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Erica Leerhsen extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Erica Leerhsen
Leerhsen at the screening of Little Athens, 2005
Born	February 14, 1976 (1976-02-14) (age 34) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2000–present
Official website

Erica Leerhsen (born February 14, 1976) is an American actress, best known for her lead roles in the horror films Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, and for which she is often referred to as a modern day scream queen. She is also known for her acting on television, such as her lead role in The Guardian and several guest appearances, including The Sopranos, Alias, and others. She was also voted #96 in 2001's Maxim Hot 100.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 1.3 Future projects 1.4 Personal life 2 Filmography 2.1 Films 2.2 Television series 3 References 4 External links

Biography

Early life

Leerhsen was born in New York City, New York on Valentine's Day, and raised in Ossining, Westchester County, New York, along with her two sisters, Nora and Debbie, by their father Charles Leerhsen, a long time editor of celebrity publication Us Magazine (which became Us Weekly in March 2000). She attended St. Augustine's School and Ossining High School (where she sang in the choir) and graduated from Boston University College of Fine Arts in 1998. She earned BFA (summa cum laude) in acting the same year.

Career

After graduation, Leerhsen's first role was as Sarah in a 1999 short film Junior Creative, which received several good reviews.¹ During its production, she got the lead role of a practicing witch in the controversial Horror sequel Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, though she originally auditioned for the part that eventually went to Kim Director. She went to the audition with short blonde hair, and, as director Joe Berlinger described it, "completely Gothed-out", but ultimately was given the role of Erica. It was Berlinger who decided to make her character a long-haired redhead.²

Following Blair Witch 2, Leerhsen appeared in the third season of The Sopranos, where she played a lesbian tennis instructor who falls for Drea de Matteo's character. She then joined the cast of the well-acclaimed TV show The Guardian, however she left the show in the middle of the season to continue with pursuing her career. In the same year she had a supporting role in Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending.

Leerhsen was honored with the title "Arrow in the Head's Mistress of the Year 2003".³ That year saw the release of the successful horror remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in which Leerhsen had a lead role as one of the doomed teens. During her screen test for the film, her screams were so loud that people on other floors of the building called the police to report that a young woman was being attacked.⁴ The same year she returned to acting on television with a guest appearance on Alias, and then reunited with Woody Allen in his new film, Anything Else.

In 2004, Leerhsen starred in an independent Thriller The Warrior Class, where she played Anson Mount's love interest. The film got released on DVD on February 6, 2007. Months later, she started acting in theaters, and appeared in Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory, which attracted attention from a wider adult audience and received good reviews.⁵

A year later, Leerhsen starred along Michael Pena in an independently-made Toronto Film Festival-smash Little Athens, which got released on DVD on November 21, 2005. The same year she had a guest appearance on Jennifer Love Hewitt's television show Ghost Whisperer, and starred in Mozart and the Whale, which was released in limited theaters on April 14, 2006.⁶

The year 2006 opened with Leerhsen's guest appearance on CSI: Miami. Shortly after, she was landed a starring role in Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, the successful 2007 sequel to the 2003 horror film Wrong Turn, where she did a lot of her own stunts. The sequel got released on DVD on October 9, 2007 in USA, and January 8, 2008 in UK.

Before filming Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, Leerhsen shot a Horror/Thriller Living Hell, where she played a hazmat specialist. The film premiered on the SCI FI Channel on February 23, 2008, and got released on DVD on June 10 in USA.

Future projects

In 2007, Leerhsen starred in an indie film Lonely Joe, which has been said to be a Supernatural Horror/Thriller "in the veins of Saw and The Sixth Sense", and has been slated for an unknown 2010 release. Her most recent projects have been a Thriller The Message, and 4 upcoming films: Thriller The Help, an Aussie Horror/Thriller The Fury, Thriller Shiver directed by Lucky McKee, and a horror film Slaughter.

Personal life

Leerhsen enjoys running, playing basketball and Yoga. She currently lives in Los Angeles⁷ and is good friends with actress Emily Deschanel, with whom she went to the same college.

Commenting on the characters she often plays, Leerhsen has said: "It's weird because I always seem to be dead. I'm gonna have to change that because I wouldn't want to be typecast."⁸

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Slaughter	Jenny	announced
	Shiver	Wendy Alden	pre-production
	The Fury	Angel	pre-production
	The Help	Abigail	pre-production
	The Message	Anna	post-production
	Lonely Joe	Michele Connelly	completed
2008	Living Hell	Carrie Freeborn
2007	Wrong Turn 2: Dead End	Nina Papas
2005	Mozart and the Whale	Bronwin
	Little Athens	Heather
2004	The Warrior Class	Annie Sullivan
2003	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre	Pepper Harrington
	Anything Else	Connie
2002	Hollywood Ending	Actress
2000	Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2	Erica Geerson
	Junior Creative	Sarah

Television series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	CSI: Miami	Brenda Sanders	Ep. 4.12
2005	Ghost Whisperer	Hope Paulson	Ep. 1.07
2003	Alias	Kaya	Ep. 3.09 & 3.10
2001	The Sopranos	Birgit Olafsdottir	Ep. 3.01
	The Guardian	Amanda Bowles	2001–2002

References

External links

• Erica Leerhsen at the Internet Movie Database
• Erica Leerhsen at MySpace
• Erica-Leerhsen.com
• Erica Leerhsen's Realm
• Erica Leerhsen at Rotten Tomatoes
• Erica Leerhsen at StarPulse
• Erica Leerhsen at Yahoo! Movies