Mena Suvari
Mena Alexandra Suvari is an American actress, producer, fashion designer and model. The accolades she has received include a Screen Actors Guild Award, along with nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a BAFTA Award.
After beginning her career as a model and guest-starring on several television shows, Suvari made her film debut in the 1997 black comedy drama Nowhere. She rose to international prominence with her appearances as Angela in the critically acclaimed comedy-drama American Beauty, for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and Heather in three of the American Pie films. Her other notable lead film roles include Slums of Beverly Hills, Loser, Sugar & Spice, The Musketeer, Spun, Stuck, Day of the Dead, and You May Not Kiss the Bride.
In television, Suvari played main roles as Maria Abascal on the We TV supernatural horror series South of Hell and Kathleen Callahan on the Paramount Network sitcom American Woman. For her main role as Detective Thompson on the Gala Film short-form series RZR, Suvari was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series. Suvari played recurring roles as Edie on the fourth season of the HBO drama series Six Feet Under, for which she earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination, and Isabella on the second season of Chicago Fire. She also portrayed Elizabeth Short in the anthology series American Horror Story: Murder House, and reprised the part in American Horror Story: Apocalypse.
Suvari has been a model for Lancôme cosmetics and print ads for Lancôme Paris Adaptîve, as well as a long-time supporter and activist for the Starlight Children's Foundation and the African Medical and Research Foundation. She is married and has one child.
Early life
Suvari was born in Newport, Rhode Island. She is the daughter of nurse Candice and psychiatrist. Her mother is of Greek descent, while her father was an Estonian from Pärnu. She has six siblings. Suvari began modeling with Millie Lewis Models and Talent as a preteen and soon after appeared in a Rice-A-Roni commercial. The family later relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where her brothers attended The Citadel. Suvari was considering becoming an archaeologist, astronaut, or doctor when a modeling agency stopped by her all-girls school, Ashley Hall, to offer classes. By the time she started acting, she had been modeling for the New York-based Wilhelmina agency for five years. Suvari relocated to California and attended Providence High School in Burbank, graduating in 1997.Career
1995–1998: Early acting credits
Suvari began acting with guest appearances in television series such as Boy Meets World and ER at the ages of 15 and 16, respectively. She also appeared in a number of episodes of the show High Incident, and played a girl infected with HIV in a one-episode appearance in Chicago Hope. She made the transition to film with the role of Zoe in the 1997 independent coming-of-age drama Nowhere, directed by Gregg Araki and co-starring James Duval, Rachel True, Heather Graham, and Ryan Phillippe. Also in 1997, she had a supporting part in the independent film Snide and Prejudice, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and had a brief part in the thriller Kiss the Girls, opposite Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. She next appeared in the independent dramedy Slums of Beverly Hills, as a teenaged neighbor of a Jewish girl struggling to grow up in the late 1970s. The film received a limited release, and has developed a cult following. Suvari met Natasha Lyonne on the set of Slums, with whom she would later appear in the American Pie films. She subsequently played a teenager who commits suicide in the horror sequel The Rage: Carrie 2, and appeared as the daughter of an NTSB investigator in the disaster thriller NBC miniseries Atomic Train, although both productions were panned by critics.1999–2001: Breakthrough and award success
Her breakthrough came in 1999, with significant roles in two highly successful films —the teen sex comedy American Pie and the drama American Beauty. In American Pie, she starred with Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Chris Klein, and Natasha Lyonne, portraying a virgin and innocent choir girl named Heather. While critical response was mixed, the film was a commercial success, grossing $235 million worldwide.In American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes and co-starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Wes Bentley and Thora Birch, Suvari took on the role of Angela Hayes, a vain teenage girl who becomes the object of infatuation of a man experiencing a midlife crisis. The New York Times described her character as "stimulus enough for to wake up out of a marriage-long coma and start considering life's livelier possibilities". The film received widespread critical acclaim, and received the Academy Award for Best Picture. American Beauty made $356 million globally and earned Suvari a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Suvari and her American Beauty co-stars Wes Bentley and Thora Birch presented the 2000 Oscar for Best Documentary short subject.
Suvari subsequently reunited with Jason Biggs in the romantic comedy Loser, playing the love interest of a small-town, intelligent man. A lukewarm critical and commercial reception greeted the film, but The New York Times found Suvari to be "well matched with the handsome, unassuming Mr. Biggs. They're attractive without being offensively cute, and their characters manage to be genuinely nice without seeming bland or phony". She and Biggs also appeared in the music video for the song "Teenage Dirtbag" by American rock band Wheatus. The video was heavily based on their roles in Loser. She then starred in the satirical comedy American Virgin, as the daughter of an adult film director who agrees to lose her virginity onscreen to spite her father. The original working title of the film was Live Virgin, but was changed to capitalize on Suvari's previous successes in American Pie and American Beauty.
