Larisa Oleynik extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Larisa Oleynik
Born	Larisa Romanovna Oleynik June 7, 1981 (1981-06-07) (age 27) Santa Clara County, California, U.S.A.
Years active	1993 — present

Larisa Romanovna Oleynik (born June 7, 1981) is an American actress. She came to fame in the mid–1990s, after starring in the title role of the popular television series, The Secret World of Alex Mack, and has also appeared in theatrical films, including The Baby-Sitters Club and 1999's 10 Things I Hate about You. Throughout the 2000s, she has mostly appeared in lower-budget films.

During her period as a teen idol, Oleynik was described as "one of America's favorite 15-year-olds"¹ and "the proverbial girl next door".²

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Personal life 1.2 Career 2 Filmography 3 References 4 External links

Biography

Personal life

Oleynik (pronounced oh-LAY-nick) was born in Santa Clara County, California, the only child of Lorraine (née Allen), a former nurse, and Roman Oleynik, an anesthesiologist.³ Her father's family is Russian (although "Oleynik" is a Ukrainian surname)⁴ and she was raised in the Russian Orthodox religion.⁵ She has cited No Doubt as her favorite band and used to play the piano.⁴ Oleynik grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and began acting in a regional production of Les Misérables, after seeing an audition ad in a newspaper when she was eight years old. After appearing in the musical, she contacted an agent and began taking acting lessons. But despite the success in her role as Alex Mack, Oleynik decided to attend college[1]. Oleynik attended Pinewood School and later Sarah Lawrence College, describing the latter as "the best decision I’ve made",⁶ and graduated in 2004.

Career

Oleynik began her screen acting career age at 12, in a 1993 episode of the television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; the same year, she also appeared in the made-for-television film, River of Rage: The Taking of Maggie Keene, and was subsequently cast in the lead role of the series The Secret World of Alex Mack, playing a teenage girl who receives telekinetic powers as a result of an accident. The series ran on Nickelodeon from 1994 to 1998, and was one of the network's top three most watched shows,² becoming a favorite among teen audiences and turning Oleynik into a teen idol.⁷ During the show's run, she played one of the lead characters in the 1995 feature film, The Baby-Sitters Club (opposite Rachael Leigh Cook and Schuyler Fisk), appeared in several episodes of Boy Meets World, wrote an advice column for Tiger Beat magazine,⁴ and was involved in Nickelodeon's Big Help charity, Hands Across Communication, Surfrider Foundation and the Starlight Foundation.⁴ She has commented that she stayed "grounded" during her period as a teen star, mainly through the help of a "strong network of people" that she is close to.⁸ Oleynik also played as Tommy's recurring girlfriend Alissa Strudwick in multiple episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun.

After The Secret World of Alex Mack ended its run, Oleynik had a starring role in the film 10 Things I Hate About You, a teen comedy also starring Julia Stiles, Andrew Keegan, Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film was released in April 1999 and did fairly well at the box office, grossing a total of $38 million domestically.⁹ In 1999–2000, Oleynik appeared in fourteen episodes of the NBC series 3rd Rock from the Sun (alongside Gordon-Levitt). The same year, she appeared in two independent films: 100 Girls (opposite Emmanuelle Chriqui, Katherine Heigl and Jonathan Tucker) and A Time for Dancing (opposite Shiri Appleby); neither film received a theatrical release in the United States. She has appeared in Malcolm in the Middle as Reese's lesbian army buddy who developed a crush on his mom, Lois. Next, Oleynik had a supporting role in the film An American Rhapsody, which received a limited release in August 2001, and appeared in Bringing Rain, a low-budget film. Oleynik was cast in a supporting role in the series Pepper Dennis, which began airing on The WB in April 2006, but was not picked up by The WB's successor, The CW. In March 2008, Oleynik guest-starred in episode 13 of Aliens in America.

Filmography

Year	Production	Role	Notes
1993	Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
1994-1998	The Secret World of Alex Mack	Alexandra "Alex" Mack	All 78 episodes
1995	The Baby-Sitters Club	Dawn Schafer
1996-1998	Boy Meets World	Dana Pruitt	3 episodes
1998-2000	3rd Rock from the Sun	Alissa Strudwick	21 episodes
1999	10 Things I Hate about You	Bianca Stratford
2000	A Time for Dancing	Juliana "Jules"	direct-to-video
2001	100 Girls	Wendy	direct-to-video
2001	An American Rhapsody	Maria Sandor (age 18)
2003	Bringing Rain	Ori Swords	direct-to-video
2005	Malcolm in the Middle	Abby Tucker	Episode: "Army Buddy"
2006	Relative Obscurity	Claire
2007	Pope Dreams	Maggie Venable
2008	Broken Windows	Sara
2008	Together Again for the First Time	Brenda

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Larisa Oleynik

• Larisa Oleynik at the Internet Movie Database
• Larisa Oleynik at the TCM Movie Database
• Larisa Oleynik at TV.com
• Larisa Oleynik Gallery