Mena Suvari Biography

Mena Alexandra Suvari (born February 13, 1979) is an American actress, fashion designer, and model. Shortly after beginning her career as a model, she appeared in guest roles on such 1990s television shows as Boy Meets World and High Incident. She made her film debut in the drama Nowhere (1997).

She achieved international fame for her roles in the 1999 films American Beauty as Angela Hayes (for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award), and as Heather in American Pie (1999). She reprised her role as Heather in American Pie 2 (2001) and American Reunion (2012). She has also appeared in The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), Loser (2000), Sugar & Spice (2001), Spun (2002), Trauma (2004) and the HBO drama series Six Feet Under in 2004.

Suvari is a model for Lancôme cosmetics and print ads for Lancôme Paris Adaptîve and has been featured in several fashion blogs and magazines such as Vogue. She is a long-time supporter and activist for the African relief organization, the African Medical and Research Foundation. She is also active in feminist issues and is involved with charities whose cause is breast cancer and "End Violence Against Women" campaign.

Early life

Suvari was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the daughter of Candice (née Chambers), a nurse, and Ando Süvari, a psychiatrist. Her mother is of half Greek descent and her father is Estonian American. She has three older brothers. She began modeling as a preteen and soon after starred in a Rice-A-Roni commercial.

The family later relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where her brothers attended The Citadel. Mena considered 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.

After moving to the Los Angeles area, Mena attended Providence High School in Burbank, graduating in 1997.

Career

Early work, 1994"1998

Suvari made appearances in television shows such as Boy Meets World and ER at the age of fifteen and sixteen respectively. She also appeared in a number of episodes of the television series High Incident. She played a girl named Ivy infected with HIV in the Chicago Hope episode "Sympathy for the Devil".

She gained early notice for her performance as Zoe in Gregg Araki's low-budget drama feature Nowhere, alongside James Duval, Rachel True, Heather Graham, and Ryan Phillippe. She had a supporting part in the indie drama film Snide and Prejudice, which opened at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. She played a small role as Coty Pierce in the 1997 thriller Kiss the Girls, where she appeared opposite Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. She next was cast in a supporting role in the independent dramedy Slums of Beverly Hills, which was released in 1998. It was on the set of this film that she met Natasha Lyonne, who would later join the cast of American Pie.

International success, 1999"2006

In 1999, Suvari starred in the Academy Award-winning American Beauty, for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and was also nominated for the "Favorite Actress - Newcomer" at the 2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. Her performance as Angela Hayes brought her to the attention of a much wider audience. That year, she appeared as Heather in the popular teen comedy American Pie. The film was commercially successful, grossing $102 million domestically and $235 million worldwide. She appeared as Lisa Parker in The Rage: Carrie 2, the sequel to the 1976 supernatural thriller Carrie. In the film, she played Emily Bergl's character's best friend, who commits suicide.

Suvari starred alongside her American Pie co-star Jason Biggs in the romantic comedy Loser (2000). She appeared in the poorly received film The Musketeer, and had an appearance again with Biggs in the music video for the Wheatus song "Teenage Dirtbag" in 2001. She reprised the role of Heather in the 2001 sequel to American Pie, American Pie 2, which was also a box office success. She joined the cast of the dark comedy film Sugar & Spice, playing the character Kansas Hill, one of a group of close-knit cheerleaders. The film was a box office bomb. The following year, she starred in the independent drama Spun, opposite Brittany Murphy and John Leguizamo, and appeared in Nicolas Cage's directorial debut Sonny, a low-budget drama co-starring James Franco and Brenda Blethyn. In 2004, Suvari's film, the thriller Trauma, directed by Marc Evans, was released at the Sundance Film Festival. She portrayed the character of Charlotte, and co-starred with Colin Firth. The film was described by several film critics as a psychological thriller in the same vein as Jacob's Ladder (1990) and Memento (2000). In that year, she became a recurring character in the fourth season of the critically acclaimed HBO serial Six Feet Under, as lesbian performance poet and artist, Edie. She and the other Six Feet Under cast members received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2005.

Suvari appeared alongside Keira Knightley in Tony Scott's Domino, an 2005 action film based on the life of bounty hunter Domino Harvey. Later, she played the character Annie, Jennifer Aniston's tennis-obsessed sister in the romantic comedy Rumor Has It, and co-starred with Queen Latifah and Alicia Silverstone in Beauty Shop, a spinoff of the BarberShop films, as Joanne Marcus. She performed the voice role of Aerith Gainsborough in the Square Enix/Disney video game Kingdom Hearts II and the English-language version of Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. She also had the main role along with Katherine Heigl in the 2006 film Caffeine, a romantic comedy about the relationships of the staff and patrons of the Black Cat Cafe in London one day. Suvari's final 2006 film was the biographical drama Factory Girl, playing Richie Berlin. The film premiered on December 29, 2006, and it portrayed the story of Edie Sedgwick and how she came into Andy Warhol's life.

