Piper Perabo

Piper Lisa Perabo (/ˈpɛrəboʊ/ (listen); born October 31, 1976)[1] is an American film and television actress. Since her breakthrough role in Coyote Ugly (2000), her subsequent films have included Lost and Delirious (2001), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), The Prestige (2006), Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) and Looper (2012). From 2010 to 2014, she played CIA Agent Annie Walker, the lead role on the USA Network spy drama series Covert Affairs, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.[2]
== Early life ==
Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas,[3] the daughter of Mary Charlotte (née Ulland), a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, a lecturer in poetry at Ocean County College.[4] She is of English, German, Irish, Italian (father) and Norwegian(mother) descent; while her surname is sometimes mistakenly described as Portuguese, it originates in Italy and was first recorded in 1491 in Milan. For prominent members of the original Italian family Perabò, see the Villa Perabò in Varese.[5] Members of the Italian Perabo family emigrated to Germany, from where Piper Perabo's paternal grandfather's family came.[6][7][8] She grew up in Toms River, New Jersey.
Perabo's parents named her after actress Piper Laurie.[4] She is the eldest of three children with two brothers, Noah (born 1979) and Adam (born 1981). She graduated from Toms River High School North in 1994,[9] and earned a bachelor's degree in theater from Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University in 1998.[10] She also studied Latin, physics, and poetry in her final year.[11][12][13]
Perabo was first noticed a year before she graduated from college. She was in New York City, visiting her then-boyfriend, and accompanied him to an audition. Casting director Denise Fitzgerald spotted her and asked her to read for a part. She was not cast, but when Fitzgerald found out that she did not have any representation, she made phone calls on Perabo's behalf and found her an agent.[14][15]
== Career ==
After graduating, Perabo moved to New York, where she worked as a waitress.[16][17] She also studied acting at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and had roles in various plays.[14] She was cast in her first feature film just a month after moving to the city, Marc Levin's comedy Whiteboyz.[17] In 2000, she was cast in Coyote Ugly as Violet "Jersey" Sanford, for which she won an MTV Movie Award for Best Music Moment for "One Way or Another".[18] She also appeared in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle as Everyone's Favorite FBI agent Karen Sympathy.
After the success of Coyote Ugly, Perabo decided to move away from blockbusters and focus on independent films.[19] In 2001, she starred in an independent Canadian drama called Lost and Delirious, playing a boarding school student who falls in love with a female classmate (played by Jessica Paré). The film was met with mixed reviews, but the performances of Perabo, Paré and co-star Mischa Barton were, however, widely praised.[20] Perabo's performance in particular received critical acclaim, which Loren King of the Chicago Tribune remarked was her "breakout performance".[21] Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman called her "an actress of glittering ferocity" and her performance "a geyser of emotion".[22] Jim Lane of the Sacramento News & Review said that "Perabo is a revelation, wild and fiery — it’s a breakthrough performance, astonishing in its fervency"[23] and Roger Ebert praised her performance for its sincerity and "wonderful abandon and conviction".[24]
The next year she starred as a French exchange student in the independent comedy Slap Her... She's French, which was shelved in North America for two years, then released under the new title She Gets What She Wants. The film was released under its original title in Europe. She had a role as the eldest Baker child, Nora, in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), a role she reprised in the film's 2005 sequel. Her other films include The I Inside (2003), Perfect Opposites (2004), George and the Dragon (2004), The Cave (2005), Imagine Me & You (2005), Edison (2005), The Prestige (2006), and Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008). She appeared as a nutritionist on the Fox show House, in an episode entitled "Resignation".
