Kristen Bell

Kristen Bell
Name	Kristen Anne Bell
Birthplace	Huntington Woods, Michigan
Date of Birth	July 18, 1980
Role on Gossip Girl	Gossip Girl (character voice) & Herself

Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress. She began her acting career starring in stage productions and attended the Tisch School of Arts in New York. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and starred in the Broadway revival of The Crucible the following year. In 2004, she had a supporting role in the film Spartan and received praise for her first leading performance in Gracie's Choice.

Bell gained critical acclaim for her first major role as the title character in the teen noir drama television series Veronica Mars (2004–07). For her performance she was awarded a Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television. She reprised the eponymous role in the 2014 film continuation of the series. During her time on Veronica Mars, Bell appeared as Mary Lane in the film Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (2005), a reprise of the role she had played in the New York musical upon which the film was based. In 2007, Bell joined the cast of the sci-fi series Heroes, playing the character Elle Bishop.

In 2008, she had her breakout film role as the title character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She has since appeared in a number of comedy films, such as Couples Retreat (2009), When in Rome (2010), You Again (2010), The Boss(2016), Bad Moms (2016) and A Bad Moms Christmas (2017). Bell garnered further recognition for voicing Princess Anna in the Disney film Frozen (2013), the short films Frozen Fever (2015) and Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017), and the upcoming Frozen 2 (2019). From 2012 to 2016, she starred as Jeannie van der Hooven, the female lead on the Showtime series House of Lies. Since 2016, she has starred in the main role of Eleanor Shellstrop on the NBCcomedy series The Good Place.

Background

Kristen Anne Bell was born on July 18, 1980, and was raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Her mother, Lorelei (née Frygier), is a registered nurse, and her father, Tom Bell, works as the television news director for CBS Television in Sacramento. Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and she has two stepsisters from her father's second marriage. She also has two half-sisters and two half-brothers from her mother's second marriage. Her mother is of Polish descent and her father has German, Scottish and Irish ancestry.

Bell stated that she did not like her first name at the age of four. Bell's mother convinced her to go by her middle name of Anne instead; she used the name Annie until high school.

Bell once broke both her wrists at the same time playing street hockey with friends.

Just before her freshman year of high school, Bell's parents decided to pull her from the public school system. She then attended Shrine Catholic High School in nearby Royal Oak, where she took part in the drama and music club. During her time at the school, she won the starring role in the school's 1997 production of The Wizard of Oz, as Dorothy Gale and also appeared in productions of Fiddler on the Roof (1995), Lady Be Good (1996), and Li'l Abner (1998). In 1998, the year she graduated, Bell was named the yearbook's "Best Looking Girl" by senior class vote.

Shortly after her high school graduation, Bell moved to New York City to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, majoring in musical theater. In 2001, during her senior year, Bell left a few credits shy of graduating to take a role in the Broadway musical version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Career

In 1992, Bell went to her first audition and won a dual role as a banana and a tree in a suburban Detroit theater's production of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Her mother had established her with an agent before Bell was 13, which allowed her to appear in newspaper advertisements for several Detroit retailers and television commercials. She also began private acting lessons. In 1998, she appeared with an uncredited role in the locally filmed movie Polish Wedding.

In 2001, Bell left New York University to play a role as Becky Thatcher in the short-lived Broadway musical of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. That same year, she made her credited film debut in Pootie Tang. Her one line in the film was cut and her appearance exists only as a scene shown during the credit sequence. Additionally, she auditioned for the television series Smallville for the role of Chloe Sullivan, which was eventually won by Allison Mack. In 2002, she appeared in the Broadway revival of The Crucible with Liam Neeson, Angela Bettis and Laura Linney. Bell then moved to Los Angeles, California in 2002 because of her friendship with writers Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney, and appeared in a handful of television shows as a special guest, finding trouble gaining a recurring role in a television series. Bell had "tested like eight times and booked nothing and every show [she] tested for got picked up," including auditions for Skin and a Norm Macdonald series.

In 2004, Bell appeared in the Lifetime television film Gracie's Choice, which received one of the network's highest ratings. She made her debut in a theatrically released film, with David Mamet's Spartan, as Laura Newton, the kidnapped daughter of the U.S. President, acting alongside Val Kilmer. Bell also guest-starred on the HBO drama Deadwood in a two-episode story arc ("Bullock Returns to the Camp" and "Suffer the Little Children").

