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Shannyn Sossamon
Born	Shannon Marie Kahololani Sossamon October 3, 1978 (1978-10-03) (age 30) Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Years active	1998 – present

Shannon Marie Kahololani Sossamon¹ (born October 3, 1978), better known as Shannyn Sossamon, is an American actress, musician, dancer, DJ, and former model. She is perhaps best known for her roles in A Knight's Tale, The Rules of Attraction, 40 Days and 40 Nights and One Missed Call.

Early life

Sossamon was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the daughter of Sherry Sossamon, a nurse, and Todd Lindberg; her mother later re-married to Randy Goldstein.¹ Sossamon grew up in Reno, Nevada, and attended Galena High School there. Sossamon is of Dutch, English, Filipino, French, German, Hawaiian, and Irish descent.² The y in her first name was an adolescent alteration in 1995. The day after her high school graduation, Sossamon moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in dance.³ After moving to Los Angeles, Sossamon began to work as a DJ, booking gigs in local clubs.

Career

Early Career (1998-2001)

At the beginning of her career, Sossamon modeled for various companies including Sassy Magazine, Unionbay Clothing, American Eagle Outfitters and Planned Parenthood. She also appeared in two television commercials for Gap and starred in music videos for artists such as Daft Punk, The Goo Goo Dolls, Cher, Mick Jagger and DJ Quik. In 1999, Sossamon was discovered by casting director Francine Maisler, while assisting a friend DJ at Gwyneth Paltrow's birthday party. After going through several auditions, Sossamon beat out Kate Hudson⁴ for the role of 'Lady Jocelyn' and landed the lead female role in the 2001 film A Knight's Tale opposite Heath Ledger. The film received generally positive reviews and performed strongly at the box office with a total over $55,000,000.⁵

Rise to Fame (2002-2004)

After starring in A Knight's Tale, Sossamon began to receive a lot of attention from Hollywood. In 2002, she starred in Miramax Films' romantic comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights, alongside Josh Hartnett. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was considered a box office success after earning a worldwide total of $95,146,283.⁶

Also in 2002, Shannyn played a lead role in Roger Avary's dark satirical ensemble, The Rules of Attraction, an adaptation of the Brett Easton Ellis book of the same name. The film was fairly controversial and provocative. It included suicide, heavy drug use and sexual content (including a rape scene). Initially, The Rules of Attraction was given an NC-17 rating by the MPAA, but the film's distributor, Lions Gate Films ordered the filmmakers to edit the film in order to receive an R rating. The film received extremely mixed reviews from critics; most either loving or hating it. Rolling Stone called the film "a perverse and sickly delightful treat"⁷, while Richard Roeper stated that he "hated this movie."⁸ Despite the mixed critical reception, the film is considered a cult hit. The film grossed $11,819,244 worldwide, almost tripling its budget.⁹

Sossamon and Heath Ledger were cast together again and starred in the supernatural thriller, The Order. The film was released in late 2003 and was received very poorly by critics and flopped at the box office.¹⁰ After shooting the unsuccessful movie, she became pregnant and decided that it was a good time to take a short break from acting.

In 2004, Shannyn guest starred on the episode "Doubt" on the popular NBC series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. It was her only acting appearance of the year.

Recent Years (2005-present)

Shannyn returned to film in 2005, by starring in the direct-to-video low budget horror film, Devour, alongside Jensen Ackles and William Sadler. Next, she had small roles in the films Undiscovered and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Undiscovered was a box-office and critical failure, but Kiss Kiss Bang Bang performed well at the box office, grossing more than $17,000,000 and was significantly praised by critics. She also appeared alongside Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Cameron Diaz and Jude Law in Nancy Meyers' 2006 romantic-comedy, The Holiday. The film was mainly aimed towards women and received positive reviews from critics.

In 2006, Sossamon was cast as the female lead in the independent film, Wristcutters: A Love Story opposite Patrick Fugit, Tom Waits and Will Arnett. Wristcutters revolved around two characters, who fell in love in purgatory after committing suicide. Its interesting plot gained the film a lot of attention. The film was shown at both The Sundance Film Festival and The Seattle International Film Festival Awards in 2006. Autonomous Films picked it up for distribution and it was released on March 25, 2008 to extremely positive reviews. It was nominated for several awards including Sundance's Grand Jury Prize, two Independent Spirit Awards, the Humanitas Prize, among others.¹¹

Sossamon was next cast in Courtney Cox's dark drama series, Dirt on FX. She starred as Kira Klay, a celebrity, whom after realizing she is pregnant kills herself. She then appears in visions to a schizophrenic photographer. Shannyn appears in five episodes in the first season.

