Eliza Dushku

**Eliza Patricia Dushku** (born December 30, 1980) is an American television and movie actress. She has appeared in several Hollywood movies such as _True Lies_, _The New Guy_, _Bring It On_, and _Wrong Turn_. She is also well known for her acting on television, such as her role on _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and _Angel_ as Faith. She was also the main character in the series _Tru Calling_.

### Early life

Dushku was born in Watertown, Massachusetts. Dushku's father is Albanian-American and her mother has Danish ancestry. She was raised a Mormon, the faith of her mother but she is not actively practicing. She has three older brothers, Aaron, Benjamin (Ben) (born February 5, 1976), and Nathan (Nate) (born June 8, 1977, in Boston, Massachusetts), the last of whom is also an actor and a model. Her parents divorced when she was still an infant.

### Early career

Dushku started acting when she was 10. She was chosen for the lead role of Alice, opposite Juliette Lewis in the movie _That Night_. In 1993, Dushku got the role as Pearl in _This Boy's Life_, alongside Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. The following year, she played the teenage daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in _True Lies_. She also had parts as Paul Reiser's daughter in _Bye Bye, Love_, as Cindy Johnson with Halle Berry and Jim Belushi in _Race the Sun_, as well as roles in a television movie and a short movie.

Dushku took some time off from acting to finish her last two years of high school. She was accepted to the George Washington University in Washington, DC and Suffolk University in Boston, where her mother was professor of government and had been the dean of the campus in Dakar, Senegal.

### Later roles

After high school, Dushku returned to acting with the role of Faith, a Slayer much more troubled than the main character Buffy. At first, her character was only going to be used for five episodes but became so popular that Joss Whedon decided to use her for more of the story. She stayed on for the rest of the third season and returned for a two-part appearance in season four. She was then used as part of the first season of the _Buffy_ spinoff series _Angel_. Faith returned as a heroine in several other episodes of _Angel_ and in the last five episodes of _Buffy_.

In 2000, Dushku starred in _Soul Survivors_ with her _Race The Sun_ co-star Casey Affleck. She followed that up with the cheerleader comedy _Bring It On_ with Kirsten Dunst. She was very busy in 2001: shooting _The New Guy_ in Texas and having to travel up to New York where she was working again with actor Robert De Niro and director Michael Caton-Jones in _City by the Sea_. She played James Franco's junkie girlfriend and mother of his child. The same year Kevin Smith asked Dushku to be a part of _Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back_. Dushku co-starred with Shannon Elizabeth, Ali Larter, Ben Affleck, and others.

2003 saw the release of _Wrong Turn_, a horror movie in which Dushku had the starring role, and _The Kiss_, an independent comedy-drama. Starting that same year, she also starred in a new Fox TV series, _Tru Calling_. She played the main character, Tru Davies, a ex-medical student who must take a job at a local morgue where she finds that she has the power to "re-live" the previous day over again. She uses this ability to stop wrongful deaths.

She appeared in the Simple Plan music video, "I'm Just a Kid", as the band's love interest, as well as Nickelback's video for "Rockstar".

### Future roles

_Variety_ announced on August 2, 2006 that Dushku would co-star with Macaulay Culkin in _Sex and Breakfast_, written and directed by Miles Brandman. The movie will be released in Los Angeles on November 30, 2007 and on DVD on January 22, 2008. She will also star in _Open Graves_, a horror-thriller movie about a satanic game. The movie is expected to be released in 2007. She will play the main character on a thriller directed by Rob Schmidt who she had worked with before on Wrong Turn, called The Alphabet Killer.

It was announced on October 31, 2007 that Dushku and Joss Whedon agreed to create a new show called _Dollhouse_. FOX has already ordered seven episodes and the series is expected to premiere in April.

### Personal life

Dushku lives in the Los Angeles area of Southern California.

## Filmography

- _That Night_ (1992) - Alice Bloom
- _This Boy's Life_ (1993) - Pearl
- _Fishing With George_ (1994)
- _True Lies_ (1994) - Dana Tasker
- _Bye Bye Love_ (1995) - Emma Carlson
- _Journey_ (1995, TV) - Cat
- _Race the Sun_ (1996) - Cindy Johnson
- _Bring It On_ (2000) - Missy Pantone
- _Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back_ (2001) - Sissy
- _Soul Survivors_ (2001) - Annabel
- _The New Guy_ (2002) - Danielle
- _City by the Sea_ (2002) - Gina
- _Wrong Turn_ (2003) - Jessie Burlingame
- _Punk'd_ (2003) - Herself
- _The Kiss_ (2003) - Megan
- _The Last Supper_ (2006) - Waitress
- _Yakuza_ (2006, Video Game) - Yumi Sawamura (voice)
- _On Broadway_ (2007) - Lena Wilson
- _Nobel Son_ (2007) - Sharon "City" Hall
- _Open Graves_ (2007) - Erica
- _The Alphabet Killer_ (2007) - Megan Paige
- _Bottle Shock_ (2008)
- _Sex and Breakfast_ (2008) - Renee
- "Untitled Harley Quinn Project " (Announced) - Batgirl

## TV series

- _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ (1998-1999, 2000, 2003 recurring) - Faith Lehane (20 episodes)
- _Angel_ (2000, 2003 guest appearances) - Faith Lehane (6 episodes)
- _King of the Hill_ (2002) - Jordan (voice) in episode 'Get Your Freak Off'
- _Tru Calling_ (2003-2005) - Tru Davies (27 episodes)
- _Reading Rainbow_ (2005 guest appearance) - Narrator of episode 'Unique Monique'
- _That '70s Show_ (2005 guest appearance) - Sarah
- _Nurses_ (2007) - Eve Morrow (Pilot)
- _Ugly Betty_ (2007 guest appearance) - unknown
- _Dollhouse_ (2008) - Echo

## Infobox (actor)

- **name**: Eliza Dushku
- **image**: Eliza Dushku 2012.jpg
- **birth name**: Eliza Patricia Dushku
- **birth place**: Watertown, Massachusetts, United States, U.S.
- **known for**: Acting roles:
**Faith Lehane** on _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_
**Tru Davies** on _Tru Calling_