Kristen Bell is an extremely talented and beautiful American actress. Read this biography to know more about her life and accomplishments…
Kristen Bell, besides being a successful TV and film actress, is an animal lover and also plays a part in charitable activities. She has worked on numerous projects as an actress and has been widely appreciated by one and all.
Childhood and Education
Kristen Anne Bell was born to Tom and Lorelei Bell on July 18, 1980. Her native place is Huntington Woods, Michigan, located in the outskirts of Detroit. Her father is a television news director and mother a registered nurse. Her parents split up when she was two years of age. She first went to Burton Elementary School in Huntington Woods and then joined Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak. During her school days, Kristen learned singing and tap dancing, and later became part of the school’s music and drama club.
When she was just 11, she went for her first theater audition and successfully bagged a dual role as a banana and a tree in Raggedy Ann and Andy. In the Shrine Catholic High School, she portrayed the starring role as Dorothy Gale in the school’s production of The Wizard of Oz in the year 1997. On the year of her graduation, she was chosen as the yearbook’s “Best Looking Girl” by senior class vote.
Career
In 2001, she left her studies in New York University mid-way to fulfill her dreams on the stage when she got the opportunity to play Becky Thatcher in a Broadway musical of The Adventure Of Tom Sawyer. Bell was well aware of the fact that she had the potential did not want to confine herself to stage only, and hence moved to Los Angeles. There, she forayed into films with some supporting roles in movies like Polish Wedding and Pootie Tang. In 2002, again she was part of a Broadway play The Crucible, alongside actors Liam Neeson and Laura Linney.
Bell was featured in the movie Gracie’s Choice on Lifetime Television in 2004. Viewers liked Bell’s performance as a young girl who struggled to bring up her three stepbrothers, and the movie received very high TV ratings. Indeed, this show proved a turning point in Bell’s career. Following this came David Mamet’s thriller Spartan, where she managed to give a magnetic performance for the character of Laura Newton. Even after Spartan, Bell was in no mood to bid adieu to the small screen and she went on to make a guest appearance in a two-episode story of Deadwood, a popular drama series on HBO. Then she landed up in the lead role of UPN’s Veronica Mars. Bell received rave reviews from television critics for Veronica Mars, and many of them opined that she deserved an Emmy nomination. She won the Saturn Award for it. When the musical spoof Reefer Madness came on Showtime, it made Bell a household name. Bell was featured in the film Fifty Pills in the role of Gracie, which was premiered in the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006.
Hobbies and Interests
Kristen Bell is an animal lover and she turned vegetarian at the age of eleven. She has associated herself with various charitable causes. She is an active part of the charitable organization Invisible Children Inc. The main aim of this organization is to spread awareness on the plight of Northern Ugandans who are severely affected by the country’s civil war. Like any other native of Detroit, Bell is a huge fan of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team.
The most unique feature of Bell’s career is that she never confined herself to any one particular medium. She is equally good in all her performances on the small screen, big screen or on stage. Interestingly, during her younger years Bell suffered from stage fright, but with the help of her supportive mother she managed to overcome her fear and went on to realize her dreams to become a successful actress.
