Troian Bellisario Biography

Troian Avery Bellisario (born October 28, 1985) is an American actress, writer, and debuting director. She is the daughter of producers Donald P. Bellisario and Deborah Pratt. Born in Los Angeles, California, Bellisario made her acting debut in her father's 1988 film Last Rites at the age of three. She continued to have roles produced by her father, mainly in television shows such as Quantum Leap, First Monday, and NCIS, and in 1998, she starred in the direct-to-video comedy film Billboard Dad.

Bellisario received praise for her leading performance in the 2010 film Consent for which she won the Vision Fest Award for Best Acting by a Female Lead and the FirstGlance Philadelphia Award for Best Actress. In 2009, she landed the lead role of Spencer Hastings in the Freeform series Pretty Little Liars (2010-present). For her performance, she has won two Teen Choice Awards out of five nominations. In addition to her work on Pretty Little Liars, Bellisario also starred in the WIGS episode series Lauren, for which she received critical acclaim and won the New York Film Festival Award for Best Performance by an Actress and was nominated for the Streamy Award for Best Female Performance - Drama.

Early life

Troian Avery Bellisario was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her parents are producers Donald P. Bellisario and Deborah Pratt. Donald P. Bellisario created Magnum, P.I., Quantum Leap, and NCIS, among other TV series. She has a younger brother, three half-sisters, two half-brothers, and is a step-sister of actor Sean Murray and producer Chad W. Murray. Her father is of Italian and French descent. Her mother is of African American and Creole descent.

Bellisario attended Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California from kindergarten through twelfth grade, where she was the valedictorian of her class. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California in 2009.

Career

Bellisario made her acting debut in the 1988 film Last Rites at the age of three. From 1990 to 2007, she guest starred on such television series as Quantum Leap, Tequila and Bonetti, JAG, First Monday and NCIS, television series that were produced by her father Donald P. Bellisario. In NCIS, she played Sarah McGee, sister of Special Agent Timothy McGee, played by her real-life stepbrother Sean Murray.

In 1998, she co-starred with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in the film Billboard Dad. Beginning in 2006, Bellisario began appearing in a number of independent short films namely, Unspoken, Archer House and Intersect. In November 2009, Bellisario was cast as Spencer Hastings in the TV series Pretty Little Liars based on the book series of the same name by Sara Shepard. In October 2011, Bellisario announced she was in the process of writing and creating her own film, which was successfully funded through Kickstarter on November 16, 2011. Filming ended in December 2011 and the film was officially completed by August 2012.

In August 2012, Bellisario appeared alongside Jennifer Beals in the WIGS web episode series, Lauren. Lauren returned on May 3, 2013 for a twelve episode run. In 2015, she was cast in a leading role in the American remake of the French-Canadian film Martyrs. In 2015, Bellisario and fiance Patrick J. Adams filmed short film We Are Here in Haida Gwaii, which Bellisario wrote and starred in. Bellisario starred in her feature film, Feed, a semi-autobiographical movie, which she also wrote and produced.

On April 7, 2016, it was announced that Bellisario would be directing Season 7, Episode 15 of Pretty Little Liars. This made her one of the first in the cast, alongside Chad Lowe, to direct an episode on the series.

Personal life

Bellisario started dating Suits star Patrick J. Adams after they met on the set of the play Equivocation in 2009. The couple briefly split, but after Adams' guest appearance on Pretty Little Liars in 2010, the two got back together. Since working on Equivocation and Pretty Little Liars, the couple have also worked together on the 2012 short film The Come Up, Suits and We Are Here. On February 14, 2014, Bellisario and Adams were engaged under the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

Bellisario revealed in early January 2014 that she went through personal problems through high school, resulting in an eating disorder and self-harming problems. "I was the youngest daughter, the perfect little girl," she said. "My school was a very intense college prep school. So it was about wanting to please my father and mother and wanting to be perfect to everybody."

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Last Rites	Justin's daughter
1998	Billboard Dad	Kristen
2006	Unspoken	Jani	Short film
2007	Archer House	Tatum	Short film
2009	Intersect	Victoria	Short film
2009	Before the Cabin Burned Down	Meg	Short film
2010	Consent	Amanda
2010	Peep World	Film set P.A.
2011	A November	Girlfriend	Short film
2011	Pleased to Meet You	Carson
2012	'	Jessica	Short film
2012	Joyful Girl	Belle	Short film
2013	C.O.G.	Jennifer
2013	Exiles	Juliet	Short film; writer and executive producer
2013	Immediately Afterlife	Bennett	Short film
2015	Surf Noir	Lacey	Short film
2015	Martyrs	Lucie
2015	Still a Rose	Juliet	Short film
2015	Amy	Amy	Short film
2016	Chuck Hank and the San Diego Twins	Claire
2016	We Are Here		Post-production; writer
2016	Feed	Olivia Grey	Post-production; writer and producer

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Quantum Leap	Teresa Bruckner	Episode: "Another Mother"
1992	Tequila and Bonetti	Teresa Garcia	2 episodes
1998	JAG	Erin Terry	Episode: "Tiger, Tiger"
2002	First Monday	Kimberly Baron	2 episodes
2005-2006	NCIS	Sarah McGee	2 episodes
2010-present	Pretty Little Liars	Spencer Hastings	Lead role
2014-2015	Suits	Claire Bowden	2 episodes
2016	Sister Cities	Baltimore Baxter	Television film

Web

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012-2013	Lauren	Sergeant Lauren Weil	Main role
2014	"Pa-gents with Chris Pine"	Cathryn Crest
2015	"Instagram Intervention with Troian Bellisario"	Herself

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Title	Result
2010	Vison Fest	Best Acting (Female Lead)	Consent
	FirstGlance Philadelphia	Best Actress
2011	Young Hollywood Awards	Cast to Watch (shared with Ashley Benson, Lucy Hale and Shay Mitchell)	Pretty Little Liars
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Summer TV Star: Female
2012	Teen Choice Awards
2013	IAWTV Award	Best Female Performance (Drama)	Lauren
	New York Festivals	Best Performance by an Actress
	Streamy Award	Best Female Performance (Drama)
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actress: Drama	Pretty Little Liars
2014	Teen Choice Awards
2015	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Summer TV Star: Female
2016	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actress: Drama