Emily Bergl (born April 25, 1975) is an English-American actress.
She is best known for her role as Rachel Lang in the supernatural horror film The Rage: Carrie 2, Annie O'Donnell in the ABC television show Men In Trees, Beth Young in Desperate Housewives, Tammi Bryant in the TNT drama series Southland and Sammi Slott in Shameless.
She also performs as a cabaret singer.
History[]
Early life[]
Emily was born in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, to an Irish mother and an English architect father.
She stopped speaking with an English accent after moving to Glenview, Illinois with her family when she was a child. She attended Glenbrook South High School and Grinnell College, where she was the lead in several school productions. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1997 with a Bachelor Of Arts degree in English and theatre.
During her college years, she spent a semester studying with the National Theater Institute at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. She also has a brother.
Career[]
Acting[]
Emily's big break came with the lead role of Rachel Lang in the 1999 film, The Rage: Carrie 2, that was sequel to the 1976 supernatural thriller, Carrie. Much of her acting also takes place on television.
Emily has appeared in episodes of TV shows, such as Gilmore Girls, CSI: Miami, Medium, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, NYPD Blue and Star Trek: Enterprise. She also appeared in the psychological thriller film, Chasing Sleep, opposite star Jeff Daniels. Emily had a major role in the Steven Spielberg 2002 miniseries, Taken. Emily than had a significant co-starring role in the ABC series Men In Trees as Annie O‘Donnell, an enthusiastic fan of the series’s main character, relationship expert Marin Frist played by Anne Heche. Annie travels to every event with Marin and ends up in Elmo, Alaska with Marin. Annie stays in Elmo as does Marin after she decides to re-evaluate her life, when she meets Patrick Bachelor played by Derek Richardson, a local hotel desk clerk and radio DJ she knew through online chats about Marin's books.
Recently, Emily played in Becky Shaw at The Second Stage Theatre in New York in the beginning of 2009. As of the season's second episode Emily played Paul Young's new wife, Beth, in the 7th season of Desperate Housewives.
Cabaret[]
Since 2010, Emily has performed a cabaret show called Kidding On The Square, which had a run in the summer of 2010 in Los Angeles and New York City, then later in Chicago. In September 2011, with the show in New York, The New York Times wrote of her performance:
“Emily Bergl, an incandescent kewpie doll with a bright Betty Boop-inflected chirp, a defiant flounce and a sharp comedic edge, took the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel by storm on Tuesday evening. Her sensational show, "Kidding On The Square" may have played elsewhere, but arriving at the staid Oak Room it felt like a gust of fresh air that could knock you off your feet.”
A later article elaborated on her cabaret acts.