Alicia Silverstone

Alicia (pronounced Uh-liss-ee-uh) Silverstone was born on October 4, 1976 in San Francisco, California. The daughter of Monty, a real estate investor and financial consultant, and Didi, a former airline stewardess, Silverstone traveled to England with her family during summer vacations to visit relatives.

Silverstone's time in the spotlight began as a model at the age of 6, after her father began taking pictures of her to submit to modeling agencies. Although her heart was really in acting, Silverstone landed several modeling gigs for companies such as Levi's Dockers and Marshalls. The modeling jobs led to television commercials -- such as a spot in a Domino's Pizza ad -- which eventually led to appearances on sitcoms, most notably as a "dream girl" in The Wonder Years in 1992.

alicia silverstone in the crush

In 1993, Alicia Silverstone finally landed her first starring role in a feature film, entitled The Crush. Playing a teenager obsessed with an older man, Silverstone refused to pose nude in the film and a body double was hired for "behind" shots. Actually, Silverstone refuses to pose nude to this day. The film -- dubbed a Fatal Attraction for teenagers -- was a hit and earned Silverstone MTV Movie Awards for Best Villain and Best Breakthrough Performance in 1994. A couple of made-for-TV movies followed, namely Torch Song and Scattered Dreams, which were both released in 1993.

alicia silverstone is the aerosmith chick

Marty Callner, the director of the Aerosmith videos, caught Silverstone's performance in The Crush and knew she would be perfect for the Aerosmith video "Cryin'." This was to be the first of a now famous trilogy of Aerosmith videos, as Silverstone was also cast in those for "Crazy" and "Amazing" (co-starring Steven Tyler's daughter, Liv Tyler). When "Cryin'" was released, it was voted the No. 1 video of all time on MTV.

alicia silverstone stars in clueless

Before hitting it big with the sleeper hit of 1995, Clueless, Silverstone worked on three other films that were released in 1995: Hideaway, The Babysitter and Le Nouveau Monde. But it was Silverstone's role as spoiled rich girl Cher Horowitz in Clueless that launched her career.

This movie, a '90s version of Emma, earned Silverstone many awards, including the American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture, The National Board of Review of Motion Picture Award for Best Breakthrough Performer, the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Female Newcomer, as well as the MTV Movie Awards for Best Female Performance and Most Desirable Female. In 1996, Alicia appeared in True Crime.

After the success of Clueless, Barry Josephson of Columbia Pictures signed Silverstone to a $10 million three-picture deal, the first of which was Excess Baggage (1997). Silverstone not only starred in the film, but it was also the first film produced by her company, First Kiss Productions. Unfortunately, Excess Baggage did not enjoy the same box-office numbers as Clueless.

alicia silverstone does batman & robin

Silverstone's next film role was as Batgirl in Batman & Robin (1997), the fourth release of the Batman series. Batman & Robin did, on the other hand, attract moviegoers. In 1999, things started to pick up for Silverstone, as her role in the romantic comedy Blast from the Past was more impressive and reminiscent of the Silverstone audiences saw in Clueless.

Silverstone was next seen in the summer release Love's Labour's Lost (2000), directed by Kenneth Branagh (whom she was rumored to have been dating; Alicia denies the rumors). She took lessons for her part in the musical adaptation of the William Shakespeare play.

In 2001, she produced the animated family television series Braceface, a project to which she also lent her voice. Then she starred in Rock My World (2002) and the crime comedy Scorched (2003), alongside Rachael Leigh Cook and Woody Harrelson. In the meantime, Alicia proved she could do theater work by touring North America in 2002 with a production of The Graduate, sharing the stage with Kathleen Turner and Jason Biggs.

alicia silverstone in miss match

Seemingly out of the spotlight for a while, she made a comeback in the fall of 2003 with a starring role in the NBC series Miss Match, earning her a Golden Globe nomination. Although the show won a lot of acclaim, it was canceled after only one season. Recently, she padded her resume with Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Silence Becomes You (2004), Beauty Shop (2005), and she acted alongside Ewan McGregor in 2006's Stormbreaker.

The owner of many dogs, Silverstone is actively involved with several animal rights groups, such as The Ark Trust and PETA.