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Rachael Leigh Cook (born October 4, 1979) is an American actress. She came to fame after her role in the 1999 teen romantic comedy, She's All That, and has since appeared mostly in lower-profile films. Practically born in front of the camera, actress Rachael Leigh Cook began her career in the public eye when she decided to become a model while in the second grade. Before she tried her hand at acting, Cook appeared extensively in print campaigns and was featured in a public service announcement encouraging people to be foster parents. The Minnesota native began acting at age 15 – a career choice that would have her working steadily through her teen years, appearing as co-star, and later, the lead of numerous features and television programs, including her most famous offering, “She’s All That” (1999) – the film that made her a star. Petite, with expressive pixyish features and hair that was at different times, sandy blonde, chestnut brown and everything in between, the versatile actress was drafted to play younger versions of performers as varying as Holly Hunter, Angelina Jolie and Parker Posey. Cook was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Thomas H. Cook, a social worker and former stand-up comic, and JoAnn, a cooking instructor and weaver. Cook attended school at Laurel Springs School and Minneapolis South High School. She began working as a print model at the age of 10, most notably in nationwide advertisements for Target and appearing on the boxes of Milk-Bone dog biscuits for medium sized dogs. At the age of 14, Cook began auditioning for acting work. Her modeling agency sent her to read for a short film, 26 Summer Street (1996). She first gained national attention when she was featured in a This is Your Brain on Drugs public-service television advertisement, in which she proceeds to destroy a kitchen with a frying pan as she listed the things that drugs harms (in 1998). Cook began her feature film career some years earlier, debuting in The Baby-Sitters Club (1995) as shy 13-year-old babysitter Mary Anne Spier. The movie was based on Ann M. Martin's book series of the same name. she delivered a small turn in the twisted indie comedy, "The House of Yes" (1997), playing the ubiquitous Parker Posey's obsessed Jackie-O as a child. In 1998, the young actress costarred in "Strike!/The Hairy Bird,” a teen comedy set in the 1960s about a girls' boarding school fighting the admittance of boys and featuring such up-and-comers as Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann and Monica Keena. As the mischievous and mean-spirited Abby Sawyer, Cook played a part quite unlike her previous good girl roles. Later that year, the busy actress appeared in "Living Out Loud” as the teenaged Judith, as portrayed by an adult Holly Hunter. She starred as a rape victim fighting for custody of her son in the CBS drama, "Country Justice" (1997) and essayed the younger version of Angelina Jolie's character in the miniseries "True Women" (CBS, 1997) – a period piece about the women who helped settle Texas. Cook earned favorable notices as a traumatized assault victim in Showtime's "The Defenders: Payback" (1997), and while the role of the quiet and withdrawn girl called for little dialogue, she capably conveyed the character's emotional fragility. Cook's two highest-profile lead roles to date have been in the films She's All That (1999) and Josie and the Pussycats (2001). Cook continued to rack up more film credits, this time in lead roles. As the title character in the teen comedy "She's All That" (1999), featuring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Anna Paquin, she starred as a bespectacled high school nobody who a popular boy bets he can turn into a prom queen. The film was a runaway hit and advanced Cook and Prinze, Jr. to A-list status. Cook was next featured in "The Bumblebee Flies Anyway" (1999) with Elijah Wood, and starred in "The Hi-Line" (1999), a drama about an adopted girl searching for the truth about her origins. While she was wasted as a computer programmer in the pallid thriller "Anti-Trust” (2001), the actress led the pack as an aspiring rock singer and de facto leader of a girl group in "Josie and the Pussycats" (2001). Having formed her own production company, Ben's Sister Productions, Cook added a co-executive producer to her resume with the unreleased indie thriller, "Invisible Girl" (2001). Cook has also appeared in a number of independent films and in the 2005 television miniseries Into the West. In 2000, she was the cover girl for the premier issue of FHM US (March/April issue). Cook also provided the voice for Chelsea Cunningham on the Kids' WB animated series Batman Beyond in the episode "Last Resort" and in the animated film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. In 2002, she was ranked #26 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World". In “Bookies” (2003), she played a college student wooed by a small-time bookie (Nick Stahl) who uses his newfound wealth to impress her. Then after a supporting role in the sci-fi noir “The Big Empty” (2003), Cook appeared as a waitress in the indie thriller, “29 Palms” (2003), about a drifter (Jeremy Davies) who steals a bag of money and is hunted down by a hit man (Chris O’Donnell) hired by the owners of a Native American casino. Cook next appeared in the French-made “Tempo” (2004), a run-of-the-mill heist picture in which she played a jewelry store clerk with access to the safe who is approached by an antique smuggler (Hugh Dancy) to rob the store. She followed up that film by playing an inexperienced reporter who discovers she is the target of a serial killer in the straight-to-video release, “American Crime” (2005). Cook has provided the voice of Tifa Lockhart in the video games Kingdom Hearts II and Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, as well as the CG movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. She also starred in the video for New Found Glory's 2002 single "Dressed to Kill". Cook's latest voice-over role is for the video game Yakuza where she voices the role of Reina, a beautiful barkeep. She has also appeared in Daniel Powter's Love You Lately. While her onscreen roles seemed to lack the promise after “She’s All That,” Cook went back to a suddenly more respectable small screen, starting with the epic miniseries, “Into the West” (TNT, 2005), playing a young woman who forges her own way in an unforgiving land. After an appearance on the sketch variety show “Weekends at the D.L.” (Comedy Central, 2005) and an episode of the animated satire “Robot Chicken” (Cartoon Network, 2004- ), she landed a recurring role on the hit primetime drama, “Las Vegas” (NBC, 2003- ) playing a real estate agent who falls into a steamy affair with Danny McCoy (Josh Duhamel), understudy to the head of security (James Caan) for the fictional Montecito casino. Returning to features, Cook co-starred in “Nancy Drew” (2007), the long-awaited adaptation of the famed teen mystery novels, playing the rightful heir of a murdered film star (Laura Elena Harring) killed decades before, whose death is solved by a quirky tweener detective (Emma Roberts) newly relocated to Hollywood High. Cook owns her own production company, Ben's Sister Productions (in reference to her younger brother, an aspiring filmmaker). Cook eventually stepped away from the spotlight to focus on spending time with friends and family. She later returned to mainstream films when she signed on to a new casting agency. Cook was later cast in a role in the big screen adaptation of Nancy Drew, the female lead in the independent sports drama The Final Season, and playing a small supporting lead in Blonde Ambition. Cook has dated actors Ben Foster, Thomas Montgomery, Vincent Kartheiser, Ryan Reynolds, Shane West, Rider Strong, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Colin Hanks. She is now married to actor Daniel Gillies. Cook, a vegetarian, lives mostly in Los Angeles with her 3 dogs, but frequently goes back to visit her family in Minnesota. Her brother is Ben Cook, guitarist for the band Fucked Up. |
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