|
Alicia Roanne Witt was born in
Worcester, Massachusetts, on August 21, 1975, to parents Robert and Diane.
Interestingly enough, Diane is featured in the Guinness Book of World
Records for having the longest hair to date. Diane Witt was not the only
one receiving attention for a certain achievement; daughter Alicia had
learned to read by the time she was 6 months old and at 2 years old,
Alicia had written a letter to Good Housekeeping and was featured in the
magazine as being their youngest reader. At age 4, she appeared on ABC's
That's Incredible and NBC's Today, reciting Shakespeare. At 7 years old,
Witt knew how to play classical piano and won several piano competitions
in the years that followed. Alicia's intelligence was something that was
hard to ignore, so her parents decided to home school her and her brother
Ian. By age 14, Alicia had received her high school diploma.
After becoming a high school graduate, the child prodigy headed to Los
Angeles with her mother to develop her acting repertoire. With Alicia's
artistic talents, it was no wonder that she had already started her acting
career at the age of 9. She appeared in the 1984 sci-fi film Dune.
In LA, Alicia started playing piano at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel
to earn a living. After having previously worked with director David Lynch
in Dune, Alicia appeared on the television series Twin Peaks in 1990.
After a few auditions, Alicia was cast in the 1993 film Bodies, Rest &
Motion and in the HBO trilogy Hotel Room, also by David Lynch.
In 1994, Alicia was awarded with the Special Jury Award for her role as
Bonnie in the film Fun, and went on to star in the made-for-TV movie The
Disappearance of Vonnie. Alicia received what could be considered her big
break, in 1995. She was cast as Zoey on the CBS sitcom Cybill.
Many more film roles began coming her way. Alicia was cast as the hopeless
clarinet player in Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) (she actually had to learn
how to play the instrument badly); she also appeared in one of the
segments of the Tarantino film Four Rooms (1995), in which she portrayed
Madonna's lover. She then had a role in Citizen Ruth (1996), starring Burt
Reynolds, Kelly Preston, and Laura Dern.
By 1998, Alicia was established as a big-screen actress. That year she
appeared in Bongwater as well as a role in the animated film Gen 13 (for
which she provided her voice). Alicia finally scored a starring role in
the teen slasher hit Urban Legend, co-starring Rebecca Gayheart. In 1999,
Alicia starred in The Reef, alongside Sela Ward and Timothy Dalton.
No longer typecast as the child prodigy, Alicia moved on in 2000, to star
in Cecil B. Demented, as Stephen Dorff's porn-star girlfriend Cherish Oh
Lordy, and Playing Mona Lisa, as a pianist who turns into a party girl.
2001 saw Alicia starring in the Tom Cruise/Penelope Cruz vehicle, Vanilla
Sky, as well as Ten Tiny Love Stories. In 2002, Alicia Witt starred in
American Girl, which didn't do well at the box office. Lucky for her, she
went on to star in the Sandra Bullock movie Two Weeks Notice, which was a
huge success.
After a year away from the big screen, Alicia returned in 2004 to star in
two films: The Upside Of Anger and Kingdom in Twilight. She's also set to
make her London stage debut in a West End revival of The Shape of Things,
by Neil LaBute.
When not acting and playing the piano, Alicia listens to big band music
and is an avid wig collector. |
