Elizabeth Berkley Biography

Name : Elizabeth Berkley

Date of Birth : 28 July 1972, Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA 

Height : 5' 10" (1.78 m) 

Occupation : Actress

Born in Farmington Hills, Michigan on July 28th, 1972, baby Elizabeth Berkley showed an early aptitude for dance. At age five, her parents enrolled her at the Detroit Dance Company. As her love for dance grew with the years, she began performing at high-profile shows such as Swan Lake, which attracted large audiences. As talent scouts started to frequent her shows, her parents were able to land her parts on TV shows such as Gimme a Break! and Silver Spoons, when she was seven years old. 

Fans of the saccharine-sweet teen sitcom “Saved by the Bell” (NBC, 1989-1992) would have been hard pressed to pick out Elizabeth Berkley as the star who would make the biggest name for herself, albeit, somewhat notoriously. After four years of watching Berkley’s caricatured portrayal of a high school feminist, no one could guess that the buxom blonde would, with one role, be the one to immediately re-define herself as a garish stripper in one of the most-ridiculed – yet secretly adored – movies ever made. Since careers have ended over less, Berkley’s patient rehabilitation of her image thereafter was only slightly less surprising, but admirable, at the same time.

Despite the Hollywood backlash she received post-“Showgirls,” she continued to find work on stage, on television and in films, albeit in smaller roles and/or productions. With new representation, she landed a role as Victor Garber's actress-girlfriend in "The First Wives Club" (1996) and the lead in Tom DeCillo's "The Real Blonde" (1998). She earned praise for her stage performances in a 1999 London production of “Lenny” as the stripper Honey opposite Eddie Izzard in a stage play about comic Lenny Bruce and in the 2005 off-Broadway production of “Hurlyburly,” as well as in several independent films including Woody Allen's “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion” (2001) and the critical darling, “Roger Dodger” (2002). Berkley also appeared on Broadway in “Sly Fox,” but reviews of her performance were unfavorable. Despite these setbacks, it was a test of her character and determination that, even with the unshakable “Showgirls” stigma surrounding her at all times, she managed to press on and find work.