Jessica Biel

January 21, 11:20 AMCelebrity Profile ExaminerAndy Williamson

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JESSICA BIEL

Jessica Claire Biel was born on March 3rd, 1982.  She is an American film and television actress who first came to fame on the WB’s long-running TV drama Seventh Heaven.

Born in Ely, Minnesota to Jon and Kimberly Biel (an entrepreneur and a homemaker), Jessica’s family made quite a few moves around the country (Texas, Connecticut, Illinois) before finally setting down roots in Boulder, Colorado.  Jessica has one younger brother, Justin, who was born in 1985.

Singing was Jessica’s first love -- she appeared in several stage productions at a young age, including Annie, The Sound of Music and Beauty and the Beast.  When she was 12, Jessica joined The International Modeling and Talent Association Conference in L.A. -- while there, she was discovered by a talent agent and signed to a contract.  Soon thereafter, she was she found work as a model in print advertising.  She also appeared in a number of commercial spots.

When she was 14, Jessica auditioned for a number of television pilots, among them the family drama Seventh Heaven.  Jessica got the part, and the show would eventually run for 11 seasons.

In 1997, Jessica appeared in her first feature film, Ulee’s Gold, as Peter Fonda’s granddaughter.  The following year, she starred in the holiday movie I’ll Be Home For Christmas opposite Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

In 2000, while in the midst of Seventh Heaven’s fourth season, Jessica, tired of being typecast as a squeaky-clean preacher’s kid, posed semi-nude for the cover of Gear Magazine.  She stated later that after being passed over for the role of Kevin Spacey’s daughter in American Beauty, she wanted out of her WB contract.  Aaron Spelling refused -- though Jessica appeared in only a few season-five episodes.

2001 brought two more film roles -- Freddie Prinze Jr’s love interest in Summer Catch, and a wild college student in an adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel The Rules of Attraction.  Neither film made much of a blip on the radar.

At the end of Seventh Heaven’s sixth season, Jessica left the show to focus on features, the first of which was a remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Though reviews were widely negative, the film was a minor success.  After that came Blade: Trinity, and Stealth.  Both bombed ... although the latter wasn’t just a stinker but a financial debacle of nearly Heaven’s Gate and Ishtar proportions.

After small roles in Cellular and London, Jessica hit pay dirt by playing a turn-of-the-century duchess in The Illusionist opposite Edward Norton.  The film was both a critical and financial success.

Briefly returning for an appearance on what was to be the final episode of Seventh Heaven (the show was picked up at the last minute by the CW), Jessica played opposite Nicolas Cage in the sci-fi thriller Next.  She also appeared in the Adam Sandler/Kevin James comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

Coming up are roles in Powder Blue (Jessica will play a stripper opposite Forrest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, and Patrick Swayze) and Nailed (about a woman who accidentally gets a nail in her head and thereafter becomes a nymphomaniac ... huh?), with Jake Gyllenhaal.  Both are scheduled for release in 2009.