Keri Russell: Snapshot
- Name
- Keri Russell
- Birth Date
- March 23, 1976
- Birth Place
- Fountain Valley, Calif.
Post-Felicity, the former Disney Mouseketeer retreated to New York to break from her star-making role. She took supporting turns in Neil Labute's Fat Pig off-Broadway, the Sundance hit The Upside of Anger, and Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 3. In 2007, Russell made audiences laugh and weep as a Southern pregnant pie-maker in the indie hit Waitress, written by Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered before the film's release. The CoverGirl spokeswoman married longtime boyfriend, contractor Shane Deary, with whom she had a baby boy named River.
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Keri Russell: Five Fun Facts
- At her first press junket for Felicity, Keri Russell, who previously starred in a failed nighttime soap and a few TV movies, was reminded of her less than stellar resume. "Literally the first question from this guy to me was, 'Keri, you've done some real low-quality projects...'" she tells the Los Angeles Times. "It was like the worst experience."
- On Felicity, Keri Russell's character goes to the fictional University of New York. She was originally slated to attend New York University, but the college declined to lend its name to the show, wary of issues such as drugs and suicide being covered.
- Keri Russell's first meeting with Mission: Impossible 3 costar Tom Cruise involved a hula hoop contest at director J.J. Abrams' house.
- After cutting her hair for the second season of Felicity ratings declined for the show. "It must have been a boring year to have so many people worried about my hair," Keri Russell told the New York Times in 2004.
- Keri Russell says she's clearly not an everyday fashionista: "I wear my same jacket, jeans and Vans skater shoes every day," she tells PEOPLE. "I know photographers are like, 'We don't want her. She's boring.' I'm like, 'This is all I've got.'"
Keri Russell: Biography 
- 1991
Mouseketeering
After years of studying jazz, tap and ballet, Keri Russell, the daughter of Nissan Motor executive David and Stephanie, is cast in The New Mickey Mouse Club (left). On the Disney Channel series, she begins dating costar Tony Lucca, and works with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling. Russell is also cast in Disney's sequel Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.
- 1993
Rocky Road After Disney
At 17, Russell moves to L.A. alone to pursue an acting career, but takes less than stellar roles, like the NBC TV movie The Babysitter's Seduction. "I was really discouraged with what was out there," she tells the Los Angeles Times in 1998. At 19, she lands a high profile starring role in Aaron Spelling's series Malibu Shores. "I never thought it would be picked up," Russell says of the series that costars boyfriend Tony Lucca (right). "It was cheesy, but it was fine for where I was in my life."
- 1998
Russell is Felicity
Russell, 22, is cast as the title role of Felicity Porter in J.J. Abrams' new WB coming-of-age college drama. "My first reaction was 'Damn, she's beautiful! There's no way in hell she can work!'" Abrams recalls to EW. "But she was incredibly accessible and had an amazing sense of humor – a thing most people missed from the script." The pilot, which opens with Russell talking into a tape recorder, receives raves. The Chicago Daily Herald says, " Russell, of course, is the key. She has good looks right out of a Pre-Raphaelite painting...More important, as an actress, she has a way of letting emotions ripple across her face."
Photo Credits
Top Left: Charley Gallay/Getty
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Everett Collection; Everett Collection
