Kristen Bell - Spin Magazine Photoshoot

Kristen Bell was born in Detroit, Michigan, on July 18, 1980. Like Veronica, Kristen knows what it's like to come from a broken home: her parents split when she was just 2 years old.

It didn't take long for Kristen to demonstrate the strong will that would help her succeed as a young adult. When she was 4, she decided she didn't like her first name anymore. At the time, she was a big fan of the Smurfs cartoon, so she decided that she wanted to be referred to as "Smurfette." Fortunately, her mother talked her into using her middle name, and Kristen became "Annie."

The outgoing Annie went to her first audition at age 11. She won a dual role as a banana and a tree in a suburban Detroit theater's production of Raggedy Ann and Andy.

It didn't take long for her gigs to improve. Her mother started checking out modeling agencies after several people said her daughter would look great in pictures. Before her 13th birthday, Annie had an agent and began to appear in newspaper advertisements for several Detroit retailers, including Kmart. In little time, these snowballed into TV commercials and private acting lessons.

She graduated from a Catholic high school near Motor City, where she sang as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. After graduation, Kristen headed to the Big Apple to attend the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Just three years later, in 2001, she made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In 2002, she appeared on Broadway in The Crucible, opposite Liam Neeson and Laura Linney.

Kristen took her act to Los Angeles and scored a few guest-starring roles, appearing on Everwood, American Dreams and The Shield in 2003. In 2004, she was in the cable film Gracie's Choice, playing a girl forced to help raise her sickly siblings while her mother tries to overcome a drug addiction. That same year, Kristen played the president's kidnapped daughter in director David Mamet's thriller, Spartan.

Then along came Veronica Mars, the role that thrust Kristen into stardom. Veronica is a 17-year-old high school student who's gone from "in crowd" to outcast almost overnight. Her best friend was murdered. Veronica's dad, the local sheriff, accused the victim's father, the wealthy owner of a software corporation. After another man confessed to the crime, Veronica's dad lost his job in a special recall election. The family lost its home. Mom disappeared. Veronica was shunned by the people she had called friends. But her spirit isn't broken as she continues to pursue the real killer.

In 2005, we'll be seeing more and more of Kristen. She was cast as Mary in the Showtime version of Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, a role she had already played onstage, and will be appearing on the big screen in Deepwater and Fifty Pills.

Kristen is dating Kevin Mann, an independent film producer and high school swimming coach. They live together in Los Angeles when she is not in San Diego working on Veronica Mars. Mann served as a producer for Fifty Pills.