Alyson Hannigan

Alyson Hannigan

Birth Place: Washington D.C. USA

Date of Birth: March 24, 1974

Heritage: American

Famous for: Her role as Willow Rosenberg on WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

Background:

"My first TV crush was Elroy Jetson, because he was so cute. And I wanted to play with Astro on his automatic dog-walker thing." Alyson Hannigan

The memorable role of lesbian witch Willow Rosenberg (1997-2003) in the WB and UPN cult series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" tossed Alyson Hannigan's name towards the limelight. She also received applause while acting in the movie My Stepmother is an Alien (1988) and in the TV series Free Spirit (1990). Later, she was widely remembered for playing Michelle Flaherty in the teen drama comedy trilogy American Pie.

Recently, in 2004, Alyson debuted on the London stage starring as Sally, opposite Luke Perry, in Rob Reiner's romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally. Now she is busy working on the upcoming TV series "How I Met Your Mother" and an untitled Aaron Seltzer/Jason Friedberg project. She was also asked to star as Jennifer Love Hewitt's best friend and assistant on the ABC's sports comedy "In the Game" but she later dropped the project and was replaced by former Roseanne star Sara Gilbert. About her withdrawal from the sitcom Alyson explained, "My character was pointless and it certainly wasn't challenging."

The owner of tribal dolphins (on ankle) and Japanese kanji (on back) tattoos, Alyson is related to Marilyn Manson drummer Ginger Fish (a.k.a. Frank Kenny Wilson; born on September 28, 1966) and actor Steven Sutphen. 5' 4" tall Alyson is currently the wife of actor Alexis Denisof.

Allison Lee

Childhood and Family:

The only child of the family, Allison Lee Hannigan was born on March 24, 1974, in Washington, D.C. She is the daughter of Al (a truck driver in Missouri) and Emilie (a property agent in Atlanta, Georgia), both of whom once ran a photography studio.

After her parents divorce when she was 2, Alyson was raised by her mother and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she attended the Northside School of the Performing Arts.

At age 11, Alyson moved from Atlanta, Georgia, to Los Angeles and studied at the North Hollywood High School in North Hollywood, California. She graduated in 1992 and then joined occasional Psychology classes at the California State University in Northridge, California.

"It wasn't an important thing for me until I met Alexis. I would think about things in relationships, and tended to ask myself, `Would I ever marry this guy?' and if the answer was no, then the relationship died pretty quickly. It was just, `All right, we'll ride it for the fun wave and then when it starts to become work, I'll bail.' " Alyson Hannigan

While on a trip to Northern California in the 2002 holiday season, Alyson's boyfriend of four years, actor Alexis Denisof (born on February 25, 1966), proposed to her. On October 11, 2003, the couple exchanged wedding vows and their wedding was featured in InStyle Magazine in its February 2004 issue. They now reside in Sacramento, California with Alyson's pets, two cats and three dogs.

Together with actresses Tangi Miller and Holly Marie Combs, Alyson is a spokesperson for breast cancer and has appeared in brochures raising awareness of the disease.

Free Spirit

Career:

"I never questioned that I liked it. I would just sit at home and perform for my invisible audience and was convinced that somebody had to be watching me somewhere." Alyson Hannigan

A clarinet and soccer player in her early teens, Alyson Hannigan also began posing for her parents' photography studio ads. She first appeared on screen at age three months when she was seen in an educational film titled "Active Parenting." As a child, Alyson modeled for a string of commercials and printed ads, including advertising for Duncan Hines cookie mix, and later, McDonald's, Oreo cookies, Delta Airlines, and Six Flags amusement parks.

After appearing as an extra in her first real movie, Brad Dourif's Impure Thoughts (1985), 11-year-old Alyson packed for California to further her career. Three years later, she scored her breakout role of Jessie Mills, Dan Aykroyd's daughter and Seth Green's girlfriend, in the cult classic comedy movie My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988, also starring Kim Basinger). Alyson featured appearance received critical reviews and she was nominated for Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Fantasy at the Young Artist Awards.

The next years watched Alyson on the small screen. She was a regular in ABC's brief-lived series "Free Spirit" (1989-1990, played Jessie Harper) and received a Best Young Actress Starring in a Television Series award at the Young Artist Awards. She also played roles in several made-for-TV movies like Switched at Birth (1991), The Stranger Beside Me (1995), A Case for Life (1996) and For My Daughter's Honor (1996, a.k.a. Indecent Seduction). Her notable guest appearances including being seen in "Roseanne" (in 1990), "Almost Home" (in 1993), "Touched by an Angel" (in 1994) and "Picket Fences" (in 1996).

1997 was Alyson's magical year. She won the role of lesbian witch Willow Rosenberg in the smash hit teen thriller series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." In the vampire series, also starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon and Anthony Head, Alyson portrayed Willow from 1997 until 2003. The show was a runaway success and handed Alyson a Choice Sidekick (TV) at the Teen Choice Awards.

"It was so good and it was the most amazing thing I had ever worked on at that point, so I was getting to do what I loved to do on a really good project. I mean, she started as this sort of shy wallflower that couldn't even speak around boys and then evolved into this lesbian witch that tried to destroy and save the world many times." Alyson Hannigan (on character Willow Rosenberg).

While working on the series, Alyson was also busy acting in such films as Dead Man on Campus (1998, opposite Tom Everett Scott), Hayley Wagner, Star (1999, TV), Robert Iscove's Boys and Girls (2000) and the independent feature Beyond the City Limits (2001), as well as guest starring on Buffy's popular spin-off "Angel." She was also widely recognized for portraying Michelle Flaherty, the "band camp girl" in the teen sex comedy American Pie (1999) and its sequels, American Pie 2 (2001) and American Wedding (2003).

In 2004, Alyson debuted on the London stage at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, in an adaptation of Rob Reiner's 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, (playing Sally opposite Luke Perry). She has also appeared twice in the series "That '70s Show" and "Veronica Mars." Alyson will star in the approaching series "How I Met Your Mother" (with Neil Patrick Harris) and in an untitled Aaron Seltzer/Jason Friedberg project.

"I don't want to start believing what you can believe in this business. I want to stay true to who I am by trying to be in the moment. I love this profession, but God, it can just destroy people and I don't want that to happen and become some monster." Alyson Hannigan

Awards:

* Teen Choice: TV - Choice Sidekick, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 2002