Biography
Blonde, blue-eyed, and looking for all the world like
Heather Graham's little sister, Mena Suvari made her film debut with a small role in
Gregg Araki's 1997
Nowhere. The same year, Suvari, who was born in Newport, RI, on February 9, 1979, appeared in two other films, Snide & Prejudice and
Kiss the Girls. After another small role, in The Slums of Beverly Hills (which starred her future
American Pie co-star
Natasha Lyonne), Suvari landed her breakthrough role playing the forthright, virginal Heather in the 1999 sex comedy smash
American Pie. The same year, the actress (who had also done television work on shows such as E.R. and
Chicago Hope) won further recognition with a lead role as the teenaged object of
Kevin Spacey's middle-aged affections in the hugely acclaimed
American Beauty. With yet another lead role that year, this time in the made-for-TV disaster film
Atomic Train, Suvari seemed perfectly poised on the well-trod brink of stardom. Her profile received another boost in 2000, thanks to starring roles in Sugar & Spice and
Loser, the latter of which saw her starring as the apple of
American Pie co-star
Jason Biggs' eye. That same year, the then 21-year-old actress made headlines of a different sort with her marriage to Richard Brinkman, a cinematographer 17 years her senior. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide