Amy Smart

Previously known as a shy tomboy youngster who was the only girl on her Little League baseball team, people of her surroundings probably had never thought of Amy Smart to become a public figure in the entertainment industry. Raised in Topanga Canyon, California with her brother, Adam Baird, since the day she was born on March 26, 1976, this lovely blonde is the daughter of a salesman named John and Judy Smart, an employee of the local J. Paul Getty Museum. Her involvement in show business began when one of her friends dragged her to modeling field. "Vinessa Shaw suggested me as a replacement in a photo shoot," she recalled. "And I got the job. Suddenly I was getting assignments to travel places like Italy, France, Mexico and Tahiti."

Gained more confidence within her, Amy then turned her attention to performing arts as she was inspired by Vinessa who also developed an acting career. By the time she joined an acting class at the age of 16, her love for this art of portraying characters flourished greatly. "Well, what is acting but the study of human behavior?" she claimed. "And that's so fascinating to me." After two years of learning, she started to enter some auditions and managed to appear in the 1994 MTV Rock The Vote campaign, playing a strung-out supermodel. From this point, she moved forward to a series of either TV movie or big screen productions before joined an independent feature, "The Last Time I Committed Suicide" (1997), which later was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in the same year.

Critically praised for her impressive portrayal in another independent movie entitled "How to Make the Cruelest Month" (1998), Amy encountered her breakthrough when the film she was cast in, "Varsity Blues" (1999), surprisingly became a sleeper hit with the domestic gross of almost 53 million U.S. dollar. Starring opposite James Van Der Beek in this Brian Robbins' sports drama film, she was able to gain wide attention from the audiences through her impressive portrayal of the strong-willed Jules Harbor. This initial success undoubtedly led to more promising offers, among others a major part in NBC's mini series of "The '70s" (2000) and a recurring role in Warner Bros' TV series, "Felicity" (1998-2002) in which she joined for about two years.

The year 2000 saw Amy received mainstream exposure as she teamed up with Breckin Meyer, Tom Green, and Seann William Scott in "Road Trip." This campus comedy flick gloriously collected more than 119 million U.S. dollar worldwide, boosting her career since then. Undergoing such a hectic schedule in the following years, she was more involved in the big screen productions, such as "Scotland, Pa." (2001), "Rat Race" (2001), and "Interstate 60" (2002). After her appearance in "The Battle of Shaker Heights" (2003) of which the script was the winner of "Project Greenlight" (2001) in its second season, she delightfully maintained a steady career by 2004, taking part in some major movies, like "The Butterfly Effect" and "Starsky & Hutch", which both hit the box-office.

Amy's star kept sparkling brightly in 2005 as she joined John Corbett and Sean Astin to film "Bigger Than the Sky" while also played in "Just Friends" and "The Best Man." Her status grew larger by the next year for she satisfyingly acquired the female leading role in "Peaceful Warrior" as well as "Crank" followed by others in "Mirrors", "Love N' Dancing", and "Life in Flight", all slated for 2007 releases. Beyond her career, Amy has been actively involved in the non-profit group Heal The Bay, an organization that is devoted to cleaning up the Santa Monica Bay, even has become its spokeswoman for seven years. As for her love life, she reportedly dated Ashton Kutcher whom she starred together with in "The Butterfly Effect" by 2003. However, she ultimately gave her heart to actor Brandon Williams and happily got engaged to him.