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Liza Weil (born June 5, 1977) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Paris Geller in the television drama Gilmore Girls and has guest-starred on The Adventures of Pete & Pete, ER, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and The West Wing.

Biography

Early life

Weil was born in New Jersey to a family of actors. Both of her parents, Lisa and Marc Weil, toured Europe with their own comedy troupe, The Madhouse Company of London with her in tow. Weil had aspirations of becoming an archaeologist in her younger years, because of the Indiana Jones film trilogy and a childhood crush on Harrison Ford.[1] In 1984, at the age of seven, her family settled down in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, a community north-northwest of Philadelphia. In contrast her Gilmore Girls character, Weil was a self-avowed average student in high school who focused more on her budding acting career than her studies; in her senior year she had to make up an English class during summer school because of a failing grade. Weil traveled frequently to New York for professional auditions, and acted in productions both off-Broadway and in Philadelphia's theatrical community before pursuing her film and television career. She is a 1995 graduate of the borough's North Penn High School.

Career

Weil continues to be active in the Los Angeles theatrical community during hiatuses, and still occasionally performs in live theater in Philadelphia and New York. She has acted with every member of her family; in 2004, she headlined with her father in a well-received community theater production of Proof at the Montgomery Theater in Souderton, Pennsylvania, just north of her adopted hometown of Lansdale. Her first ever television role in 1994, which was an episode of The Adventures of Pete & Pete called "Yellow Fever", found her playing a bully alongside of her mother Lisa, who played a teacher. Finally her younger sister Samantha shared the screen with Liza in Gilmore Girls's third season finale, "Those Are Strings, Pinocchio". Samantha Weil played a student named Bernadette (who was unrelated to Paris) making out a video yearbook entry in front of an impatient Paris, standing off to the side waiting to make her own.

An alumna of Columbia University, Weil received her first major feature film role co-starring with Kevin Bacon in Stir of Echoes. Before that role, she was the star of the 1998 independent film Whatever, and her first film in 1996 was the short A Cure For Serpents, where she played the daughter of a mysophobic woman bringing to her home a boyfriend who wasn't as obsessive with cleanliness, and how the mother deals with that. She has also done several other short and feature-length independent films, which include Motel Jerusalem, Scar, and Lullaby, and shown interest in behind-the-camera work.

Weil was originally considered for the role of Rory Gilmore by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino before Alexis Bledel won the role; the character of Paris Geller was created especially for Weil.

Her newest project is a horror short called Grace, which is set around a miscarriage gone bad by her character, and features Brian Austin Green as her love interest. The short film premiered at the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention on June 2, 2006, and may possibly be reworked as a full-length feature film depending on demand and financing [2]. She will also have minor roles in the 2007 biographical film Neal Cassady, and the Molly Shannon film Year of the Dog.

Personal life

As of 2006, Weil resides in Santa Monica and is a film and movie buff. She is engaged to actor Paul Adelstein, who plays Paul Kellerman on the Fox series Prison Break.[3]

Weil's real-life friend, actress Emily Bergl, appeared on Gilmore Girls several times as Paris' antagonist in student government and a leader of a school sorority, Francine Jarvis.

Weil is a natural brunette, and had this hair color through at least 2000; it is believed she was told to dye it dark blonde for her Gilmore Girls role to contrast with Bledel/Rory's brown hair. Amy Sherman-Palladino has complimented Weil's skin as "the best she's ever seen in her life".[4]

External links

• Liza Weil cast bio on The CW
• Iconophile - Liza Weil (multimedia site with pictures, QuickTime clips of her work, and articles)
• Promotional Website for Grace

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