Piper Perabo

Piper Perabo

Piper Lisa Perabo (born October 31, 1976 in Toms River, New Jersey, USA) is an American movie actress.

Biography

Born in Toms River, New Jersey, Piper Perabo is the eldest of three siblings (she has two younger brothers, Noah and Adam, both actors).

Coming from a family of Portuguese and Norwegian descent, her different name can be attributed to her hippie parents' desire to give their daughter an original name. She would have been named India Star, until her parents chose to name their daughter after the classic actress, Piper Laurie.

Piper received her high school degree from Toms River High School North. After graduating high school, she furthered her education at Ohio University, where she graduated with a BFA in acting.

After becoming a summa cum laude graduate in 1998, Piper moved to the Big Apple to perfect her acting skills at LaMama Theater.

Before making it to the big-screen, Piper displayed her acting talent while performing in stage productions of Arms and the Man, Trinity, Antigone, Fool for Love, Kindertransport, and Our Town.

She then moved on to film, albeit small-budget independent films, with roles in 1998's Single Spaced and 1999's Knuckleface Jones, as a giant squid. Piper then landed the lead female role in Whiteboyz, as the girlfriend of a guy obsessed with the "white homeboy" culture.

On the heels of Whiteboyz, Perabo was cast as FBI agent Karen Sympathy opposite Robert De Niro, Rene Russo, and Jason Alexander in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and also bagged the lead in Jerry Bruckheimer's Coyote Ugly. Both debuting in the summer of 2000, neither film found much popularity among critics, but the latter--a flamboyant and fairly disconcerting blend of Flashdance, Cocktail, and an extended-play Budweiser ad--succeeded in putting Perabo in the summer spotlight.

Over the ensuing few years, Perabo maintained most of her buzz despite failing to attach herself to any bonafide hits, appearing in such disparate films as the 2001 well-received indie-film Lost and Delirious and the 2002's DOA comedy Slap Her... She's French. Finally, at the end of 2003, Perabo hit paydirt, starring as the eldest of twelve children in the holiday blockbuster, Cheaper by the Dozen.

Piper Perabo Picture Gallery