Alicia Silverstone

Alicia Silverstone (born 4.10.1976)

Alicia Silverstone is an American actress, best known for her lead role in the film Clueless.

Alicia Silverstone: Childhood

Alicia Silverstone was born and raised in San Francisco, California. Her parents are Deirdre ('Didi'), a former PanAm flight attendant and Monty, a real-estate investor. Her father is Jewish and her mother converted to Judaism before marrying Monty.

Alicia has two siblings as well as a half-sister and a half-brother, from her father's previous marriage. She failed to complete her high school studies but began modeling at a young age and was cast in a number of commercials, as well as a role in one episode of The Wonder Years.

Alicia Silverstone: Rise to Fame & Career Highlights

In the early 1990s, Silverstone became legally emancipated, at the age of 15, to enable her to work the long hours for her lead role in the 1993 film The Crush. She won the Best Breakthrough Performance Award and the Best Villain Award at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards for her performance in the film.

Marty Callner was so impressed with her performance in the film that he cast her in the Aerosmith videos 'Cryin'', 'Amazing' and 'Crazy'. The videos helped to make Silverstone a household name and brought her to Amy Heckerling's attention. Heckerling went on to cast Silverstone in Clueless.

As a result of Clueless' success in the summer of 1995, Alicia signed a deal with Columbia-TriStar, reportedly worth $10 million. The following year, she starred in The Babysitter, Hideaway and New World.

Her next major role was as Batgirl, in Batman & Robin. The film performed badly in the US, though the rest of the world seemed to look more favourably on the release.

Silverstone's final film release of the 1990s was the comic romance Blast From the Past, which starred Sissy Spacek, Brendan Fraser and Christopher Walken.

In 2000, Silverstone was cast alongside Kenneth Branagh in an adaptation of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. This was followed up with the films Global Heresy and Scorched.

Alicia Silverstone started 2005 with a spin-off of the BarberShop films, appearing alongside Queen Latifah in Beauty Shop. Later that year, she appeared in the box office success, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, which also starred Freddi Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The following year, Silverstone starred in Stormbreaker, which also featured Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo.

Alicia Silverstone: Personal Life

Silverstone has been known to date a number of high-profile celebrities, such as Benicio del Toro, Adam Sandler and Leonardo DiCaprio.

In 2005, Alicia Silverstone married Christopher Jarecki (of the band S.T.U.N.), on a beach in Lake Tahoe. They had been dating for eight years prior to the marriage.

In 1998, Alicia became a vegan and is a regular supporter of animal rights and environmental causes.