Anna Faris

• 1. Introduction

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  Anna Faris, the American actress and comedian, spent part of her childhood imagining that her orthodontic retainer could talk to her. She pictured herself on talk shows, explaining that talking retainer to the host. Today her films as a leading actress have grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide. Yet she has said she never really thought she wanted to become a movie star. She acted to make some extra money, hoping one day to publish a novel.

  How did an English major with a novel in mind end up headlining a long-running parody franchise? And why do critics so often single her out as the best part of movies they dislike?

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• 2. Early Stages

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  Faris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 29th of November 1976. She was the second child of Jack and Karen Faris. Her father was a sociology professor who had accepted a post at Towson University. Her mother was a special education teacher. Both parents were natives of Seattle, Washington.

  When Faris was six, the family moved to Edmonds, Washington. Her father worked at the University of Washington as a vice president of internal communications. He later headed the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association. Her mother taught at Seaview Elementary School in Edmonds. Her older brother, Robert, also became a sociologist and professor, at the University of California, Davis. In interviews, Faris has described her parents as "ultra liberal." She says she and Robert were raised in an irreligious but "very conservative" traditional atmosphere.

  At age six, Faris was enrolled in a community drama class for children, since her parents usually encouraged her to act. She loved watching plays. With neighborhood friends, she eventually produced her own material in her bedroom.

  Her first professional performance came at age nine, in a three-month run of Arthur Miller's play Danger: Memory! at the Seattle Repertory Theater. The job paid $250, which felt "huge" to her at the time. "I felt like I was rolling in the dough," she recalled. She went on to play Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird at the Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington. She also played the title character in Heidi and Rebecca in Our Town.

  At Edmonds Woodway High School, she performed with a Seattle repertory company and in nationally broadcast radio plays. She once called herself "a drama-club dork" and said she wore a Christmas-tree skirt to school. She also appeared in a frozen yogurt commercial and in a training video for Red Robin. Of the video, she said in May 2012: "I play, like, the perfect hostess. And I think they still use it." She graduated in 1994.

  In 1996, while studying at the University of Washington, she appeared in the MSN Preview. This interactive CD-ROM promotional video for Microsoft's MSN 2.0 online service was filmed at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. Faris presented Channel 5, a "hip and edgy" website for young adults. That same year, the independent drama Eden, in which she had a brief role, screened at the Sundance Film Festival. She earned her degree in English literature in 1999.

  After graduation, she planned to travel to London, where a receptionist job at an ad agency was waiting. Instead she ended up in Los Angeles "at the last minute," once she committed to pursuing acting. Her first major film role came in the independent slasher film Lovers Lane, where she played an ill-fated cheerleader. The B-movie went straight to DVD, and reviews were mixed. Greg Muskewitz of efilmcritic.com nonetheless called her the film's "one center of interest."

  At age 22, she was living in a studio apartment at The Ravenswood in Hancock Park. A starring role was only a short time away.

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• 3. Cindy Campbell

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  The name Cindy Campbell is itself a joke. In the 2000 horror-comedy parody Scary Movie, Faris starred as Cindy, a play on Sidney Prescott, the heroine played by Neve Campbell in the slasher thriller Scream.

  It was her first starring credit. Until then she had appeared only in small and supporting parts in theater and low-budget features. She told The Guardian in 2009 that the experience was a "great boot camp." Films like these demand exact work with props and physical comedy, she explained, which made it "a great training ground."

  The film topped the box office charts with a $42 million opening weekend. It went on to earn $278 million worldwide. At the 2001 MTV Movie Awards, Faris received nominations for Breakthrough Female Performance and Best Kiss.

  She reprised the role in Scary Movie 2, released on the 4th of July 2001. She played Cindy a third time in Scary Movie 3 in 2003. Scary Movie 4 premiered on the 14th of April 2006, making it her fourth outing as the character.

  In August 2025, it was announced that Faris would return as Cindy in the sixth Scary Movie. Filming began in October 2025, and the release date is set for the 5th of June 2026.

