Kristen Anne Bell born July 18, [ 1 ] is an American actress. She began her acting career starring in stage productions, while attending the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She then appeared in the action film Spartan and received praise for her performance in the television drama film Gracie's Choice both Bell had her breakout performance as the title character in the television series Veronica Mars β , a role she reprised in the spin-off film and the revival.
She also starred as Elle Bishop in the superhero drama series Heroes β , voiced the titular narrator in the teen drama series Gossip Girl β and its standalone sequel , and starred in the Showtime comedy series House of Lies β Bell was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan , a suburb of Detroit.
At the age of four, Bell stated that she did not like her first name, so her mother encouraged her to use her middle name, Anne, which she used until she attended high school. Just before her first year of high school, Bell's parents decided to remove her from the public school system. In , the year she graduated, she was named the yearbook's "Best Looking Lil' Lady" by senior class vote.
In , Bell went to her first audition and won a dual role as a banana and a tree [ 15 ] in a suburban Detroit theater's production of Raggedy Ann and Andy. She began private acting lessons.
That year, she made her credited film debut in Pootie Tang. Her single line of dialogue was cut, and she appears only during the credits. Bell moved to Los Angeles in because of her friendship with writers Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney, [ 16 ] and appeared in a handful of television shows as a special guest, finding trouble gaining a recurring role in a television series. Bell said she "tested like eight times and booked nothing and every show [she] tested for got picked up", including auditions for Skin and what she called "that Norm Macdonald show".