Recent work, 2007"present

In 2007, Suvari was cast in Michael Corrente's film Brooklyn Rules, with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Alec Baldwin. The film is a crime drime drama which was released on May 18, in a limited release. Later, she starred in the Stuart Gordon's controversial independent thriller Stuck. The film premiered on May 21, 2007 at the Cannes Film Market, and opened in the United States on May 20, 2008. She had the main role in the direct-to-video horror zombie Day of the Dead (2008), a remake of George A. Romero's 1985 classic zombie film of the same name.

She appeared in the film version of writer Michael Chabon's novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, also starring Sienna Miller and Peter Sarsgaard; in the film, Suvari played Phlox Lombardi, a strange girl who works at the book shop who becomes romantically involved with Jon Foster's character. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. She was cast as Catherine Bourne in the film adaptation of The Garden of Eden. The film was released in 2008 at the RomaCinemaFest and had a limited investors' screening in the UK. Sex and Lies in Sin City, starring Suvari, is a Lifetime made-for-television film about the events surrounding the death of Las Vegas casino owner Ted Binion.

Suvari reprised her role of Heather in American Reunion, released on April 6, 2012. Suvari will next appear in the romantic comedy film You May Not Kiss The Bride, which is directed by Rob Hedden and co-starring Vinnie Jones, Rob Schneider, and Katharine McPhee. Filming began in March 2009 in Hawaii. She is set to star in the horror film Last Stop, playing the character Tracy.

Other projects

Suvari is a model for Lancôme cosmetics and print ads for Lancôme Paris Adaptîve. She has been featured in fashion magazines such as Vogue.

Suvari has collaborated with Echo Design to launch a limited-edition three scarf collection. The project features her own nature-inspired photography, digitally screened on silk and silk chiffon as wearable art. The collection depicts trees in three stages of foliage from fall to winter; a portion of the proceeds from sales will go to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Suvari plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Starlight Children's Foundation. She is also active in female empowerment issues. She is involved with several charities whose cause is breast cancer, the "End Violence Against Women" campaign, and tours high schools as a "Circle Of Friends" spokesperson, encouraging teenagers to quit smoking.

Personal life

Suvari married German-born cinematographer Robert Brinkmann on March 4, 2000. Brinkmann was seventeen years her senior. On April 24, 2005, Suvari filed for legal separation, citing irreconcilable differences; the divorce was finalized in May 2005.

In 2007, Suvari began dating Italian-Canadian concert promoter Simone Sestito, whom she met at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. Suvari and Sestito became engaged in July 2008 during a vacation to Jamaica. They were married on June 26, 2010 in a private chapel in Rome. The couple chose Rome as their wedding locale because most of Sestito's family lives near the city. On January 13, 2012, Suvari filed for divorce from Sestito in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences and listing November 1, 2011 as the date of separation. The divorce was finalized in October 2012.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Kiss the Girls	Coty Pierce
1997	Snide and Prejudice	Geli Raubal
1997	Nowhere	Zoe
1998	Slums of Beverly Hills	Rachel Hoffman
1999	American Pie	Heather	Young Hollywood Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance (also for American Beauty)
1999	'	Lisa Parker
1999	American Beauty	Angela Hayes	Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Young Hollywood Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance (also for American Pie) Nominated"?BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated"?Teen Choice Award for Choice Breakout Performance
2000	Loser	Dora Diamond
2000	American Virgin	Katrina Bartalotti
2001	'	Francesca Bonacieux
2001	American Pie 2	Heather
2001	Sugar & Spice	Kansas Hill
2002	Sonny	Carol
2002	Spun	Cookie
2004	Trauma	Charlotte
2004	Standing Still	Lana
2005	Edmond	Prostitute
2005	Rumor Has It	Annie
2005	Domino	Kimmie
2005	Beauty Shop	Joanne Marcus
2006	Factory Girl	Richie Berlin
2006	Orpheus	Sue Ellen
2006	Caffeine	Vanessa
2006	'	Jules
2006	Final Fantasy VII Advent Children	Aerith Gainsborough	Voice
2007	Brooklyn Rules	Ellen
2007	Stuck	Brandi Boski
2008	Day of the Dead	Sarah Cross
2008	'	Phlox Lombardi
2008	'	Catherine Bourne
2010	You May Not Kiss the Bride	Tonya
2010	No Surrender	Amelia Davis
2011	Restitution	Heather
2012	American Reunion	Heather
2012	The Knot	Sarah

Television

Year	title	Role	Notes
1995"1996	Boy Meets World	Laura	Episodes "Danger Boy" and "The Grass Is Always Greener"
1996	Minor Adjustments	Emily	Episode "A Fish Story"
1996	ER	Laura-Lee Armitage	Episode "Last Call"
1996"1997	High Incident	Jill Marsh	3 episodes
1997	Chicago Hope	Ivy Moore	Episode "Sympathy for the Devil"
1999	Atomic Train	Grace Seger	TV movie
2004	Six Feet Under	Edie	7 episodes Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2008	Sex and Lies in Sin City	Sandy Murphy	TV movie
2010	Psych	Allison Cowley	Episode "Yang 3 in 2D" (5.16)
2011	The Cape	Dice	Episode "Dice" (1.05)
2011	American Horror Story: Murder House	Elizabeth Short	2 episodes: "Spooky Little Girl" and "Afterbirth"
2012	Never Mind The Buzzcocks	Herself	Series 26, Episode 3