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• 4. Beyond the Parody

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  At the Sundance Film Festival, the psychological thriller May premiered in 2002. Faris played the lesbian colleague of a lonely and traumatized young woman. The film reached selected theaters. A reviewer at The Digital Fix called it one of the finest examples of independent American genre filmmaking. He said Faris played her part with infectious enthusiasm, skirting the line of the over-the-top but always landing on the right side.

  In 2003, Faris was cast at the last minute in Sofia Coppola's drama Lost in Translation, opposite Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. She played a "bubbly, extroverted" actress. She hoped the film would let people know her body of work a "little more," and called it "the best experience of her life" at the time. Variety said she "contributes an amusing turn." The New York Times predicted that the film "will secure her a career." With a budget of $4 million, the film grossed $119.7 million globally.

  In 2004, Faris debuted on the tenth and final season of the sitcom Friends. She played Erica, the mother whose twin babies are adopted by Chandler, played by Matthew Perry, and Monica, played by Courteney Cox. That summer she also filmed a small part in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. Her character had just one scene, so she spent only two days on set in Calgary. She and her co-stars still received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

  In 2007, Faris starred in Gregg Araki's independent stoner comedy Smiley Face. Her character, Jane F, suffers a string of misadventures after eating a large number of cupcakes laced with cannabis. The film premiered at Sundance and received a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles. Reviews were largely positive, and Rotten Tomatoes reported that critics credited her "bright performance" for lifting it above the average stoner comedy. High Times magazine gave her its "Stonette of the Year" prize at the Stony Awards. Most critics agree that it remains one of her best films.

  She then appeared opposite Diane Keaton and Jon Heder in the independent comedy Mama's Boy. Faris played an aspiring singer and the love interest of Heder's self-absorbed 29-year-old. The film premiered on the 30th of November 2007 to lukewarm critical and commercial responses. Her next project was one she would produce herself.

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• 5. Headlining Comedies

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  On the 22nd of August 2008, The House Bunny reached American theaters with Faris as both star and producer. Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith devised and wrote the film, and Fred Wolf directed. Faris played Shelley, a former Playboy bunny expelled from the Playboy Mansion, who becomes the house mother of an unpopular university sorority. Reviews were average, yet critics were unanimously favorable toward Faris. According to Rotten Tomatoes, most called her "game" in a "middling, formulaic comedy." It made $70 million worldwide.

  Ryan Reynolds was her co-star in two 2005 comedies. Waiting... followed restaurant employees who fend off boredom and adulthood with their antics. It was an independent production with a $3 million budget, and it made $18.6 million. A View London reviewer felt the film wasted a decent comic cast, including Reynolds and Faris.

  In Just Friends, Faris played Samantha James, a self-obsessed, emerging pop singer who lands in New Jersey. She meets a formerly overweight nerd, played by Reynolds, who is now a successful record producer. The film grossed $50.9 million. It earned Faris a nomination for an MTV Movie Award and two nominations for Teen Choice Awards.

  Three years earlier, in 2002, she starred alongside Rob Schneider and Rachel McAdams in The Hot Chick. The comedy follows a teenage girl whose mind is magically swapped with that of a 30-year-old criminal. It grossed $54 million worldwide. In 2006, she played Hannah in My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Hannah is the co-worker of a man, played by Luke Wilson, who is dating a neurotic and aggressive superhero, played by Uma Thurman. Critics were mixed, but the film made $61 million worldwide. Faris and Thurman both earned MTV Movie Award nominations for Best Fight.

  In the 2009 black comedy Observe and Report, Faris co-starred with Seth Rogen. She played a vulgar, hard-partying cosmetic counter employee on whom Rogen's character has a crush. She was drawn to the part because it let her play an "awful character." Her usual roles, she said, required her to win the audience over and be charming. A scene in which Rogen's character has sex with her intoxicated character drew controversy, and various advocacy groups called it date rape. The film had an $18 million budget and made $26 million.

