Alexis Bledel

Alexis Bledel Profile

Name: Alexis Bledel

Birth Name: Kimberly Alexis Bledel

Height: 5' 7''

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: September 16, 1981

Birth Place: Houston, Texas, USA

Profession: Actress, Model

Education: Page Parkes Center of Modeling and Acting; Houston, Texas
New York University's Tisch School of Arts, New York (studied film)
Saint Agnes Academy in Houston, Texas

Relationship: Milo Ventimiglia (actor; born July 8, 1977; dated since 2002)

Father: Martin Bledel (Argentinian)

Mother: Nanette Dozier (Mexican)

Brother: Eric David Bledel (born in 1986)

Claim to fame: As Lorelai 'Rory' Leigh Gilmore on TV Series Gilmore Girls

Alexis Bledel Biography

Kimberly Alexis Bledel (born September 16, 1981) is an American actress and former fashion model. She is known for her role in the television series Gilmore Girls, as well as the films Tuck Everlasting, Sin City, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She goes by her first name, "Kimberly", with family and friends, but is known professionally as Alexis Bledel.

Bledel was born in Houston, Texas. Her father, Martín Bledel, is Argentinian, and her mother, Nanette, is Mexican. She has one younger brother, Eric, born 1986. Her first language is Spanish, and she did not learn English until she began school. In fact, her Sisterhood co-star America Ferrera was surprised during an interview with a Spanish magazine when Bledel started speaking Spanish. Bledel's mother encouraged her to try community theater when she was a child to overcome her shyness. She subsequently appeared in local productions of Our Town and The Wizard of Oz before being scouted at a local mall and given work as a fashion model. She attended St. Agnes Academy in Houston and is a Roman Catholic. She went to Page Parkes Center for Modeling and Acting and majored in film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for one year. She previously had appeared in the film Rushmore as an extra in a classroom scene.

Bledel made her TV debut on The WB series Gilmore Girls in 2000. She portrayed Lorelai Leigh "Rory" Gilmore, the daughter of single mother Lorelai Victoria Gilmore. Initially, Rory was a high school student living with her mother, but later moved on to college at Yale University, where she, among other things, worked as the editor of the Yale Daily News. Bledel has said that she feels she can relate in some ways to Rory, both when it comes to some personal traits and her relationship to her own parents. She also sees the family structure and mother-daughter relationship on the show as something to which many people can relate.

In 2002, Bledel was voted one of Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars Under 25". She appeared as the main character in the video for Less Than Jake's "She's Gonna Break Soon", lead single from their 2003 album Anthem. The single charted at number 39 on the UK charts. In 2005, she starred in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants based on the book by Ann Brashares. She played Lena Kaligaris, a talented artist on a journey with her three best friends, linked over the summer by a pair of magical jeans.

In 2005, Bledel made a shift from previous TV and film characters while portraying Becky, a prostitute, in the movie Sin City. "She's a very professional prostitute. She carries a gun and she kicks ass," said Bledel of Becky. Despite her tough and precocious exterior, Becky gives the impression of being the young and insecure one among the women of Old Town, because of her young appearance and her close relationship to her mother, from whom she keeps her profession a secret. Sin City is shot almost entirely in black-and-white, with splashes of color here and there, such as a red dress, blood or an entirely yellow evil character. In Becky's case, it was her eyes that kept their color, as director Robert Rodriguez claimed that he found Bledel's eyes to be "so amazing I had to keep them blue in the picture."