Shannen Doherty Biography

Shannen Maria Doherty (born April 12, 1971) is an American actress, producer, author, and television director known for her work in Little House on the Prairie, Heathers, Our House, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Charmed.

Early life and career beginnings

Shannen Maria Doherty was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Rosa, a beauty parlor owner, and Tom Doherty, a mortgage consultant. Doherty has Irish Catholic ancestry on her father's side and English, Scottish, and Scots-Irish ancestry on her mother's side. She was raised in her mother's Southern Baptist denomination.

Doherty had guest spots on TV series including Voyagers! and Father Murphy. When a casting notice was released in Hollywood for a regular role on the popular Little House on the Prairie, she jumped at the opportunity and eventually won the role of Jenny Wilder at the age of 11, thanks in part to actor/producer Michael Landon's seeing her guest spot on Father Murphy, which he also produced. Doherty stayed in the series until the show's cancellation in 1983.

In 1982, Shannen lent her voice talents to the animated film The Secret of NIMH. In 1985, Doherty starred as Maggie Malene in the teen movie comedy Girls Just Want to Have Fun alongside actresses Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Doherty was cast as the oldest Witherspoon sibling, Kris, on the family drama Our House, which ran from 1986 to 1988, a role which garnered her several Young Artist Award nominations. She then went on to appear in an episode of Magnum, P.I. followed by an early episode of Airwolf for which she was nominated as Best Young Actress: Guest in a Series at the 6th Youth in Film Awards in 1984. Doherty's first major motion picture role was in Heathers, released in 1989.

Career

Early work: 1990"?2001

Doherty garnered worldwide attention and fame for her breakout role as Brenda Walsh in the Aaron Spelling-produced TV series Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1990. In 1991 and 1992 her portrayal of Brenda earned her a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Young Actress Starring in a Television Series. In 2004, E! placed the character at number ten on their list of the 50 Most Wicked Women of Prime Time. Doherty was removed after the fourth season in 1994 because of reported tension with costars. Her character was written off the show as moving to London to attend school at the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts.

While the character's absence was originally described as only being for a year, she never returned to the original series despite being mentioned from time to time during the show's remaining seasons (although she would reprise the role of Brenda later in the The CW's updated version of the show in 2008). She was replaced by former Saved by the Bell star Tiffani Thiessen, who played Valerie Malone. Her career afterward consisted primarily of made-for-TV movies, though she also had a lead role in Kevin Smith's 1995 film Mallrats. In 1998, Spelling again cast her in another of his TV series, Charmed, in which she played lead character Prue Halliwell, the oldest of three sisters who discover they are witches. Doherty also directed a few episodes for the series during the second and third seasons. Doherty left the show in 2001 at the end of the third season, resulting in her character's death and the introduction of the replacement character Paige Matthews, who was portrayed by film actress Rose McGowan. Reportedly, the reason for her departure was again because of on-set and off-set tensions between Doherty and co-star Alyssa Milano. It was reported that her acrimonious departure from Charmed so angered Spelling that he banned her from any future Spelling productions, although this was never confirmed.

Doherty was also twice nominated, in 1999 and 2000, for the Saturn Award, Best Genre TV Actress, for her performance in Charmed. In 2007, AOL named Prue Halliwell the 10th greatest witch in television history.

Later work: 2002"?present

In 2003, Doherty hosted the Sci Fi Channel candid camera show Scare Tactics during its initial season. After her stint on Scare Tactics Doherty, in a return to her prime-time soap roots, starred as a regular on the short-lived TV series North Shore. She starred as Alexandra Hudson from 2004 to 2005. Later in 2005, Doherty was cast in the new TV comedy Love Inc. Although she filmed the original pilot, she was dropped from the show just months before its television debut.

Doherty later went on to produce and star in her own reality show, Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty, which premiered on the Oxygen network in 2006. In the show, Doherty goes around doing "dirty work" for members of the public, including dumping boyfriends or telling people what their friends really think about them. The show was canceled after one season owing to poor ratings. She also starred in the popular British sitcom Bo! in the USA, a brain child of Leigh Francis. In the show, she plays herself being randomly harassed by Avid Merrion (Francis), who claims they are lovers. The show aired in October 2006 on the British Channel 4, and she appeared in several episodes.

During 2007, Doherty appeared in two television projects. She first appeared in "Kiss Me Deadly: A Jacob Keane Assignment" for the here! network and followed up with a starring role in the holiday film Christmas Caper for ABC Family. That same year Doherty also set up a production company called "No Apologies" for which she planned to develop a TV drama for herself. Later in 2007, Doherty was ranked number 96 on Entertainment Weekly list of the 100 Greatest Television Icons. In 2008, Doherty was featured on the Swedish television show High Chaparall, appearing in the second episode of the show's fourth season.

Also in 2008, 14 years since her last television appearance as Brenda Walsh, Doherty joined the cast of the Beverly Hills, 90210 spin off for The CW for a reported $40,000"50,000 an episode. She returned as a guest star, reprising her old role of Brenda Walsh in four of the new series' initial six episodes. Her character, now a successful theater actress and stage director, returned as the guest director of the high school musical. After her initial guest spot was completed, Doherty stated she was open to returning to the series later in the season and eventually agreed to appear in three additional episodes, with her most recent appearance airing in May 2009. The writers were eager to have her share scenes with Jennie Garth, who also reprised her 90210 role of Kelly Taylor. It was reported that Doherty and Garth's characters would both have a romantic interest in the character Ryan Matthews (Ryan Eggold) reminiscent of their old rivalry for former bad-boy character Dylan McKay (Luke Perry). Doherty and Garth later confirmed that the reports about the love triangle between their characters were false.

In late 2008, Doherty was announced to co-star alongside Dylan McDermott in the indie film Burning Palms, a satire based on Los Angeles stereotypes told through five intertwining storylines. That same year, Doherty played a lead role in the SciFi Channel adventure film The Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon. The film premiered on the cable network on December 20, 2008.

On March 1, 2010, it was announced that Doherty would be a celebrity contestant on Dancing with the Stars for the tenth season. The season premiered on Monday, March 22, 2010. Doherty was paired with two-time champion Mark Ballas in his sixth season on the show, but the pair was the first couple eliminated in the second week on March 30. The judges have said, "Doherty wouldn't have left if we would have just done scores". She wanted to do Dancing with the Stars to make her ailing father proud. Doherty returned for the finale. Doherty starred in FEARnet's animated web series Mari-Kari, which launched on June 3, 2010. Mari and Kari are identical twins, but Kari is a ghost. Doherty voiced both Mari and Kari in the eight-episode show.

WE tv announced on July 21, 2011, that she would star in a one-hour reality series that follows her and her fiance, Kurt Iswarienko, as they plan their wedding. The show, titled Shannen Says, premiered in April 10, 2012. Later in 2012, Doherty became a spokesperson for Education Connection.

In 2013, she appeared in an episode of The New Normal and reprised her character Brenda Walsh from Beverly Hills, 90210, which aired in the UK on E4 on March 21, 2013.

Personal life

In January 1993, California's United Bank took Doherty to court for $36,000 they claimed she owed them after bouncing more than 70 checks. On October 11, 1993, Shannen Doherty was married to Ashley Hamilton, son of actor George Hamilton; they divorced in April 1994. In 2001, Doherty was sentenced to either 10 days in jail or 20 days of work-release duty and three years' probation and was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine for drunk driving. Her seven-month marriage to Rick Salomon was annulled in 2003. On October 15, 2011, Doherty married Kurt Iswarienko in Malibu. Their wedding planning activities were the subject of the reality TV show Shannen Says.

