Felicity's Roommate

Background:

American actress Amanda Foreman is best known to TV viewers as moody roommate Meghan in the popular college set show “Felicity” (1998-2002). She also played Carrie Bowman in several episodes of “Alias” (2003-2006) and Ivy in the second season of “What About Brian” (2006-2007). All of the three series were produced by J.J. Abrams. Foreman also has collaborated with Abrams in the films “Forever Young” (1992) and “Star Trek” (2009), which Abrams wrote and directed, respectively. More recently, she recurred as Katie Kent in the spin off of “Grey's Anatomy,” “Private Practice” (2009). Foreman's other film credits include Billy Bob Thornton's “Daddy and Them” (2001), “On the Line” (2001), Don Ross' “Happy Ending” (2005), David Lynch's “Inland Empire” (2006) and “Revolution Summer” (2007).

Apart from acting, Foreman likes performing in night clubs as guitarist and singer. She is now backing vocalist in a popular Los Angeles band.

Mandy

Childhood and Family:

Nicknamed Mandy, Amanda Foreman was born on July 15, 1966, in Los Angeles, California. Her late father John Foreman (born in 1925, died in 1992) was a producer of “Prizzi's Honor” (1985) and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) fame. Her mother, Linda Lawton (born in 1936), is an actress. Mandy's younger sister, Julie Foreman, is also an actress.

Raised in Hollywood, Mandy performed in plays throughout high school before making a promising transformation to film and television acting career.

What About Brian

Career:

A product of showbiz family, Amanda Foreman began acting in plays in high school, and segued to television at age 23 when she was featured as Larissa in the based-on-fact TV film “The Preppie Murder” (ABC, 1989), starring Danny Aiello and William Baldwin. She resurfaced three years later in “Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story” (NBC, 1992), another TV film based on true story. Also in 1992, Foreman appeared in the HBO political thriller film “Live Wire,” starring Pierce Brosnan and Ron Silver, and debuted on the big screen with a small part in the Mel Gibson starring vehicle “Forever Young,” directed by Steve Miner and scripted by J.J. Abrams. She also appeared in the 1992 independent film “The Opposite Sex and How to Live with Them,” starring Arye Gross.

Foreman played the supporting role of Samantha Moore in the critically panned thriller “Sliver” (1993), adapted from Ira Levin's novel of the same name. Phillip Noyce helmed the film, from a screenplay by Joe Eszterhas, with Sharon Stone, William Baldwin, Tom Berenger and Polly Walker starring as Carly Norris, Zeke Hawkins, Jack Landsford and Vida Warren, respectively. She next appeared in the B movie “Future Shock” (1994), teamed up with Diana Ladd, Isabella Rossellini and Mary Steenburgen in the 30 minute short “The Gift” (1994), the directorial debut of actress Laura Dern that premiered on Showtime, but did not appear in another film until 1997. She played Marilyn in the low budget indie movie “Delivery,” directed by Eric Burdett, and Lola in the HBO original movie “Breast Men,” starring David Schwimmer and Chris Cooper.

It was not until the following year when she rejoined J.J. Abrams in the college drama series “Felicity,” starring Keri Russell as the title character, that Foreman experienced her big break. She was cast in the role of goth Wiccan Meghan Rotundi, Felicity's first roommate during her dorm days and later best friend, in the show. Initially Foreman joined the cast of the show as a recurring player and was made a series regular in 1999. Debuted on September 29, 1998, “Felicity” ran for four seasons of 84 episodes on The WB TV Network until May 22, 2002.

In 1999, Foreman supported Jennifer Rubin and Erik Palladino in the action/comedy film “Road Kill,” which won Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 1999 New Haven Film Fest and Audience Choice Award at the the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, acted alongside Luke Perry, Martin Sheen and Robert Knott in the direct to video thriller “Storm,” helmed by Harris Done, and landed two-episodic arc in the CBS police drama “Nash Bridge,” as Gina Banks. For the next three years, she could be seen in the films “Rocket's Red Glare” (2000), with Andrea Thompson and Chris Potter), “Daddy and Them” (2001), a comedy directed, written and starred by Billy Bob Thornton, the Eric Bross-directed comedy/romance “On the Line” (2001), starring Lance Bass, member of boy band N'SYNC, and starred as Natalie Reed in the impressive thriller film “Purgatory Flats” (2002), for director/writer Harris Done.

After the demise of “Felicity,” Foreman made guest appearances in “Six Feet Under” and “Miss Match” (both 2003) and joined the cast of the J.J. Abrams-created “Alias” in the recurring role of Carrie Bowman, a NSA-agent and wife of Marshall Flinkman (played by Kevin Weisman). She appeared in eight episodes of the ABC action/drama series during 2003 to 2006. Besides, she appeared in the pilot of “Inconceivable” and in an episode of “Unscripted” (both 2005), as well as played Felicia Hart in the Hallmark Channel mystery film “McBride: Requiem” (2006), starring John Larroquette. On the wide screen, Foreman worked with Devon Sawa, Meat Loaf, Amanda Detmer and Benjamin King on “Extreme Dating” (2004) as well as with Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Laura Dern, Jesse Bradford, Jason Ritter, Tom Arnold and Bobby Cannavale in writer/director Don Ross' “Happy Ending” (2005), and portrayed Stephanie in the award winning drama “Jam” (2006).

Foreman offered a memorable supporting role of Tracy in David Lynch's “Inland Empire,” Lynch's first film in five years since 2001's “Mulholland Drive.” Starring the director's regulars such as Laura Dern, , Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, and Grace Zabriski, the mystery/thriller premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2006. Still in that same year, Foreman returned to series TV as a regular on the second season of “What About Brian” (ABC, 2006-2007), co-produced by J.J. Abrams' company Bad Robot Productions. She starred as Ivy.

Next up for Foreman, she appeared in the independent drama “Revolution Summer,” premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival on May 3, 2007, played Amber in the made for TV film “All I Want for Christmas” (2007), starring Gail O'Grady and Greg Germann, and guested as Missy Voltaire in episode “Truth Will Out” of “ER” (2008). In 2009, she was cast as Hannity in “Star Trek,” the eleventh film based on the “Star Trek” franchise. Directed by J.J. Abrams, the science fiction movie received generally positive reviews from critics and became the eight highest grossing film of 2009 and

the the highest-grossing film in the Star Trek series. On TV, Foreman made a guest appearance in an episode of “In Plain Sight” called “In My Humboldt Opinion,” broadcast on April 26, 2009, and played the recurring role of Katie  in four episodes of the ABC medical drama “Private Practice” (March -October 2009).

Awards:
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