Emily Bergl

An actress who previously couldn't even land a commercial in her hometown of Chicago, Emily Bergl won a starring role in "The Rage: Carrie 2" (1999) by sending an audition videotape to MGM. The striking newcomer generated a good deal of interest around the horror sequel, with her piercing eyes, dark curly hair and luminous pale skin featured prominently in film advertisements. Making her feature debut, she portrayed Rachel, a tormented teenager with telekinetic powers. While the thriller did poorly with critics, Bergl received favorable notice for her performance as the fed up teen outsider with a troubled home life. Conscious of the threat of being typecast in similar roles, the actress took to the stage in order to ensure a more diverse career. The day before her first screen role was released, Bergl bowed on the Broadway stage alongside Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing in a revival of James Goldman's "The Lion in Winter", playing Princess Alais, the young French mistress to Fishburne's King Henry II. Previously, she had been an understudy in Lincoln Center's production of "Ah, Wilderness!" shortly after completing her acting training at the Eugene O'Neill Center's National Theatre Institute. Her additional theater credits include a run as Juliet in a production of "Romeo & Juliet" (opposite Neil Patrick Harris) at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, and a starring role in "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" at the Dorset Theatre Festival.

• Born:
  April 25, 1975 in London, England
• Job Titles:
  Actor

Education

• Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, theater and English, BA
• Glenbrook South High School, Glenbrook, Illinois

Milestones

• 1998 Cast as an understudy in Lincoln Center's production of "Ah, Wilderness!" shortly after completing training at Eugene O'Neill Center's National Theatre Institute
• 1998 Starred opposite Neil Patrick Harris in the Old Globe (San Diego) production of "Romeo and Juliet"
• 1999 Broadway acting debut as Alais, the young French mistress of King Henry II, in the revival of "The Lion in Winter"
• 1999 Played Rachel, a high school outsider with supernatural powers who exacts revenge, in "The Rage: Carrie 2"
• 2000 Returned to the NYC stage as co-star of Wendy Wasserstein's "Old Money"
• 2001 Appeared as a camp counselor in "Happy Campers"; screened at Sundance
• 2001 Played Emily in a La Jolla production of "Our Town"
• 2001 Played the recurring role of Francie Jarvis in "The Gilmore Girls" (WB)
• 2002 Cast in the sci-fi produced miniseries, "Taken"
• 2006 Cast in the ABC series "Men in Trees" as Annie, an enthusiatic fan of relationship expert Marin Frist (Anne Heche)
• 2006 Co-starred with Nicole Kidman in "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus"
• Born in England where she lived until age six
• Moved to New York to pursue an acting career
• Raised in a suburb of Chicago