Dr. Cameron

Background:

"I've been single for a little while partly because I've been working so much and partly because I don't want to settle. A lot of people run around and are real crazy in Hollywood, but I want to wait for it to be the right thing." Jennifer Morrison.

Starting out as a child model who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids with Michael Jordan at the age of 11, Jennifer Morrison later turned to acting and made her film debut in Intersection (1994), playing Richard Gere and Sharon Stone's 15-year-old daughter. She has since appeared in Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000), Grind (2003), Surviving Christmas (2004), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Flourish (2006) and the upcoming comedy Big Stan, which marked comedian Rob Schneider’s directorial debut. Morrison is currently playing the regular role of the sympathetic and conflicted immunologist Dr. Allison Cameron (2004-Present) on Fox's medical drama "House, M.D."

On personal front, the 5' 5¼" tall, Midwestern-born actress has been romantically linked to her "House, M.D." co-star, Australian actor Jesse Spencer (born February 12, 1979).

"I really do see the good in people, and I don't want to change that. That's really how I view things, so sometimes I'll look past a lot of huge red flags because I see something else in someone. Then of course it always comes back to haunt me in the long run." Jennifer Morrison.


Athletic Growing Up

Childhood and Family:

"I think "crimp" is a real under statement. It was not good. I love my dad so much, and he's an amazing teacher, so I really wouldn't trade that for the world, but it didn't make me too popular." Jennifer Morrison (on her father being a teacher at her school).

Born in Chicago, Illinois on August 19th, 1979, Jennifer Morrison, nicknamed Jenny, was raised in nearby Arlington Heights, Illinois. In 1997, she graduated from Prospect High School, where her father, who won the Illinois state 2003 teacher of the year award, also taught and served as band director. During her study there, Jenny played clarinet in the school’s marching band, sang in the choir and did cheerleading with the school’s pep squad. Having a very athletic growing up, Jenny also had learned to play tennis, wakeboard, snowboard, surf and ride dirt bikes.

Jenny majored in Theatre at Loyola University Chicago, where the whiz kid graduated in just three years. She also studied acting with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

The oldest of three children born to David and Judy Morrison, Jenny currently lives with sister Julie in Los Angeles. Her brother, Daniel, resides in Illinois. The Chicago Cubs fan is friends with singer-actress Ashlee Simpson and has guest-starred on her show on MTV several times.


In the House

Career:

"I was a kid, so I wouldn't consider that real modeling, but every Sunday you could open the paper and see me in ads for Kohl's, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward and stuff like that." Jennifer Morrison.

At the age of 11, Jennifer Morrison has started dance lessons while doing modeling. Around the same age, she appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids with Michael Jordan, which she recalled: "The big scandal was when I was in seventh grade and I modeled a bathing suit. Everybody freaked out!"

Morrison subsequently spent her adolescent and teen years working as a print model in local and national campaigns. However, acting was what she meant to be. She did acting lessons and performed in various plays before eventually made her film debut in Mark Rydell's remake of the 1970 French film Les Choses de la vie, Intersection, playing Richard Gere and Sharon Stone's 15-year-old daughter. She followed it up with a bit part in that same year project, Les Mayfield's remake of the 1947 film, Miracle on 34th Street (starring Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins and Dylan McDermott).

Following her film debut, Morrison had to wait until the next five years to get another film job. In 1999, she was cast as a missing young girl who haunts Kevin Bacon in a string of psychic visions in David Koepp's supernatural/horror Stir of Echoes, which loosely based on the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. The subsequent year, she landed her first lead role as Amy Mayfield, a university who struggles to complete her thesis film on urban legends, in John Ottman's 2000 slasher film, Urban Legends: Final Cut.

Over the next few years, Morrison worked mostly on television. She appeared in a November 2001 episode of CBS drama "Touched by an Angel" and played Joshua Jackson’s on-off girlfriend on the WB’s teen drama “Dawson’s Creek” in 2001 and 2002. She also turned up as herself on her friend Ashlee Simpson’s reality series, “The Ashlee Simpson Show,” on MTV in 2004. Meanwhile, she once returned to the big screen as an attractive girl with flawless skating chops in Casey La Scala's 2003 skateboarding comedy Grind.

Morrison finally graduated to mature parts in major features, starting with the role of Ben Affleck’s stuffy girlfriend in the holiday comedy movie Surviving Christmas (2004; also starring James Gandolfini and Christina Applegate). That same year, she nabbed a role which would garner her wider attention, as Dr. Allison Cameron, the sympathetic and conflicted immunologist at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH), on Fox's medical drama "House, M.D." And as of 2006, Morrison is still working on the show.

During her “House” stint, Morrison continued working in film an played Angelina Jolie’s efficient henchwomen in Doug Liman's notorious thriller Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005; also starring Brad Pitt). Recently, she starred as Gabrielle Winters, a psychiatric ward, tutor and proofreader who recounts an evening spent babysitting a 16-year-old girl which resulted in the girl's disappearance, in Kevin Palys' independent feature Flourish. Morrison will also appear in Big Stan, an upcoming comedy movie which marked comedian Rob Schneider’s directorial debut.


Awards:
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