At 24, she won the role of the title character in UPN's drama Veronica Mars, which was launched in the fall of 2004. Created by Rob Thomas, the series starred Bell as the seventeen-year-old anti-establishment high school student/detective. Bell drew on the parallels between the character of Veronica and her own life, since Bell's parents had divorced and her best friend had also died. The series earned acclaim from television critics, as did Bell's performance. Some critics asserted that her performance was overlooked, and deserved consideration for an Emmy Award.

Aside from working on Veronica Mars, Bell starred in Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, reprising the role she played in the short-lived 2001 off-broadway musical. The musical was a spoof of the 1936 exploitation film of the same name. Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical debuted on the Showtime network on April 16, 2005. Also in April, Bell starred as Gracie in Fifty Pills, an entry for the Tribeca Film Festival. She appeared in a short independent film called The Receipt and the horror film Roman, which was directed by her The Crucible co-star Angela Bettis. Released on August 11, 2006, Pulsestarred Bell as the lead Mattie. A remake of the Japanese horror film Kairo, the film grossed US$27.9 million worldwide,; however it garnered negative response from critics. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter commented, "despite the starring presence of Kristen Bell, [the] young actress has far less interesting material to work with here than she does as [the character] `Veronica Mars.'"

Veronica Mars continued on UPN for a second season; for the third season, the show was renewed and appeared on the newly created The CW. On January 19, 2007, CW Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff announced that while she was pleased with the gradual improvement of Veronica Mars's ratings, the series would be put on hiatus after February sweeps to air a new reality series, Pussycat Dolls Present. On May 17, 2007 Ostroff announced the cancellation of the series. A two-hour series finale aired in the United States on May 22, 2007, and on June 11, 2007 Thomas officially announced in an email to TV Guide's Michael Ausiello that Veronica Mars had been canceled by the CW. A Veronica Mars feature film and comic book series continuation had been discussed,  and for a short time there was talk of another collaboration between Bell and creator Thomas that would be unrelated to the Veronica Mars series.

Following the cancellation of Veronica Mars, Bell voiced interest in appearing on Heroes because she was a fan. On July 29, 2007, during a train ride back to Los Angeles from the San Diego Comic-Con with Heroes actors Zachary Quinto and Masi Oka, and writers from the series, the writers had mentioned that if she "ever want[ed] to come on Heroes, give us [writers] a call," to which Bell said she would "love to." Meanwhile, there were discussions about a role on Lost, but Bell turned down the role of Charlotte Staples Lewis. Bell portrayed Elle Bishop on Heroes, a "mysterious young lady" with an "awesome power". She did not have to audition for the role of Elle, who made her first appearance in an October 2007 episode, and appeared in at least thirteen episodes during the run of the series. The casting of Bell, Heroes creator Tim Kring explained, "was not easy to pull off", but because of the large ensemble cast of the series and multiple story arcs, "we found a way to jump into a small window in [Bell's] schedule." Bell lent her voice to the CW series Gossip Girl: she voiced the title character in every episode of the series, appearing in person only for a surprise cameo in the final episode, portraying herself.

Shortly after the cancellation of Veronica Mars in early 2007, Bell filmed on location in Hawaii for a starring role as the title character in the Judd Apatow comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She regarded the improvisational comedy in the film as "a lovely experience". The film, written by and also starring Jason Segel, was released theatrically on April 18, 2008, and is considered to be Bell's star-making role. Bell lent her voice and likeness to the video game Assassin's Creed, which was released on November 13, 2007, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and April 8, 2008 for the PC. Bell reprised her role of Lucy in Assassin's Creed IIreleased on November 17, 2009, and again in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, released on November 16, 2010. In the spring of 2006, she finished filming the Star Wars-themed comedy Fanboys, which had its release date pushed to January 14, 2008. This was due to additional funding given to director Kyle Newman to shoot new scenes, however, the busy schedules of the actors only allowed for filming in September 2007, thus moving the release date to accommodate that. Bell also starred in the 2009 comedies Serious Moonlight, alongside Meg Ryan, and Couples Retreat, which chronicles four couples who partake in therapy sessions at a tropical island resort. Jason Bateman played her husband. She also provided the voice for Cora in Astro Boy. On March 31, 2008, Bell began shooting the Mark Steven Johnson-written Disney film When in Rome in locations in Rome and New York; the film was released in 2010. Bell reprised her role as Sarah Marshall for a cameo appearance in the film Get Him to the Greek, a spin-off sequel from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, released June 4, 2010.