Suvari continued to act steadily, taking on roles in three 2001 feature films —The Musketeer, American Pie 2 and Sugar & Spice. In the adventure action film The Musketeer, she played a chambermaid and the love interest of the titular character, while American Pie 2 saw her reprise her role from the first film. Like the original, the sequel was a commercial success, grossing $285 million globally. In the teen crime comedy Sugar & Spice, Suvari portrayed one member of a group of cheerleaders who conspire and commit armed robbery. Although the film received negative reviews and only made $16.9 million worldwide, it has since become a cult favorite on home video.
2002–2009: Independent films
In Spun, an independent dramedy opposite Brittany Murphy and John Leguizamo about drug abuse, Suvari played an addict and the girlfriend of a drug dealer. She subsequently appeared as a prostitute working in a New Orleans brothel in the small-scale drama Sonny, the directorial debut of Nicolas Cage co-starring James Franco and Brenda Blethyn, and also starred opposite Colin Firth in the psychological thriller Trauma, as the neighbour of a man who awakens from a coma. Trauma premiered on the film festival circuit, receiving mediocre reviews from critics, who compared it unfavorably to Jacob's Ladder and Memento. In the fourth season of the acclaimed HBO serial Six Feet Under, which aired in 2004, Suvari obtained the recurring role of a lesbian performance poet and artist named Edie. She and the cast eventually received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. She played supporting parts in five feature films the following year—Standing Still, Edmond, Rumor Has It, Domino, and Beauty Shop.In 2006, Suvari voiced the character of Aerith Gainsborough for the Square Enix–Disney video game Kingdom Hearts II and the English-language version of Square Enix's film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, which was released straight-to-DVD in North America and became one of the best-selling animated movies in the country. Opposite Katherine Heigl, Suvari starred in the independent comedy Caffeine, playing the staff of a London coffeehouse, and in the biographical drama Factory Girl, she played a friend and roommate of 1960s underground film star and socialite Edie Sedgwick. While Caffeine went unnoticed, Factory Girl received a limited theatrical release amid a negative critical response.
In the crime drama Brooklyn Rules, directed by Michael Corrente and co-starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Alec Baldwin and Scott Caan, Suvari portrayed a society girl and the girlfriend of a man involved with the Brooklyn mafia in the 1980s. The film was released for selected theaters and received mixed reviews, but Variety remarked that Suvari, "who might have played as a cliché, gives a real performance". Her next film was the psychological thriller Stuck, where she took on the role of a woman who commits a hit-and-run and leaves the victim clinging to his life in the windshield of her car. Inspired by the true story of the murder of Gregory Glenn Biggs, the film premiered at the Cannes Film Market, and while Stuck found a limited theatrical release, it was favorably received by critics and audiences. Austin Chronicle found the film to be "buoyed by queasy, easy performances" from Suvari and Rea, who were considered "well-matched in uneasy roles" by Empire.
By the late 2000s, Suvari continued to act in smaller-scale projects, obtaining four back-to-back roles in films released throughout 2008, including one made-for-television film. Day of the Dead, a remake of George A. Romero's horror film of the same name, saw her portray what was described as a "butch military leader capable of fending off a zombie holocaust", by DVD Talk. The film received a straight-to-DVD release and was panned by critics. In The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, a film adaptation of writer Michael Chabon's novel, Suvari played a strange girl who works at a book shop and becomes romantically involved with the well-mannered, intelligent son of a Jewish gangster. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and received a limited release. Website Collider felt that Suvari did a "decent job" in her "small" part, while Roger Ebert called her "pitch-perfect" in a "finally thankless role", as part of a mixed critical reception.
The Garden of Eden, the film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel, featured Suvari as a sexually confused and restless woman and one half of a couple who travel across Europe amid a deteriorating marriage. She shaved her head for the part, but used three wigs for the in-between stages; on which she remarked: "It was a bit strange. It was also very liberating at the same time I am grateful for the experience I am happy that I got to do it at least once in my life. It was like its own psychological experiment. It was very empowering for me to go through and a challenging to experience how people perceive you". The film premiered at the Rome Film Festival and had a limited investors' screening in the UK. Reviews were negative for the film, with the Los Angeles Times calling it a "literary B-side turned into something not awful, just forgettable". Her last 2008 film was the Lifetime production Sex and Lies in Sin City, about the events leading to the death of Las Vegas casino owner Ted Binion.