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[edit] Biography
Erica Leerhsen (born February 14, 1976 in Ossining, New York) is an American actress. Publicly joking that the majority of her character's cinematic fates may not bode well for her future career, young starlet Erica likely has little to worry about given her solid performances in such features as Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000), Woody Allen's Anything Else (2003), the popular television drama The Guardian, very succesful horror remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the upcoming Wrong Turn 2 (2007). In fact, quite to the contrary, she seems to have crafted quite an impressive onscreen career. A Ossining, NY, native and the daughter of Charlie Leerhsen, young Erica attended Boston University College of Fine Arts upon graduating high school. Following impressive performances in such stage productions as "The Call of the Wild and The Tempest", Leerhsen earned her B.F.A. and graduated summa cum lauda in 1998, and subsequent performances for the Gloucester Stage Company and Surf Reality soon gave way to a film career. Her role as a Wiccan witch in the Blair Witch 2 proved so intense that, at one point during production, Leerhsen passed out after chanting an actual summoning of the "God of the Underworld." She soon poured the same intensity into roles in the TV series The Guardian, as well as Hollywood Ending, Little Athens and Anything Else. Erica currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Trivia
- Erica Leerhsen attended St. Augustine's School in Ossining, New York and was graduated from Boston University's School of Fine Arts (1998).
- She has 2 sisters, Nora and Debbie.
- Enjoys running, playing basketball and Yoga.
- Sang in choir in high school.
- Was honored with the title "Arrow in the Head's Mistress of the Year 2003".
- Her father, Charles Leerhsen, was the longtime editor of celebrity publication US Magazine (which became US Weekly in March 2000), until he quit in 2002 after never being promoted to editor-in-chief.
- There was a scene in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 in which Erica's character (a practicing witch) is chanting an actual witchcraft chant, which was given to her by director Joe Berlinger, who learned it from his friend (an actual witch). Erica was so overwhelmed by the chant that she collapsed after the scene. Later Berlinger told his friend what happened to Erica and she informed him that Erica was calling up the 'god of the underworld' in that chant.
- During her screen test for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, her screams were so loud that people on other floors of the building called the police to report that a young woman was being attacked.
- Erica's first leading role will be in the upcoming horror movie Wrong Turn 2, in which she plays Nina Papas.
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