She co-starred with singers Christina Aguilera and Cher in the musical film Burlesque, which was released on Thanksgiving in 2010. Bell had a cameo in the slasher horror film Scream 4, which was released on April 15, 2011.

In 2012, Bell starred in the family drama film Big Miracle. She has also appeared in the music video for "Madder Red" by Brooklyn experimental rock band Yeasayer. Bell portrayed Mary Magdalene in The Truth & Life Dramatized Audio New Testament Bible, a 22-hour, celebrity-voiced, dramatized audio adaptation of the New Testament that uses the RSV-CE translation.

Bell stars as Jeannie van der Hooven, the female lead on the Showtime series House of Lies, which premiered on January 8, 2012. The series ended on June 12, 2016. Bell appeared in a supporting role in the science-fiction comedy Safety Not Guaranteed (2012). She starred in the drama film The Lifeguard, written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, which began filming in July 2012, and was released in August 2013. She also voiced Anna in Frozen, which was released on November 22, 2013. In 2013, for multiple episodes, Bell played Ingrid de Forest, an Eagleton City Councilwoman, on Parks and Recreation.

On March 13, 2013, it was confirmed that a Veronica Mars film would finally be coming to fruition. Bell and series creator Rob Thomas, launched a fundraising campaign to produce the film through Kickstarter and attained the $2 million goal in less than ten hours. The main cast members of the series all reprised their roles in the feature film. Production of the film took place during summer 2013, and it was released theatrically and on video-on-demand on March 14, 2014.

In September 2014, Bell starred with her husband, Dax Shephard, in a commercial for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S. It was so popular (with over 20 million YouTube views) that they did another for the holiday season. The ad agency McKinney was behind both. In 2016, Bell voiced the sloth Priscilla in the animated comedy film Zootopia, and starred as Claire in the comedy film The Boss. Bell starred as Kiki in the 2016 comedy film Bad Moms, a role which she reprised in the 2017 sequel A Bad Moms Christmas. In late 2016, Bell began starring as Eleanor Shellstrop, in the NBC comedy series The Good Place.

In 2017, she also appeared in the biographical comedy-drama The Disaster Artist, the action comedy CHiPs and the comedy How to Be a Latin Lover. In March 2017, Bell starred in an episode of the Houzz series My Houzz, in which she surprised her sister with a major basement renovation.

Personal Life

In 2007, Bell ended a five-year relationship with former fiancé Kevin Mann. She later told Complex magazine that dating "makes me want to vomit. And not out of grossness—OK, a little bit out of grossness, but just nerves... I've always been a serial monogamist."

Bell began dating actor Dax Shepard, also a native of Detroit's northern suburbs, in late 2007. The couple announced their engagement in January 2010. They decided to delay marriage until the state of California passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. They co-starred in the 2010 film When In Rome, the 2012 film Hit and Run, and the 2017 film CHiPs. After section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act fell on June 26, 2013, Bell asked Shepard to marry her through Twitter, which he accepted. They were married at the Beverly Hills County Clerk's Office on October 17, 2013. They have two daughters: Lincoln Bell Shepard (born March 28, 2013) and Delta Bell Shepard (born December 19, 2014).

In May 2016, Bell revealed that she has struggled with and received help for depression and anxiety. She said, "It’s important for me to be candid about this so people in a similar situation can realize that they are not worthless and that they do have something to offer."

