Biography

Emily Bergl is one of a rare breed of actresses today with a substantial career in film, television, and the theatre. Her work includes diverse roles in both comedy and drama, and characters from several different centuries. She has worked with award-winning directors on film and television including James Mangold, Antoine Fuqua, Steven Shainberg, and Jonathan Kaplan, and on stage with Doug Hughes, Daniel Sullivan, Michael Greif, and Michael Mayer.

Emily was born in Milton Keynes, England to a British father and Irish mother. The family moved to the States when she was six, eventually settling in Chicago. Emily soon began acting in local theatre productions, all of which she produced, directed, designed and catered in her backyard. The reviews, also written by Emily, were glowing. After she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Grinnell College, Emily quickly moved to New York, where she lived with two other actors in a tiny studio apartment above a strip club. After only a few months, she was chosen from a nationwide casting call to play the lead in "The Rage: Carrie 2," her first job on camera. The film earned rave reviews for the novice film actress' performance, and lead to roles in independent films such as "Happy Campers," "Chasing Sleep," and "Fur."

Emily soon returned to the theatre, starring on Broadway in "The Lion in Winter" opposite Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing, for which she won the FANY award for Best Broadway Debut. Many guest star roles on television soon followed, including "ER," "NYPD Blue," "CSI: Miami," "Medium" and two seasons as the malevolent Francie on "Gilmore Girls." Emily also starred in "Steven Spielberg Presents Taken," a historic 20-hour mini-series, as Lisa, the mother to Dakota Fanning.

While maintaining a career in film and television, Emily has worked throughout the country at regional theatres such as the Williamstown Theatre Festival, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, and The Globe Theatres, in plays such as "Romeo and Juliet," "Proof," and "Our Town." She starred on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's "A Touch of the Poet" opposite Gabriel Byrne, and in "The Rivals" at Lincoln Center (a performance the New York Times described as "infinitely nuanced"). Off Broadway, she has originated roles in new plays by Wendy Wasserstein, Christopher Shinn and Steven Dietz. Emily is also a company member of Antaeus, a theatre company in Los Angeles that produces classic works.

For the past two years, Emily has played the eccentric Annie on ABC's "Men in Trees," a comedy starring Anne Heche centered around a small Alaskan town. Most recently, she completed the television pilot "LAPD," produced by John Wells for NBC. This winter she will star in "Becky Shaw," a new play by Gina Gionfriddo at the Second Stage Theatre Company. During her free time she has a passion for volunteering, including recording textbooks for blind and dyslexic students, and traveling to the island of Borneo with Habitat for Humanity.