Blonde Marisa Coughlan started her acting career with guest appearances on television programs lending her sad-eyed innocent looks to episodes of "The Magnificent Seven", "High Society", "Diagnosis: Murder" (all CBS), "Weird Science" (syndicated) and "Step by Step" (ABC). She also had featured turns in "Fist of the North Star" (1996) and the telefilms "Our Son, the Matchmaker" (CBS, 1996) and "Sleepwalker Killing: From the Files of 'Unsolved Mysteries'" (NBC, 1997). Coughlan made her television series regular debut playing a graduate student in the short-lived Kevin Williamson's drama "Wasteland" (ABC, 1999), a "Dawson's Creek" for the older set, chronicling the exploits of a group of twentysomethings in New York. Starring opposite already recognizable names Brad Rowe, Rebecca Gayheart and Eddie Mills, Coughlan would reach her largest audience to date on this Miramax/Williamson production.
1999 would prove to be Coughlan's breakthrough year, starring alongside Katie Holmes in Williamson's directorial feature "Teaching Mrs. Tingle", a much-awaited black comedy. She cemented her "one to watch" status with a featured role in the ensemble of the college campus set psychothriller "Gossip" (2000). After appearing in a pair of poorly performing comedies in 2001 ("Freddie Got Fingered" and "Super Troopers"), Coughlan again returned to more independent-minded features when she appeared in 2002's "Pumpkin" with Christina Ricci, Hank Harris and Dominique Swain.