Filmography

Movies

Movie	Role	Year	Notes
Polish Wedding	Teenage girl	1998	Uncredited
Pootie Tang	Record excutive's daughter	2001
People Are Dead	Angela's friend #1	2002
The Cat Returns	Hirmoni	2003	Voice; English dub
Spartan	Laura Newton	2004
Reefer Madness	Mary Lane	2005
Deepwater	Nurse Laurie	2005
Last Days of America	Friend in New York #1	2005
The Receipt	Pretty Girl	2005	Short film
Fifty Pills	Gracie	2006
Pulse	Mattie	2006
Roman	The Girl / Isis	2006
Flatland: The Movie	Hex	2007	Voice; Short film
Fanboys	Zoe	2008
Forgetting Sarah Marshall	Sarah Marshall	2008
Serious Moonlight	Sara	2009
Astro Boy	Cora	2009	Voice
Couples Retreat	Cynthia	2009
Astro Boy vs. The Junkyard Pirates	Cora	2010	Voice; Short film
Lost Masterpiece of Pornography	June Crenshaw	2010	Short film
When in Rome	Beth	2010
Get Him to the Greek	Sarah Marshall	2010
You Again	Marni Olsen	2010
Burlesque	Nikki	2010
Scream 4	Chloe	2011
Safety Not Guaranteed	Belinda St. Sing	2012
Big Miracle	Jill Jerard	2012
Flatland 2: Sphereland	Hex	2012	Voice
Hit and Run	Annie	2012	Also co-producer
Stuck in Love	Tricia	2012
Movie 43	Supergirl	2013	Segment: "Super Hero Speed Dating"
Some Girl(s)	Bobbi	2013
The Lifeguard	Leigh	2013
Frozen	Anna	2013	Voice
Veronica Mars	Veronica Mars	2014	Also producer
Unity	Nararrator	2014	Documentary
Frozen Fever	Anna	2015	Voice; Short film
Zootopia	Priscilla	2016	Voice
The Boss	Claire Rawlings	2016
Bad Moms	Kiki	2016
The Disaster Artist	Herself	2017	Cameo
CHiPs	Karen Baker	2017
How to Be a Latin Lover	Cindy	2017
A Bad Moms Christmas	Kiki	2017	In post-production
Olaf's Frozen Adventure	Anna	2017	Voice; Short film
Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-it-Ralph 2	Anna	2018	Voice; in production
Frozen 2	Anna	2019	Voice; in production

Television

Show	Role	Year(s)	Notes
The Shield	Jessica Hintel	2003	Episode: "The Quick Fix"
American Dreams	Amy Fielding	2003	Episode: "Act of Contrition"
The O'Keefes	Virginia's Owner	2003	2 episodes
The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay	Alison Dodge	2003	Television movie
Everwood	Stacey Wilson	2003	Episode: "Extra Ordinary"
Gracie's Choice	Gracie Thompson	2004	Television movie
Deadwood	Flora Anderson	2004	2 episodes
Veronica Mars	Veronica Mars	2004-07	Lead role; 64 episodes
Heroes	Elle Bishop	2007-08	Main cast (Season 2) Recurring (Season 3); 12 episodes
Gossip Girl	Gossip Girl / Herself	2007-2012	Voice narrarator; 120 episodes
The Cleveland Show	Mandy	2009	Voice; Episode: "Da Daggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance"
Party Down	Uda Bengt	2009-2010	2 episodes
Glenn Martin; DDS	Hayley	2011	Voice; Episode: "Videogame Wizard"
Robot Chicken	Hermione Granger / Sara Lee	2011	Voice; Episode: "Some Like It Hitman"
House of Lies	Jeannie van der Hooven	2012-2016	Lead role; 58 episodes
Unsupervised	Megan	2012	Voice; 13 episodes
Lovin' Lakin	Herself	2012	Episode: "Lakin Runs Into Kristen Bell"
Parks and Recreation	Ingrid de Forest	2013-14	3 episodes
Hollywood Game Night	Herself	2013	Episode: "The One with the Friends"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular	Herself	2013	Television special
30th Independent Spirit Awards	Host / Herself	2015	Television special
Repeat After Me	Herself	2015	Episode 1.2
The Simpsons	Harper Jambrowski	2015	Voice; Episode: "Friend with Benefit"
Liv and Maddie	Herself	2015	Episode: "Ask Her More-a-Rooney"
It's Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown	Host / Herself	2015	Television special
iZombie	Herself	2016	Voice; Episode: "Fifty Shades of Grey Matter"
The Good Place	Eleanor Shellstrop	2016-present	Lead role
LEGO Frozen Northern Lights	Anna	2016	Voice; Television special
Jimmy Kimmel Live!	Guest Host / Herself	2017	May 4, 2017; standing in for Jimmy Kimmel on paternity leave

Stage

Production	Role	Year(s)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Becky Thatcher	2001
Reefer Madness	Mary Lane	2001
The Crucible	Susanna Walcott	2002
Sneaux	Sneaux Devareaux	2003
A Little Night Music	Fredrika Armfeld	2004
Hair	Sheila	2014

Video Games

Title	Role	Year
Assassin's Creed	Lucy Stillman	2007
Assassin's Creed II	Lucy Stillman	2009
Astro Boy: The Video Game	Cora	2009
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood	Lucy Stillman	2010
Disney Infinity	Anna	2013
Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes	Anna	2014
Disney Infinity 3.0	Anna	2015

Web Series

Title	Role	Year(s)	Notes
Burning Love	Mandy	2012	4 episodes
Play It Again, Dick	Herself	2014	Based on Veronica Mars characters