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Paula Marshall (born June 12 1964 in Rockville, Maryland, USA) is an American actress, who has an unfortunate reputation for having many television series in which she is a main cast member cancelled in its first season and several shows on which she was a guest star cancelled soon after her appearance. This has earned her the nickname "Show Killer" at Television Without Pity.

A native of Maryland, she graduated from Robert E. Peary High School in Rockville, in 1982, where she pursued her love of photography.

It wasn't until 1992 that Marshall gained audience attention when she had a three episode guest role on The Wonder Years and guest-starred on other shows such as Seinfeld (in the episode where she reported that Jerry and George are a gay couple), Nash Bridges, Grapevine and Diagnosis Murder. In 1994, she got her first sitcom role on Wild Oats, which was cancelled in its first season. After a few years in B-movies, Marshall gained a role on a second series, 1997's Chicago Sons, which fared no better than Wild Oats had. 1997 wasn't a bad year for Marshall, though, as she had a recurring role on Spin City and starred alongside Bette Midler and Dennis Farina in the film That Old Feeling.

In 1998, Marshall's third television series, Rob Thomas's Cupid, premiered. The series featured Marshall as Dr. Claire Allen, a psychiatrist who is given charge of a man named Trevor (Jeremy Piven) who thinks he is Cupid sent down from Mt. Olympus by Zeus to connect 100 couples without his powers, as a punishment. The series gained a small but dedicated fanbase but found itself in a bad timeslot and was canceled. Before the year was out, however, Marshall had joined Gina Gershon and her That Old Feeling co-star Danny Nucci on David E. Kelley's Snoops, about a less-than-conventional detective agency. Within its first season, it was also canceled.

In 2000, Marshall returned to television screens: first with a three-episode guest arc as a porn star and love interest for Jeremy (Joshua Malina) on Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night, and then in her fifth TV series Cursed (a.k.a The Weber Show). After its first season, Cursed was also canceled, and Marshall remained off camera until 2002, when she guest starred on Just Shoot Me! as the daughter of Nina (Wendie Malick). Before the year was out, Just Shoot Me! had been canceled, and Marshall had her sixth series: Hidden Hills.

Hidden Hills was an offbeat comedy about three families in suburbia and was a mild success but was not renewed for a second season. Marshall resurfaced in a secondary role in the Steve Martin-Bonnie Hunt remake of Cheaper by the Dozen and had a cameo appearance in Break a Leg, a film starring Jennifer Beals and Danny Nucci, who by now was dating Marshall. On October 12, 2003, the two were married. Paula gave birth to her first and Danny Nucci's second child in March 2005.

In 2004, Marshall guest starred on an episode of Alicia Silverstone's Miss Match, but the series was canceled before her episode aired. In October, she had a three-episode role on freshman series Veronica Mars, which was created by Cupid's Rob Thomas. Veronica Mars was renewed for a second season. She returned to the role toward the end of season two.

Marshall's next series was Out of Practice, her seventh main role on a television show. However, Out of Practice was removed from the CBS line-up (as of March 30, 2006)[1] and was officially canceled soon after.

Marshall has also been cast in several pilots that never got picked up, including the Elizabeth Lackey series Cooking Lessons and Rob Thomas's Sticks.

External links

• Ellen Gray article

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