over her fear of dogs, she went on the show Emergency Vets, accompanying staff veterinarian Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald (she also overcame another phobia in the same episode by holding a live snake, one of Fitzgerald's patients) and shortly after adopted a Tabby, which she named Abby. Appleby graduated from Calabasas High School in 1997 and went on to major in English literature at the University of Southern California while also studying theater arts. Appleby began her acting career at the age of four, starting with advertising for various products such as Cheerios and M&M's. Her first advertisement was for Raisin Bran but it was never aired. She has had guest appearances on many television programs, most notably thirtysomething (1987), Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989), ER (1994), Baywatch (1989), Xena: Warrior Princess (1995), 7th Heaven (1996) and Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990). For Roswell, she tried out for the roles of both Isabel and Maria before landing the leading role of Liz Parker. She made a guest appearance on the 7th Heaven episode "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". Appleby was in Bon Jovi's music video for "It's My Life" with Will Estes. She featured in the 2004 music video for the song "I Don't Want To Be" by Gavin DeGraw, opposite Scott Mechlowicz.

She appeared in Sense Field's music video for "Save Yourself" which is part of the Roswell soundtrack and featured in the first season DVD boxset.In 2006 she took a recurring role on the now canceled ABC drama Six Degrees as Anya, a young assistant in a relationship with a much older photographer. Later that year she was chosen to play Hildy Young in the new USA Network series To Love and Die, that began airing in late December 2008. She also participated in a short film called Carjacking directed by Dan Passman and co-starring Geoff Stults. In 2007, she appeared in the movie What Love Is alongside Cuba Gooding Jr., Matthew Lillard and Anne Heche. She also participated in another short film, Love Like Wind, this one from Shaolin Film Productions. At the end the year, she appeared as Charlie Wilson's press secretary in the film Charlie Wilson's War, which stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. In 2008, Appleby got a recurring role on the final season of ER, playing an intern named Daria Wade. Appleby then starred in The CW network drama; Life Unexpected as Cate Cassidy until it was cancelled.