#M(ichigan)M(ovie)H(istory), On this day, July 18, 1980, Kristen Bell was born

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Today is Kristen Bell’s birthday.  An American actress and singer, Bell was born  and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.    She attended Shrine Catholic High School in nearby Royal Oak, where she took part in the drama and music club.

During her time at the school, she won the starring role in the school’s 1997 production of The Wizard of Oz, as Dorothy Gale and also appeared in productions of Fiddler on the Roof (1995), Lady Be Good (1996), and Li’l Abner (1998). In 1998, the year she graduated, Bell was named the yearbook’s “Best Looking Girl” by senior class vote.

Shortly after her high school graduation, Bell moved to New York City to attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, majoring in musical theater. In 2001, during her senior year, Bell left a few credits shy of graduating, to take a role in the Broadway musical version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  and starred in the Broadway revival of The Crucible the following year.

In 2004, she had a supporting role in the film Spartan and received praise for her first leading performance in Gracie’s Choice.

Bell gained critical acclaim for her first major role as the title character in the teen noir drama television series Veronica Mars (2004–07). In 2007, Bell joined the cast of the sci-fi series Heroes, playing the character Elle Bishop.

In 2008, she had her breakout film role as the title character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Bell garnered further recognition for voicing Princess Anna in the Disney film Frozen (2013), the short films Frozen Fever (2015) and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (2017), and the upcoming Frozen 2.

From 2012 to 2016, she starred as Jeannie van der Hooven, the female lead on the Showtime series House of Lies. Since 2016, she has starred in the main role of Eleanor Shellstrop on the NBC comedy series The Good Place.

Let’s wish Kristen a BIG Happy Birthday today.

For more on Kristen Bell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Bell

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