Jessica Cauffiel

Jessica Cauffiel (born March 30, 1976) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Margot in Legally Blonde (2001) and Tori in White Chicks (2004). She is also known as a scream queen for her roles in the slasher films Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) and Valentine (2001), as Sandra and Lily, respectively.

Jessica Cauffiel
Cauffiel in February 2009
Born	March 30, 1976 Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Other names	Kada
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1998–present

Early life

Cauffiel was born in Detroit, Michigan. Her mother, Deborah, is a social worker, and her father, Lowell Cauffiel, is a true crime author, screenwriter and television documentary producer.[1][2] She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre and Vocal Jazz at the University of Michigan School of Music. She performed in several bands, including Jazodity and Tribe of Zoe. Before graduating college, she sang on a cruise ship and in jazz and blues clubs.

Career

Acting

She was born and raised in the theater and began her career in New York. Off-Broadway and regional theater productions include: Tony Award winner Robert Lopez's (Avenue Q) 1001 Nights, City of Angels, Antigone, Assassins, Cowboy Mouth, Cabaret, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Company, Baby, Music Man, Shoppers Carried by Escalators and Grand Hotel, amongst others.

Cauffiel's debut film role was playing Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn's daughter in the 1999 remake of The Out-of-Towners, and her debut TV role in Law & Order. That same year Cauffiel played Kit, Niles Cranes' girlfriend, in the sitcom Frasier. In 2000, she appeared in the hit comedy Road Trip and Urban Legends: Final Cut with Eva Mendes, and was a lead in the 2001 film, Valentine, which co-starred Katherine Heigl. That year, Maxim magazine featured her in the publication and their online Girls of Maxim gallery. Cauffiel subsequently appeared in several more films aimed at a young audience, including box-office hits such as both Legally Blonde films and the 2004 comedy White Chicks. She also co-starred in the independent romantic comedy You Stupid Man alongside Milla Jovovich, directed by Brian Burns.

She followed a two-year recurring role on The Drew Carey Show with featured roles in several studio films, like the Farrelly Brothers' Stuck on You and Guess Who, and in 2005, co-starred in the Burt Munro biopic period drama The World's Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins. She followed that with a supporting role, playing both a young actress and an elderly pancake maven (Mother Paula) in the 2006 feature film adaptation of the award-winning novel, Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen, and a 2006–2007 recurring role on the hit NBC series My Name Is Earl.

After a nearly two-year break from acting, she landed the lead role in the 2009 Hallmark Channel TV movie drama Ice Dreams, in which she plays Amy Clayton, a former Olympic figure skater who begrudgingly agrees to coach a teenage girl, and must confront her demons in the process.

In 2009, Jessica made the comedic film short Bed Ridden,[3] which she produced as well as starred in alongside Joel David Moore, Alan Tudyk, and Garrett Morris. It was written and also produced by her father, Lowell Cauffiel, and director Jonathan Heap, who was nominated for an Oscar for his short "12:01 PM". All proceeds went to The Clare Foundation in order to raise awareness for drug and alcohol recovery for the homeless and those in need of treatment.

Cauffiel can speak with a Russian accent and has played a Russian in the movie D.E.B.S. (as an assassin) and in episodes of My Name Is Earl (as a mail-order bride called Tatiana with a large mole).

Music

Cauffiel is a trained singer and has studied and performed for over 20 years in the Western classical, musical theatre, jazz, pop, blues, and Eastern devotional vocal mediums. She also plays piano, guitar and percussion. On the occasion of the March 10, 2004 anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising Day, she and renowned Bollywood percussionist and composer Sivamani, with whom she is currently writing an album, performed live in Dharamshala, India for the 14th Dalai Lama and approximately 20,000 other monks and visitors from around the world. She also sang on the world music Grammy finalist album Shanti by Snatam Kaur and "Grateful Ganesh" by Guruganesh Singh Khalsa.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	The Out-of-Towners	Susan Clark
2000	Road Trip	Wrong Tiffany
2000	Urban Legends: Final Cut	Sandra Petruzzi
2001	Valentine	Lily Voight
2001	Legally Blonde	Margot
2002	You Stupid Man	Diane
2003	Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde	Margot
2003	Stuck on You	Debbie
2004	D.E.B.S.	Ninotchka
2004	White Chicks	Tori
2005	Guess Who	Polly
2005	The World's Fastest Indian	Wendy
2006	Hoot	Kimberly
2009	Bed Ridden	Kai	Short film; also co-producer
2010	Ice Dreams	Amy Clayton
2020	Legally Blonde 3	Margot	"Pre-production"

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Law & Order	Cashier	Episode: "Bait"
1999	Frasier	Kit	Episodes: "Shutout in Seattle: Part 1", "Shutout in Seattle: Part 2"
2002–2003	The Drew Carey Show	Milan	Recurring role, 6 episodes
2005	Cuts	Missy Drubman	Episode: "Keeping It Real"
2006–2007	My Name Is Earl	Tatiana	Episodes: "O Karma, Where Art Thou?", "Very Bad Things", "Buried Treasure"
2009	Ice Dreams	Amy Clayton	Hallmark Channel television film

References

1. Jessica Cauffiel Biography (1976–)
2. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=RM&p_theme=rm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB4DEB06C58C1F3&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
3. http://www.bedriddenland.com Archived 2009-01-30 at the Wayback Machine

External links

• Jessica Cauffiel at IMDb