Biography
Luxuriantly tressed blonde Portia de Rossi combined her former interest in the law with her subsequent acting career and achieved TV fame when she joined the cast of the Fox TV hit
Ally McBeal in 1998. Born Mandy Rogers in Melbourne, Australia, de Rossi acted in TV commercials as a teen and modeled, but entered college to become a lawyer. She changed professions, however, when she was cast as one of the titular beauties tempting the wife of stuffy
Hugh Grant in
John Duigan's comedy
Sirens (1994). de Rossi relocated to Los Angeles and appeared on TV sitcoms Too Something (1995) and Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher (1996), as well as in the blockbuster horror sequel
Scream 2 (1997) as one of the terrorized sorority sisters.
After a starring role in the TV crime movie
Perfect Assassins (1998), de Rossi joined
Ally McBeal in its second season as icy legal hotshot Nelle. Infuriating
Calista Flockhart's Ally and enthralling
Peter MacNicol's Cage, Nelle swiftly shook up the series' bizarre office politics; de Rossi's burgeoning fame became somewhat of the proverbial burden as well as blessing when her decreasing weight, like Flockhart's, became the subject of press speculation in 2000. Continuing to act in films as well as on TV, de Rossi played a small part in the supernatural horror story
Stigmata (1999) and starred as a junkie in the indie drama
The Invisibles (1999).
After the 2002 demise of
Ally McBeal, de Rossi wasted little time in attaching herself to another edgy and successful project. Another critically-acclaimed Fox show, the ensemble sitcom
Arrested Development cast the actress as the self-righteous twin sister of
Jason Bateman's Michael Bluth, the only sane member of an affluent and eccentric California family. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide