| BIOGRAPHY
Actress Piper Perabo learned one of Hollywood's rules of self-preservation
early on: lie. Auditioning for her first major film role in Whiteboyz
(1999), a spoof of white homeboy culture, Perabo was asked if
she knew how to rap. She replied that she did, even though she
was completely clueless about the musical style.
After getting the part, she took a two-week crash course in hip-hop
and emerged well-versed in both the music and the art of securing
employment. Although Whiteboyz failed to make much of an impression
in theaters, Perabo did manage to attract attention in her role
as the college-bound girlfriend of the film's protagonist and
was soon being touted as the latest blonde, blue-eyed Next Big
Thing to sashay across the collective psyche of the filmgoing
public.
A native of Toms River, NJ, where she was born in 1977, Perabo
first became involved in acting through drama lessons at Manhattan's
LaMama Theatre. After graduating summa cum laude from Ohio University
with a BFA in acting in 1998, she worked on the stage and soon
landed her role in Whiteboyz. On the heels of that film, 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.
|
FILMOGRAPHY
• Slap Her, She's French (2004)
• Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)
• Lost and Delirious (2001)
• The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000)
• Coyote Ugly (2000)
• Whiteboyz (1999) |