  That same year, Faris voiced a weather intern in the animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Her character is the love interest of a wannabe scientist. She also voiced Jeanette Miller, one of the Chipettes, in the live-action hybrid Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. Both films were box office successes. She voiced Jeanette again in Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, released on the 16th of December 2011.

  Warner Bros. released Yogi Bear on the 17th of December 2010, with Faris as a nature documentary filmmaker who befriends the title character. Reviews were largely negative, and many critics were unimpressed by the screenplay. The Hollywood Reporter called her "very talented" but wondered "what on earth" made her take the role. The film still made $201 million worldwide.

  Take Me Home Tonight, a retro comedy about friends partying on one summer night in the 1980s, was filmed in 2007. It reached wide release four years later, on the 4th of March 2011, to negative reviews and lackluster earnings. Faris still earned a Teen Choice Award nomination. She next starred in, and served as executive producer of, What's Your Number? with Chris Evans. Her character looks back at the 19 men she has dated and wonders whether one of them might be her true love. Released on the 30th of September 2011, it made $30 million worldwide. Reviewers found her comic timing "sharp as always" but wasted on a predictable comedy.

  In the 2012 political satire The Dictator, Faris played Zoey, a human rights activist who befriends a childish autocrat, played by Sacha Baron Cohen. She had been a fan of Baron Cohen "for years." She said that "90 percent" of the acting in the film was improvised. The Los Angeles Times called her "the film's standout." The picture grossed $179 million globally and earned her the Star of the Year Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners.

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• 6. Mom, Podcast, Memoir

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  The anthology black comedy Movie 43 featured 14 storylines, each with a different director. In 2013, Faris appeared in one segment alongside then-husband Chris Pratt, their third film together. Critics universally panned it, and the Chicago Sun-Times called it "the Citizen Kane of awful." She also appeared in the British romantic comedy I Give It a Year, playing the old flame of a writer, played by Rafe Spall, who has hastily married. It drew mixed reviews and was a commercial success in the UK.

  On the 23rd of September 2013, CBS premiered the sitcom Mom, with Faris as Christy, a newly sober single mom trying to pull her life together in Napa Valley. It was her first full-time television role, after years of guest appearances. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 opened four days later, and it grossed $274.3 million worldwide. Over eight seasons, Mom became the third most-watched comedy on television. Vulture called her "the most talented comic actress of her generation." Boston Herald critic Mark A. Perigard wrote that the material is dark, yet Faris balances it with genuine winsomeness. She earned one Prism Award nomination and two People's Choice Award nominations. In 2020, she left the show after seven seasons.

  Faris and her Mom co-star Allison Janney hosted the 41st People's Choice Awards, held on the 7th of January 2015. The previous year she had an uncredited cameo in the closing-credits segment of 22 Jump Street, called 30 Jump Street: Flight Academy.

  In November 2015, she launched Unqualified, a free-form advice podcast, with producer Sim Sarna. Each episode pairs an interview with a celebrity or cultural figure with personal phone calls to listeners seeking relationship advice. The podcast was inspired by Serial. "I love to talk about relationships; that's all I want to talk about with my friends," Faris explained. She said it "started out as a dinky hobby," beginning with recordings of friends who came over. By May 2021, 249 episodes had been released, and the show ran until 2023.

  In 2016, she made a brief appearance as an exaggerated version of herself in the action-comedy Keanu. She also starred in the music video for "Hold on to Me" by Mondo Cozmo. She voiced Jeanette Miller again in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip in 2015. In 2017 she voiced Jailbreak in The Emoji Movie, which critics universally panned.

  In October 2017, she published a memoir, also titled Unqualified. Amazon named it one of the "top 20 blockbuster books of autumn," and it became a New York Times Best Seller. The New York Times found it "goofily self-deprecating, casually profane and occasionally raw, earnest and blunt." The Ringer called it observant, sharp and startlingly revealing about the gap between male and female Hollywood stardom.

  Overboard, in 2018, remade the 1987 film starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Faris played a single, working-class mother who convinces a spoiled, wealthy playboy with amnesia, played by Eugenio Derbez, that they are married. IndieWire and Film Inquiry praised the chemistry between the two leads. The film grossed over $91.2 million worldwide. It was her first leading film role since What's Your Number? in 2011.

