Mena Suvari

Mena Suvari Biography

Mena Alexandra Suvari (born February 13, 1979) is an American actress, fashion designer, and model. Shortly after beginning her career as a model, she appeared in guest roles on 1990's television shows such as Boy Meets World and High Incident. She made her film debut in the 1997 drama film Nowhere.
Her first major film roles were in American Beauty, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award, and American Pie both released in 1999. Since then she has appeared in Loser 2000, with her American Pie co-star, Jason Biggs, and later played the main character in the comedy film Sugar & Spice 2001 She had appearances in the 2002 independent drama Spun, and the 2004 thriller feature Trauma. She also appeared in the HBO's drama series Six Feet Under in 2004, she received a nomination as a member of the Outstanding Cast at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2008, she was cast in a string of films, including Day of the Dead, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and the film adaptation of The Garden of Eden.
Mena Suvari is a model for Lancome cosmetics and print ads for Lancôme Paris Adaptive, and has been featured in several fashion blogs and magazines such as Vogue. She is a long-time supporter and activist for the African relief organization, the African Medical and Research Foundation. She is also active in feminist issues, and is involved with charities whose cause is breast cancer, and "End Violence Against Women"

Mena Suvari was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the daughter of Candice, a nurse, and Ando Suvari, a psychiatrist. Her mother is of Greek descent and her father is Estonian American. She has three older brothers. She began modeling as a preteen and soon after starred in a Rice-A-Roni commercial. The family later relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where her brothers attended The Citadel. Mena considered becoming an archaeologist, astronaut or doctor, when a modeling agency stopped by her all-girls school, Ashley Hall, to offer classes. By the time she started acting, she had been modeling for the New York-based Wilhelmina agency for five years. After moving to the Los Angeles area, Mena attended Providence High School in Burbank, graduating in 1997.

Mena Suvari made appearances in television shows such as Boy Meets World and ER at the age of fifteen and sixteen respectively. She also appeared in a number of episodes of the television series High Incident. She played a girl named Ivy infected with HIV in the Chicago Hope episode "Sympathy for the Devil".
She gained early notice for her performance as Zoe in Gregg Araki's low-budget drama feature Nowhere, alongside James Duval, Rachel True, Heather Graham, and Ryan Phillippe. She had a supporting part in the indie drama film Snide and Prejudice, which opened at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. She played a small role as Coty Pierce in the 1997 thriller Kiss the Girls, where she appeared opposite Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. She next was cast in a supporting role in the independent dramedy Slums of Beverly Hills, which was released in 1998. It was on the set of this film that she met Natasha Lyonne, who would later join the cast of American Pie.

Abi Titmuss

About Abi Titmuss Some Words

Abi Titmuss grew up in Heckington, Lincolnshire where her parents were teachers, and she took her A levels at Kesteven and Sleaford High School where she played the clarinet. She briefly dated cartoonist B.P. Perry before moving to Ruskington. Her parents divorced when she was 17, and her father moved to Argyll, Scotland, where he remarried. Her mother was secretary of Sleaford Museum Trust.

Titmuss graduated from City University in St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1998. She did a nursing diploma because her A-levels were not good enough to be a doctor and became a staff nurse at London's University College Hospital.

Abi Titmuss was hired as a roving reporter on the Channel 4 programme Richard & Judy but was sacked in January 2004 when it emerged that she had been filmed having sex and the tape became public. Titmuss appeared on ITV1's Celebrity Love Island where she was called "a big fat slag" by fellow contestant Jayne Middlemiss. Titmuss had become close to ex-footballer Lee Sharpe, whom Middlemiss had designs on. Titmuss managed to lose her bikini in the swimming pool showing off a glimpse of nipple. Her other television work includes training as a chef on the 2004 series of Hell's Kitchen, and in 2005, she appeared on Channel 4's The Friday Night Project as a regular guest feature, and in Abi Titmuss: A Modern Day Morality Tale, a fly-on-the-wall documentary for Channel 4. She has also starred on a celebrity edition of Channel 4's Come Dine With Me with Paul Ross, Lesley Joseph, Linda Lusardi and Rodney Marsh but didn't enjoy the experience. Lusardi won.

Abi Titmuss also appeared on the reality series Deadline with Janet Street Porter on ITV2. The show followed a number of celebrities as they attempted to produce a celebrity-based magazine each week, published as a supplement to Closer. Abi Titmuss was the fourth celebrity to be sacked from the show. She has guest-presented shows on Virgin Radio, MTV and LBC radio. Abi Titmuss appeared in the second series première of Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, which aired 30 April 2007 on BBC Three and as a character called Gezebelle in an episode of Katy Brand's Big Ass Show, a sketch comedy series for ITV2.

When it became impossible for Titmuss to continue as a nurse (following her increased public profile and the sex video becoming public as well as a confession that she had taken cocaine, she became a glamour model. In her own words to Sunday Mirror:

She took up presenting on pornographic channel Television X, released a fitness video, put her name to an erotic novel published by Black Lace and made personal appearances in nightclubs in the UK and Ireland. An initial offer of a photo shoot over two pages of FHM morphed into a three-page spread and a cover. In 2004 and 2005, she made 38 front-page appearances on British men's magazines, such as FHM , Nuts, Zoo Weekly, loaded, GQ and Maxim magazines. She also appeared in the Sunday Times Style and in glamour pictures in of several tabloid newspapers including the Sun, News of the World, Daily Mirror, the People and Daily Star. Abi Titmuss was voted by readers as number seven in FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005, and wrote a regular sex advice column for the magazine. In December 2004, Abi Titmuss appeared on the front cover of FHM with Swedish model Victoria Silvstedt. At the height of her fame in 2004/05, Titmuss could command up to £30,000 a day for appearing on the front page of Nuts or Zoo. In 2005, Titmuss appeared in a high fashion shoot in Pop, which commented on her status as the "face of 21st century celebrity". After taking a break from modelling work, Titmuss relaunched her glamour career as a brunette with an appearance on the cover of Zoo Weekly and the sale of the official Abi Titmuss calendar for 2007. On 25 April that year, it was announced that Titmuss had made an appearance for a third time in FHM's annual 100 Sexiest Women in the World readers' poll, at number 80 (seven in 2005, 95 in 2004). After announcing in late 2007 that she would take a break from her glamour modelling career to concentrate on acting, Titmuss returned with a new Nuts shoot in April 2009.

Abi Titmuss first acted during her university studies, and then took part-time acting courses at the Central School of Speech and Drama, paid for from her nursing work. After reducing her glamour model work, Titmuss took a further short course at the same establishment. Abi Titmuss made her London theatre acting debut in March 2006, playing a prostitute with a multiple personality disorder in Two Way Mirror by Arthur Miller, at the Courtyard Theatre in Kings Cross.[8] In February 2007, Abi Titmuss won a Fringe Report Award for Best West End Debut for her role in Two Way Mirror. In 2006, Abi Titmuss had a small role in the major film Goal! 2. She was also offered a role in a remake of Galaxy of Terror, a 1980 horror film set on an alien planet. She turned it down upon learning that her character would be molested and eaten by a giant moth. Abi Titmuss was due to have been the subject of a theatre production in a musical satire entitled Being Abi, performed by youngsters in her home county of Lincolnshire. Devised by pupils at Boston College in May 2006, it was scheduled for a three-day run before being cancelled by two of the performers' concerned parents, who objected to some of the production's content. Between 26 February and 23 March 2008, Titmuss appeared in the black comedy Fat Christ at the King's Head Theatre in Islington, London and is due to appear in the touring play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners. She has been cast in small roles in British independent films Do Elephants Pray? and Mixed Up. In 2008 she played the role of the 'Mysterious Girl' in Beat 24 Films UK independent feature film Frontman In 2009 she was cast in John Godber's play Up 'n' Under to celebrate its 25th anniversary at the newly refurbished Hull Truck Theatre, Hull. Titmuss played the role of Hazel the fitness instructor, starring alongside James Crossley (formerly the Gladiator Hunter) and soap actor Lewis Linford (Lee Naylor in Emmerdale). She also had a part in the BBC TV series Hotel Babylon, playing a nun.

From November until 4 December 2009, Titmuss appeared in Shakespeare's Macbeth, playing the character of Lady Macbeth with the Seagull Rep. This production opened at the Seagull Theatre, Pakefield, Lowestoft, Suffolk before transferring to other East Anglian venues including the Cut at Halesworth, Bungay's Fisher Theatre and Quay's Arts Centre.
On 18 February 2012, she played the role of Tara Edmonds in an episode of BBC TV's Casualty. She said that landing the part gave her a sense of self-esteem that she had lost doing the glamour work.

Abi Titmuss produced a book co-written with Jayne Lockwood, published by Virgin Bookson 7 July 2005 called Ten Fantasies, in which she reveals her ten most secret (sexual) fantasies. She said that she did not want her mother to read it. Her memoir, The Secret Diaries of Abigail Titmuss, was released by Headline Review on 24 July 2008 on which she collaborated with Heat journalist Lucie Cave.

Abi Titmuss first came to public attention as the girlfriend of TV presenter John Leslie whom she met in a Fulham bar on 10 April 1999. She stood by him when he was accused of sexual wrongdoing and was at his side when the charges were dropped in July 2003.