She then starred in the horror film Catacombs alongside singer, Pink. It was FEARnet and Lions Gate Entertainment's first film collaborating with each other. It was first released in 2007 in several countries including Italy, Japan and Mexico, but wasn't released in the United States until 2008.¹² It was filmed in early 2005¹³ but its release was delayed for more than two and a half years for unknown reasons.

Next, Shannyn signed on as a series regular on CBS's vampire drama Moonlight. The series began airing on September 28, 2007 and received 8.54 million viewers. CBS ordered a 16 episode first season but over the season, viewership decreased to around 7.5 million viewers. The series had a very large fan base but despite fans' efforts, CBS canceled the series after the first season.

Her next project, One Missed Call, was a remake of the Japanese horror film Chakushin Ari. The film also stars Ed Burns, Azura Skye, Margaret Cho and Ray Wise. The film received extremely negative reviews from critics, but was considered a major box-office success, grossing more than $42,000,000 worldwide. It was also considered a success on DVD and Blu-Ray, generating sales of more than $25,000,000 since its release on April 22, 2008.¹⁴

In 2008, Shannyn appeared with George Clooney in the commercial, "A Beautiful Race" for the company Martini.

Her next two films, The Heavy and Life is Hot in Cracktown are set to be released in late 2008 or 2009.

Personal life

Sossamon has three tattoos, including an S with a flower on her right back shoulder, and an "S" backward on her left shoulder. She also has a set of eyes with arched brows underneath the word "Believe," located on the small of her back. With Dallas Clayton, she has a son, Audio Science Clayton, born on May 29, 2003.¹⁵ Sossamon continues to study acting, music and dance. Her picture on the internet was the inspiration for the song "Spectacular" from Blur ex-guitarist Graham Coxon's 5th solo album, Happiness in Magazines.¹⁶

Filmography

• A Knight's Tale (2001)
• 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002)
• Wholey Moses (short film) (2003)
• The Order (2003)
• Devour (2005)
• Chasing Ghosts (2005)
• I Hate You (short film) (2005)
• Undiscovered (2005)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
• Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
• The Holiday (2006)
• Catacombs (2007)
• One Missed Call (2008)
• The Heavy (2008)
• Life Is Hot in Cracktown (2008)
• One Missed Call 2 (2009)

Television

• Moonlight as Coraline/Morgan (series regular) (2007-2008)
• Dirt as Kira Klay (recurring character) (2007)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Myra Dempsey - Episode "Doubt" (2004)
• Mr. Show - Episode "Flat Top Tony and the Purple Canoes" (1997)
• Mr. Show - Episode "Peanut Butter, Eggs, and Dice" (1997)

Television commercials

• "Khakis Swing" for Gap (1998, directed by Matthew Rolston)
• "Scratch" for Gap Denim (2001, directed by Paul Hunter)
• "A Beautiful Race" for Martini (2008, directed by François Girard, lensed by Janusz Kaminski, co-starring George Clooney)
• Kmart
• Kodak
• Oldsmobile
• Pepsi
• Unionbay

Music videos

• Daft Punk - Revolution 909 (1998, directed by Roman Coppola)
• Deborah Cox - "It's Over Now" (1998, directed by Marcus Raboy)
• DJ Quik feat. 2nd II None - "Hand In Hand" (1998, directed by Terry Heller)
• The Goo Goo Dolls - "Dizzy" (1999, directed by Nancy Bardawil)
• Cher - "Strong Enough" (1999, directed by Nigel Dick)
• KoЯn - "Make Me Bad" (1999, directed by Martin Weisz)
• Mick Jagger - "God Gave Me Everything" (2001, directed by Mark Romanek)
• The Black Heart Procession - "Not Just Words" (2006, directed by Rainbows & Vampires)

Modelling credits

• Santa Clarita Valley Guide (2004)
• Pirelli Calendar (2002)
• American Eagle Outfitters (2000)
• Delicious Vinyl presents Prime Cuts: Volume 1 / Volume 2 (2 CD covers) (2000)
• Unionbay (1999)
• Planned Parenthood (1999)
• Sassy (1996)
• Mervyns
• Glamour
• Jump magazine
• DEP

References

External links

http://www.maudegone.com |Official Website

• Shannyn Sossamon at the Internet Movie Database
• Shannyn Sossamon at TV.com