Bonnie Somerville

Fair-haired, blue-eyed American actress Bonnie Somerville ranks among a select number of onscreen women so ravishing that they enter the "surreal" category. As a result, Somerville seemed tailor-made for on-camera work, and unsurprisingly fell into her niche as supporting actress, beginning in her mid-20s - typically in the casts of Hollywood A-list features and hit television programs.

In an unusual feat for an ingénue, the Brooklyn-born Somerville took one of her first bows as a lead - with a starring role in the epic-length TV miniseries Shake, Rattle and Roll (1999), about an apocryphal music group from the 50s called 'The Heartaches.' Somerville portrayed Lyne Danner, the lead singer of the group. Many supporting roles followed, such as a small turn in the 2000 Harold Ramis comedy Bedazzled and a one-time appearance on a 2002 episode of Friends. Somerville then signed for regular roles in occasional sitcoms during the early 2000s, including Grosse Pointe (2000) and In-Laws (2002); unfortunately, these failed to catch fire with the public.Somerville's fate turned in 2003 with a multi-episode run of The O.C., a FOX prime-time soaper about an affluent public defender named Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher), who takes into his home and attempts to "straighten out" a teenage tough (Benjamin McKenzie); the actress played Rachel Hoffman, a former associate of Sandy's from the DA's office who makes advances toward her married colleague but receives a rebuff from him.

Somerville then springboarded from this role into a series of small-scaled appearances in Hollywood features, such as Spider-Man 2 and Without a Paddle (both 2004). Not long after, the thesp signed for regular billing in the U.S. sitcom Kitchen Confidential (2005), as Mimi, a restaurant manager. Unfortunately, that program folded not long after it premiered. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide