Discovered at the 1997 Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival, playing Miranda in a production of "The Tempest", actress Liz Stauber went on to a burgeoning film career, following extensive work on stage in her native Indianapolis. The young up and comer brought to the stage and screen her natural brightness and charm, imparting a veritably glowing presence. Stauber counted among her credits an early part playing a boy in a community production of "Macbeth" at age nine before landing a role as a rebellious teenager in the Indiana Repertory Theater's production of Daisy Foote's "God's Pictures" in 1995. That play marked her first collaboration with director Andrew Tsao, who would later invite Stauber to audition for the role in "The Tempest" that would jump-start her career.
Her big screen debut came with a part as a partygoer in 1998's high school graduation comedy "Can't Hardly Wait", Originally cast as 'Yearbook Girl' (portrayed by Melissa Joan Hart), Stauber instead took the smaller role of 'Gossipy Girl' due to other filming commitments. The actress next starred as the teenaged daughter of a paleontologist (Peter Horton) who is thrust back in time to meet dinosaurs face to face in the visually outstanding IMAX adventure film "T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous". In 1999, Stauber reach a larger audience with a supporting role in Kevin Williamson's "Teaching Mrs. Tingle", a black comedy not unlike a high school-set "9 to 5", pitting three fed up students against a tyrannical teacher. Stauber played Marybeth Carter, teacher's pet and Katie Holmes' chief rival for the valedictory crown. Later that year the actress co-starred in David O Russell's "Three Kings", as the woman back home awaiting the return of Mark Wahlberg's Desert Storm soldier. She would next be seen in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" (2000), a look at the 70s rock scene from the perspective of a fifteen year old boy who lands an assignment with Rolling Stone.