Stargate Beauty

Background:

Israeli actress Milli Avital had been a celebrated performer in her native land before deciding to test the water in America and appeared in such films as "Stargate" (1994), "Kissing a Fool" (1998), "The Human Stain" (2003), and "When Do We Eat?" (2005). The award-winning actress also has guest-starred in such TV shows as "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Haunted," and "Damages."

On a more personal note, this 5' 4" beautiful Israeli import with dark hair and flashing eyes dated “Friends” star David Schwimmer from 1998 to 2001. She has been married to screenwriter Charles Randolph since 2004 and has one son.

Jerusalem Native

Childhood and Family:

In Jerusalem, Israel, Milli Avital was born on March 30, 1972 to parents Iko Avital and Noni Avital. She has one younger sibling, Yoni Avital. She grew up in Tel Aviv and Ra'anana and studied acting in the prestigious Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts in Giv'atayim, Israel.

Avital moved to New York in 1994 and dated actor David Schwimmer from 1998 to 2001. She first met Schwimmer during the filming of "Kissing a Fool" (1998).

On July 4, 2004, Avital married screenwriter Charles Randolph (“The Life of David Gale”). They have one son together, Benjamin Hillel Randolph, who was born October 28, 2007. She currently resides in New York City with her family.

Beyond the Sea

Career:

At the age of 17, Milli Avital, a frequent model for the Israeli fashion company H&O, began her acting career at the Cameri Theater of Tel- Aviv, in Christopher Hampton's play “Dangerous Liaisons” (1989). She first starred in a full-length movie when she was only 19, in the Israel movie "Me'ever Layam" (1992; aka. "Beyond the Sea," "Over the Ocean"), and won an Israeli Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress.

Following her stunning debut, Avital moved to NYC to study acting and was discovered while waiting tables on Manhattan's West Side. She made her American feature acting debut in Roland Emmerich's "Stargate" (1994), which won her Sci-Fi Universe Magazine's Universe Reader's Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Genre Motion Picture.

The talented newcomer was subsequently featured in the Jim Jarmusch Western "Dead Man" (1995) and played a florist who finds herself unhappily carrying the child of her psychotic former lover in the HBO dramatic movie "Invasion of Privacy" (1996). She also had a small role in Wim Wenders' "The End of Violence" (1997) and was cast in the independent drama "Animals" (1998).

Meanwhile, she co-hosted the special "America Salutes Israel" for Israel's 50th anniversary with Michael Douglas and Kevin Kostner. She hosted from Jerusalem while the others were in LA. TV commercial for Meudenet White Cheese.

During the rest of the decade, Avital portrayed the woman pursued by bachelor pals David Schwimmer and Jason Lee in in the romantic comedy "Kissing a Fool" (1998) and acted in "The Young Girl and the Monsoon" (1999). Meanwhile, she was spotted as a guest on the premiere episode of the NBC crime drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

Entering the new millennium, Avital had a featured acting role in the independent drama "Bad Seed" and played beautiful storyteller Scheherezade in the ABC miniseries "Arabian Nights." She went on to co-star in the USA Network production of the Ernest Hemingway short story, "After the Storm" (2001), and guest again on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," portraying twins.

She also starred in the NBC miniseries that chronicles the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, "Uprising" (2001), and played the lead in the suspenseful romance "Minotaur" (2001; aired on Cinemax), which earned her a Award of the Israeli Film Academy nomination for Best Actress. In 2004, she directed and produced a 25-minute short documentary titled "I Think Myself I Am All the Time Younger."

On the stage, Avital joined Robert Mandan, Jayne Brook, Mili Avital, Diane Venora, Lawrence Pressman, and Patrick Muldoon to star in the play "King Lear" at Electric Lodge (Venice, California), which run July-September 2006.

Returning to the screen, Avital could be seen in the Jewish comedy "When Do We Eat?" (2006; with Michael Lerner, Lesley Ann Warren, Jack Klugman, and Shiri Appleby), playing Vanessa, a celebrity publicist and a first cousin to the Stuckmans, and and starred as a twice-widowed woman in her late thirties in the touching comic-drama film "Noodle" (2007), which earned her a Award of the Israeli Film Academy nomination for Best Actress. She also guest-starred in an episode of FX legal drama television series "Damages."

Awards:

• Sci-Fi Universe Magazine: Universe Reader's Choice Award - Best Supporting Actress in a Genre Motion Picture, "Stargate," 1995

• Award of the Israeli Film Academy: Best Supporting Actress, "Me'ever Layam," 1991