Playboy

She has appeared several times nude in Playboy magazine. Her first appearance was in December 1993 followed by a spread in March 1994. She posed for the magazine again in December 2003 and has been featured in a 10-page pictorial.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Night Shift	Bluebird
1982	'	Teresa (voice)
1985	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	Maggie Malene
1985	'	Alison Fielding
1987	Alf Loves a Mystery	The Lady in Red
1989	Heathers	Heather Duke
1991	Forever Young	Party Girl
1992	Freeze Frame	Lindsay Scott
1992	Obsessed	Lorie Brindel
1994	'	Margaret Mitchell
1994	Almost Dead	Doctor Katherine Roshak
1994	Blindfold: Acts of Obsession	Madeleine Dalton
1994	Jailbreakers	Angel Norton
1995	Mallrats	Rene Mosier
1996	Gone in the Night	Cynthia "Cindi" Dowaliby
1997	Friends 'Til The End	Heather Romely
1997	Sleeping with the Devil	Rebecca Dubrovich
1997	'	CeeCee Reicker
1997	Nowhere	Valley Chick #2	Cameo with Rose McGowan
1999	Striking Poses	Gage Renee Sullivan/Julie Summerfield/Margaret Mudge	Direct-to-video
2000	Satan's School for Girls	Beth Hammersmith/Karen Oxford
2001	Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back	Herself	Cameo
2001	Another Day	Kate
2002	Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay	Lexi Wilcox
2002	The Rendering	Sarah Reynolds
2003	View of Terror	Celeste Timmerman
2005	Category 7: The End of the World	Scientist Faith Clavell
2007	Christmas Caper	Kate Dove
2008	Kiss Me Deadly	Marta	Also known as The Delphi Effect
2008	'	Susan Jordan	Syfy TV movie
2009	Encounter with Danger	Lori	Also known as Resistance
2010	Burning Palms	Dr. Shelly
2010	Growing the Big One	Emma Silver	Hallmark Channel TV movie
2012	Witchslayer Gretl	Gretl	Syfy TV movie Also known as Witchslayer, Gretl, and Gretl: Witch Hunter
2013	Mark of the Cobra	Donna	Starring opposite Ray Liotta
2013	Bukowski	Katharina Bukowski	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Father Murphy	Drusilla Shannon	Nominated"?Young Artist Award
1982	'	Little Girl
1982	Voyagers!	Betty Parris
1982"1983	Little House on the Prairie	Jenny Wilder	18 episodes Nominated"Young Artist Award (1983 and 1984)
1983	Little House: Look Back to Yesterday	Jenny Wilder
1983	Magnum, P.I.	Ima Platt
1984	Airwolf	Phoebe Danner	Nominated"?Young Artist Award
1984	Little House: Bless All The Dear Children	Jenny Wilder
1984	Little House: The Last Farewell	Jenny Wilder
1984	'	Laurie	1 episode
1985	Highway to Heaven	Shelley Fowler
1985	Robert Kennedy & His Times	Kathleen Kennedy
1986"1988	Our House	Kris Witherspoon	Nominated"?Young Artist Award (1987 and 1988)
1986	Out Laws	Young Girl
1989	21 Jump Street	Janine
1990	Life Goes On	Ginny Green
1990"1994	Beverly Hills, 90210	Brenda Walsh	Series regular (Seasons 1"4); 111 episodes Young Artist Award (1993) Nominated"?Young Artist Award (1991 and 1992) Nominated"?TV Land Awards (2007)
1992	The Secret of Lost Creek	Jennie Fogel
1992	"Real Love" by Slaughter	Video Vixen	Music video
1998"2001	Charmed	Prue Halliwell	Lead role (Seasons 1"3); 67 episodes Nominated"?Saturn Award (1999, 2000)
2004"2005	North Shore	Alexandra Hudson	11 episodes
2005	Love, Inc.	Denise Johnson	"Pilot"
2008"2009	90210	Brenda Walsh	Special guest star (Season 1); 8 episodes
2010	Mari-Kari	Mari/Kari (voice)
2012	The New Normal	Herself	Episode 10: "The XY Factor"

Reality television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Scare Tactics	Host
2006	Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty	Host
2010	Dancing with the Stars	Competitor	Eliminated March 30
2011	Les Anges de la Télé Réalité 3 : I Love New York	Special Guest Star	NRJ 12 French reality series
2012	Shannen Says	Herself	WE tv reality series

Webseries

Year	Title	Role	Episode title/Notes
2011	Suite 7	Adrianne	Company
2011	Suite 7	Series director	Captive Audience

Director

Year	Title/Band name	Episode/Song title	Season/Episode number/Notes
2000	Charmed	"Be Careful What You Witch For"	Season 2, episode 22
2001	Charmed	"The Good, the Bad and the Cursed"	Season 3, episode 14
2001	Charmed	"All Hell Breaks Loose"	Season 3, episode 22
2012	Radical Something	"Naked in Venice"	Starring Holly Marie Combs

Producer

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Another Day	co-executive producer
2006	Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty	executive producer
2006	Better Off: Insecurity Check	executive producer

Writer

Year	Title	Episode title/Note	Role
2006	Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty	"Dancing by Myself"	creator
2006	Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty	"You Need My Helpline: Chemistry Test"	creator
2010	Badass: A Hard-Earned Guide to Living Life with Style and (Right) Attitude		author

Theater

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	'	nun	with Ralph Macchio and Mario Cantone

Choreographer

Year	Title	Episode title	Season/Episode number
2001	Charmed	"Coyote Piper"	Season 3, episode 9

Magazine art director

Year	Magazine	Job description
2009	Pasadena Magazine	In charge of choosing cover designs and photospreads