Background:

Margarita Levieva is a Soviet Union-born, American actress of television, film and stage. She jointly received a Gotham nomination for her work on the Greg Mottola movie “Adventureland” (2009). Her other feature film credits include “The Invisible” (2007), “Noise” (2007), “Spread” (2009), “The Lincoln Lawyer” (2011), “For Ellen” (2012), “Knights of Badassdom” (2012) and “The Loft”  (2013). On the small screen, Levieva played a regular role on the short lived series “Vanished” (Fox, 2006) and a recurring role on HBO's “How to Make It in America” (2010-2011). More recently, she was cast as Emily Thorne/ Amanda Clarke on the ABC drama series “Revenge” (2011-?). In 2005, Levieva was chosen as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in New York  by New York Magazine.
    

Rhythmic Gymnast

Childhood and Family:

Margarita Levieva was born on February 9, 1980, in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). As a child, she trained and competed as a rhythmic gymnast. When she was 11 years old, her mother moved Margarita and her twin brother to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn in New York City. She continued to train for a few more years in the United States and gained success regionally. However, she did not compete at the U.S. Championships because she was not a citizen at the time. Margarita attended high school in Secaucus, Hudson County, New Jersey. She went on to major in Economics at New York University. She later was accepted into the Meisner Training Program at the prestigious William Esper Studio.  


Adventureland

Career:

Margarita Levieva launched her professional acting career in 2004 with a part as Julie Romano on the short film “Billy's Choice,” which premiered at the 2004 New York International Film and Video Festival on April 28. In the following year, she made a guest appearance on “Law & Order: Trial by Jury,” playing Stephanie Davis, and appeared in an unsold TV series pilot with Donnie Wahlberg, Bobby Cannavale and Kat Foster called “N.Y.-70.” She also landed a role in the direct to video comedy “English” (2005), starring Armin Amiri, Khan Baykal and Nik Belcevich.   

Levieva landed the regular role of Marcy, the daughter of Senator Jeffrey Collins, on the Fox thriller series “Vanished,” which she starred in opposite Gale Harold, Eddie Cibrian, John Allen Nelson and Joanne Kelly. The show ran for one season from August 21, 2006 to November 10, 2006.  The same year, she co-starred with Dan Hunter and Christopher Egan in the made for television film “The Prince” as well as with Jonathan Ames and Jon Glaser in a Showtime TV movie comedy, “What's Not to Love?”.   

In 2007, Levieva portrayed the important role of Annie Newton on the supernatural teen horror flick “The Invisible,” which was a remake of the Swedish film “Den Osynlige.” Directed by David S. Goyer, the film earned mostly negative reviews from critics. It grossed $20.1 million domestically and $4.0 million in other territories for a total of $24.1 million worldwide. She was cast as sorority girl Deedee in the drama film “David's Apartment” (2007), helmed by Paul Li, and co-starred with Khan Baykal and John Bodine in the comedy “Salted Nuts” (2007), directed and written by Christopher Beatty. The same year, she also had the notable role of Ekaterina Filippovna, a Russian student, on the comedy/drama film “Noise” (2007), opposite Tim Robbins, Bridget Moynahan and and William Hurt.       

After an absence in 2008, Levieva resurfaced in the David Mackenzie helmed comedy/drama “Spread” (2009), playing a waitress named Heather. Co-starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche, the film gained generally negative reviews from critics. She next co-starred with Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Starr, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig in “Adventureland” (2009), a period piece comedy/drama film written and directed by Greg Mottola. Playing Lisa P., she shared a 2009 Gotham nomination for Best Ensemble Cast for her work on the film. Besides, she made a guest appearance in the NBC short lived drama series “Kings” (2009).

In winter of 2009,  Levieva made her Broadway debut in “Impressionism,” a new play by Michael Jacobs. She starred opposite Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in the story of a world-traveling photojournalist and a New York gallery owner who help fix each others' damaged lives.

From 2010 to 2011, Levieva played the recurring role of Julie on the HBO comedy/drama series “How to Make It in America,” starring Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk. In 2011, she had a supporting role on the film adaptation of Michael Connelly's book, “The Lincoln Lawyer,” starring Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy and Marisa Tomei, and starred as Veronica in “The Stand Up,” a drama film written and directed by David Wexler.

On November 2, 2011, Levieva debuted on the ABC drama series “Revenge” in the recurring role of the original Emily Thorne, who agreed to switch identities with Amanda Clarke (played by Emily VanCamp).

Levieva teamed up with Paul Dano, Jon Heder and Jena Malone in the drama film “For Ellen,” which was helmed by So Yong Kim. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2012 and went on to be shown at various festivals like Berlin International Film Festival, RiverRun International Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Deauville Film Festival before being released on theaters on September 5, 2012.

Levieva will play Beth in the upcoming comedy/horror film “Knights of Badassdom,” directed by Joe Lynch and starring Peter Dinklage, Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn and Summer Glau. Additionally, she is set to portray Vicky in the upcoming thriller movie “The Loft” (2013), produced by Joel Silver.  The film will also star Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Rachael Taylor, Isabel Lucas, Rhona Mitra, Valerie Cruz, Elaine Cassidy, and Kali Rocha.


Awards:

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