Selma Blair Biography

Posted by Celebrity Biographies on 23rd May 2006

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After training at The Stella Adler Conservatory, pretty dark-haired actress Selma Blair began her career with a series of small roles on film and television. In 1997 she appeared in small roles in the features “In & Out” and “Arresting Gena”, and had a larger part in the independent “Strong Island Boys”. The following year, Blair acted in the series premiere of the Fox comedy “Getting Personal” and had a featured guest role in the CBS drama “Promised Land” as a troubled teenager with a drinking problem. She appeared in the 1998 USA Network TV-movie “No Laughing Matter” before landing a role in the ensemble of the teen comedy feature “Can’t Hardly Wait” (1998).

Blair had her first starring film role in the thriller “Brown’s Requiem” (1998), the little seen adaptation of crime writer James Ellroy’s first novel, and was chosen to head the cast of the coming-of-age midseason replacement series “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane” (The WB, 1999-2000), playing Zoe Bean, a witty and blunt Manhattan teenager. She was also tapped for the role of shy Cecile in “Cruel Intentions” (1999), a contemporary reworking of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” set in New York starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe. Later, she was featured as Darcy in the music-themed straight-to-video release, “Girl” (also 1999). In 2001, she gave a memorable performance as an uptight Harvard Law student in the hit comedy “Legally Blonde”. Then Blair created a stir as a college student who writes about a degrading sexual encounter with her Pulitzer Prize-winning professor in Todd Solondz’s dark comedy, “Storytelling” (2002).

In 2003, she joined Jason Lee and Julia Stiles for the inept romantic comedy “A Guy Thing”, in which she was a bride-to-be whose wild child cousin (Stiles) gives her fiancé (Lee) second thoughts. Typically cast as the girl who loses the boy in a romantic triangle, Blair changed course and became a leading lady in the comic book adaptation “Hellboy” (2004), playing Liz Sheridan, a paranormal investigator with formidable pyrotechnic power and the potential paramour for the film’s demonic leading man (Ron Perlman). Less successful was her turn in John Waters’ misfire “A Dirty Shame” (2004), for which she donned enormous fake prosthetic breasts to play an exotic dancer named Ursula Udders. In the critically-lauded corporate comedy-drama from Paul Weitz, “In Good Company” (2004), Blair played the wife of a young corporate hotshot (Topher Grace) who walks out on him and leaves him with nothing.

She next had a turn in the briefly released corporate thriller, “The Deal” (2005), playing a tree-hugging graduate student from Harvard asked by a an associate on a Wall Street (Christian Slater) to join his firm amidst an oil crisis with the Middle East. Then in the teen dark comedy “Pretty Persuasion” (2005), she was the wife of a high school drama school teacher (Ron Livingston) accused of sexual assault by three students with personal axes to grind. She also made a foray into horror with a leading role in the murky 2005 remake of the John Carpenter classic “The Fog.”

  • Born:on 06/23/72
  • Job Titles:Actor
Significant Others
  • Companion: Jason Schwartzman. born in June 1980; reportedly dated in early 2000; appeared to have reconciled in early 2001
  • Companion: Matthew Davis. reportedly dated in fall of 2000; acted together in “Legally Blonde”
Education
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, English and fine arts, BA and BFA
Milestones
  • 1997 Had a small roles in the films “Arresting Gena” and “In & Out”
  • 1997 Was cast in the independent “Strong Island Boys”
  • 1998 Acted in the feature thriller “Brown’s Requiem” and appeared in the teen comedy “Can’t Hardly Wait”
  • 1998 Featured in the USA Network TV-movie “No Laughing Matter”
  • 1998 Had guest roles on “Promised Land” (CBS) and “Getting Personal” (Fox); for the latter was originally hired to play Elliott Gould’s 13-year old daughter but was fired
  • 1999 Starred as Zoe Bean in The WB’s midseason replacement series “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane”
  • 1999 Featured as Cecile in “Cruel Intentions”, a modern-day reworking of “Les Liaisons Dangereuse”
  • 2001 Had supporting role in “Legally Blonde”
  • 2002 Co-starred with Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate in the comedy “The Sweetest Thing”
  • 2002 Guest starred on an episode of “Friends,” as Chandler’s co-worker
  • 2003 Co-starred in the comedy feature “A Guy Thing”
  • 2004 Cast as the middle sister in the ABC comedy “DeMarco Affairs,” which revolves around three sisters who run a wedding planning business
  • 2004 Cast opposite Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansson in the comedy “In Good Company” written and directed by Paul Weitz
  • 2004 Starred as “Pyrokenetic” Liz Sherman in “Hellboy”
  • 2004 Starred opposite Tracey Ullman and Johnny Knoxville in the John Waters comedy “A Dirty Shame”
  • 2005 Cast opposite Christian Slater in the political thriller “The Deal”
  • 2005 Co-starred with Tom Welling and Maggie Grace in the remake of John Carpenter’s classic horror film, “The Fog”
  • Began studying acting
  • Joins Tom Welling and Maggie Grace in the remake of John Carpenter’s classic horror film, “The Fog” (lensed 2005)
  • Moved to NYC to pursue career as a photographer
  • Raised in Southfield, Michigan

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