  In 2022, she starred alongside Toni Collette in The Estate, a black comedy about two sisters courting their aunt's favor to inherit her fortune. Critics faulted the plot, but Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian and Tomris Laffly of RogerEbert.com praised the ensemble. She then took a supporting role in My Spy: The Eternal City in 2024. Her upcoming projects include Andrew Niccol's I, Object, where she replaced Melanie Lynskey, and the comedy Spa Weekend.

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• 7. Critical Reputation

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  Tad Friend of The New Yorker called Faris "Hollywood's most original comedic actress." Cosmopolitan named her the "Cosmos Fun Fearless Female of the Year" in 2010. A Vulture article dubbed her "her generation's Goldie Hawn," and she is often compared to the comedian Lucille Ball. The Wrap said she has impeccable timing and is not afraid to cast dignity aside for a hearty laugh. NPR called her "Hawn's heir apparent," with "an up-for-anything mania and a gift for the low arts of slapstick and pulling faces."

  Some of her movies were critically panned or flopped at the box office, yet her own performances are often praised. The A.V. Club described her as "a gifted, likeable comedian who tends to be the best element of many terrible movies." Dana Stevens of Slate reviewed What's Your Number? and wrote that Faris shows a fearless, anything-for-a-laugh quality. She added that it would be wonderful to see Faris in a movie that tested the limits of that audacity. The Los Angeles Times said Smiley Face let her show she can carry a movie of nonstop misadventures.

  She graced the September 2000 cover of Raygun. Later covers and photo sessions included Playboy, Self, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Parade, Women's Health, Paper and Cosmopolitan. GQ UK featured her in a "Young Hollywood" pictorial in June 2001. Maxim ranked her on its "Hot 100" at No. 57 in 2004, No. 39 in 2009, No. 42 in 2010 and No. 44 in 2011. In 2009, FHM ranked her No. 60 on its "100 Sexiest Women in the World."

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• 8. Private Life and Giving

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  Faris met actor Ben Indra on the set of Lovers Lane in 1999 and started dating him soon afterward. They married in June 2004. She filed for divorce in April 2007, citing irreconcilable differences. In their February 2008 divorce agreement, she agreed to pay Indra $900,000, along with other property and acting royalties.

  In early 2007, Faris met actor Chris Pratt at the table-read in Los Angeles for Take Me Home Tonight, where their characters were love interests. They started dating shortly after and became engaged in late 2008. On the 9th of July 2009, they married in a small ceremony in Bali, Indonesia, eloping on a whim after a friend's wedding. Their son, Jack, was born in 2012, nine weeks premature. He spent a month in intensive care before going home. On the 6th of August 2017, the couple announced their separation. They filed for divorce on the 1st of December 2017, and it was finalized on the 16th of October 2018.

  In September 2017, Faris reportedly began dating cinematographer Michael Barrett, whom she met while working on Overboard. She confirmed their engagement in a February 2020 appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden. In 2021, she confirmed they had married in a courthouse ceremony in Washington State.

  During Thanksgiving dinner in 2019, Faris and her guests experienced mysterious health symptoms in a rental cottage at Lake Tahoe. First responders detected carbon monoxide at six times the recommended maximum. On the 8th of January 2025, Faris lost her home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, in the Palisades Fire.

  In 2015, Faris and her then-husband donated $1 million to a charity that provided eyeglasses to underprivileged children. The donation was allegedly inspired by their son, who was born premature and visually impaired. She also donated to the neonatal intensive care unit of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She has supported March of Dimes, which works to end premature births, birth defects and infant mortality.

  In 2017, Faris, Allison Janney and Chuck Lorre made a combined $250,000 donation to Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. They gave it in lieu of a "For Your Consideration" Emmy campaign. Since 2021, she has also supported the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth, known as GAPPS. She promotes its fundraisers on her personal social media accounts and through her podcast.

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