- published: 10 Dec 2015
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Anna Kay Faris ( /ˈɑːnə ˈfærɨs/; born November 29, 1976) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her starring role in the Scary Movie film series, as well as roles in The Hot Chick (2002), Lost in Translation (2003), Just Friends (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Smiley Face (2007), The House Bunny (2008), Take Me Home Tonight (2011),What's Your Number? (2011) and The Dictator (2012). She provided voice acting in the animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and was a recurring character on the television sitcom Friends.
Anna Faris was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Her mother, Karen, was a special education teacher at Seaview Elementary School in Edmonds, Washington, where Faris was raised. Her father, Jack Faris, is a sociologist who worked at the University of Washington as a vice president of internal communications and later headed the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association. She has a brother, Robert, who is also a sociologist and a professor at the University of California, Davis. At age 6, Faris moved with her family to Edmonds, Washington. Her parents encouraged her to pursue acting when she was young, and she gave her first professional acting performance at age 9, in a three-month run of Arthur Miller's one-act play Danger: Memory! at the Seattle Repertory Theater. She went on to play Scout in a production of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Issaquah, Washington, Village Theatre, and played title character in Heidi and Rebecca in Our Town. At 14, while attending Edmonds-Woodway High School, she appeared in a frozen-yogurt TV commercial. After graduating from high school in 1994, Faris attended the University of Washington and earned a degree in English literature.