In 2008, Perabo made her off-Broadway debut in the Neil LaBute play Reasons to Be Pretty.[14][25] As the play's run was coming to an end, she read the script for the USA Network television spy series Covert Affairs: "I was reading movie scripts and I wasn't finding anything that was really speaking to me and my agent suggested that I read [the Covert Affairs script]. And I hadn't thought about doing television, but when I read it, it kind of changed everything for me. She's such a powerful character, she's so smart, the action is so intense, and I really thought it would be fun to do."[26][27] The following year, she was cast as Central Intelligence Agency field agent Annie Walker, the lead character in Covert Affairs.[28][29]
In August 2010, Perabo injured her knee filming an episode of Covert Affairs.[30]After the finale of the first season, the second season was announced to begin in summer of 2011. For her work on Covert Affairs, she received a nomination for the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama.[31]Perabo broke her leg the day before shooting finished for the second-season finale of Covert Affairs.[32] The series ran for five seasons, from 2010 to 2015.[33]
In September 2012, Perabo had a supporting role in the time travel thriller Looper. In December 2012, she was cast as a recurring character on the sitcom Go On. Her character, Simone, is a former member of Matthew Perry's character's support group, returning to the group and becoming his love interest. Perabo was originally scheduled to appear in three episodes, but this was increased to four.[34] Perabo next had a starring role in the thriller Into the Grizzly Maze.[35] She starred as Julia George in the ABC TV series Notorious in 2016.[36]
== Personal life ==
In 2013, she became engaged to Stephen Kay, director and writer of film and television. They married on July 26, 2014 in New York City.[37]
Perabo has been close friends with actress Lena Headey since they starred together in the 2005 films The Cave and Imagine Me & You.[38] She speaks fluent French[19] and is an advocate for LGBT rights and women's political leadership and serves on the Advisory Board of VoteRunLead.[39] She is the part-owner of the prohibition-themed bar, Employees Only, in West Village, Manhattan, which opened in 2005, and the restaurant, Jack's Wife Freda, in SoHo, Lower Manhattan, which opened in 2012.[40][41]
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1997	Single Spaced 	The Dame 	Short film
1999	Knuckleface Jones 	That Girl 	Short film
1999	Whiteboyz 	Sara 	
2000	Coyote Ugly 	Violet "Jersey" Sanford 	
2000	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle	FBI Agent Karen Sympathy	
2000	Followers 	Girl at Party 	
2001	Lost and Delirious 	Pauline "Paulie" Oster 	
2002	Slap Her... She's French 	Genevieve Le Plouff 	Also known as She Gets What She Wants
2002	Flowers 	Iris 	
2003	Cheaper by the Dozen 	Nora Baker 	
2004	Perfect Opposites 	Julia Bishop 	
2004	The I Inside 	Anna 	
2004	George and the Dragon 	Princess Luna 	
2005	Edison 	Willow Summerfield 	
2005	Karas: The Prophecy 	Yurine 	Voice
English version
2005	The Cave 	Charlie 	
2005	Imagine Me & You 	Rachel 	
2005	Good Morning Baby 	Gabriella 	Short film
2005	Cheaper by the Dozen 2 	Nora Baker-McNulty 	
2005	Perception 	Jen 	
2006	10th & Wolf 	Brandy 	
2006	First Snow 	Deirdre 	
2006	The Prestige 	Julia McCullough 	
2007	Because I Said So 	Mae Wilder 	
2007	In Vivid Detail 	Leslie 	Short film
2008	Beverly Hills Chihuahua 	Rachel Ashe 	
2008	The Lazarus Project 	Lisa Garvey 	
2009	Sordid Things 	Tabitha White 	
2009	Carriers 	Bobby 	
2010	Ashes 	Bettina 	
2012	Looper 	Suzie 	
2015	Into the Grizzly Maze 	Michelle 	
2017	Black Butterfly 	Laura 	
=== Television ===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
2006 	The Prestige: Now That's Magic	Julia McCullough	TV Special documentary
2007 	House 	Honey 	Episode: "Resignation"
2008 	Backdrop NYC 	Leslie 	Episode: "Beauty Vision"
2008 	The Prince of Motor City 	Meg Riley 	Television film
2009 	Law & Order: Criminal Intent 	Calista Haslum 	Episode: "Folie à Deux"
2010–14	Covert Affairs 	Annie Walker 	Lead role; 75 episodes
2013 	Go On 	Simone 	4 episodes
2016 	Notorious 	Julia George 	Lead role; 10 episodes
2016 	ABC Fall Preview Special 	Herself / Host 	TV Special
2019 	Turn Up Charlie 	Sara 	
=== Stage ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
2008	Reasons to Be Pretty	Carly 	Lucille Lortel Theatre
2015	Lost Girls 	Maggie	Lucille Lortel Theatre
=== Awards and nominations ===
Year	Award 	Category 	Work 	Result
2001	Blockbuster Entertainment Award	Favorite Female - Newcomer 	Coyote Ugly 	Nominated
2001	MTV Movie Award 	Best Music Moment 	Coyote Ugly 	Won
2001	MTV Movie Award 	Breakthrough Female Performance 	Coyote Ugly 	Nominated
2004	Teen Choice Award 	Choice Movie: Liplock (shared with Ashton Kutcher) 	Cheaper by the Dozen 	Nominated
2006	Young Artist Award 	Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Ensemble Cast	Cheaper by the Dozen 2	Nominated
2011	Golden Globe Award 	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series - Drama 	Covert Affairs 	Nominated
2011	Gracie Award 	Outstanding Female Actor in a Breakthrough Role 	Covert Affairs 	Won
2017	People's Choice Award 	Favorite Actress in a New TV Series 	Notorious 	Nominated