Beth Behrs
Encyclopedia
Beth Behrs is an American actress. She starred in the 2009 direct-to-video
comedy film, American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, and stars in the CBS
sitcom, 2 Broke Girls
.
, the daughter of David Behrs, a college president, and Maureen Behrs, a first grade
teacher. She has a sister who is younger by six years. Behrs moved to Lynchburg, Virginia
in 1989, where she was raised. She began performing in theatre
at the age of four, and played soccer while growing up. At the age of fifteen, she relocated with her family to Marin County, California
, in the San Francisco Bay Area
.
Behrs began attending Tamalpais High School
in 2001, and was accepted into the school's highly regarded drama program. She studied at the American Conservatory Theater
in San Francisco, and went on to perform in the musical Dangling Conversations: The Music of Simon and Garfunkel, and the plays Korczak’s Children and Tony Kushner
's A Bright Room Called Day
. She was classically trained as a singer.
Behrs moved to Los Angeles, California
in 2004 to study acting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. In 2005, she played Sandy Dumbrowski in a production of Grease
at San Francisco's Ray of Light Theatre
, and was named Miss Marin County in 2006. She began auditioning for roles in her senior year, and graduated in 2008 with a degree in critical studies
. Behrs was awarded a Young Musician's Foundation Vocal Scholarship after graduating.
teen comedy American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, which she filmed in Vancouver
for seven weeks, beginning in March 2009. The film, the seventh in American Pie series, was released on December 22, 2009. She starred in the independent comedy Serial Buddies, about an inept group of serial killer
s, produced by TV personality Maria Menounos
. The film also starred Christopher Lloyd
, Kathy Lee Gifford and Artie Lange
. Behrs shot the independent feature, Route 30, Too!, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
in late 2010, playing an alien girl. She has also appeared in episodes of the TV series, NCIS: Los Angeles, and ABC
's Castle
.
Behrs stars in the CBS
sitcom
, 2 Broke Girls
, produced by comedian Whitney Cummings
and Sex and the City
producer, Michael Patrick King
. She plays Caroline Channing, an heiress from Manhattan
's Upper East Side
, who is forced to become a waitress in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn
diner, when her father is arrested for financial wrongdoing. Her character is a graduate of the Wharton School
, and teams up with a cynical waitress named Max (Kat Dennings
) in a business venture. Behrs auditioned for the part seven times. She was working as a nanny
and at the Geffen Playhouse
, a stage theater in Westwood, Los Angeles, when she got the role.
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
comedy film, American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, and stars in the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
sitcom, 2 Broke Girls
2 Broke Girls
2 Broke Girls is an North American television comedy series that debuted on CBS during the 2011–12 television season. The first episode aired at 9:30 pm after Two and a Half Men on September 19, 2011. Later episodes followed How I Met Your Mother on Monday nights at 8:30 pm . The series was...
.
Early life
Behrs was born in Lancaster, PennsylvaniaLancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
, the daughter of David Behrs, a college president, and Maureen Behrs, a first grade
First grade
First grade is a year of primary education in schools in the United States and English-speaking provinces of Canada. It is the first school year after kindergarten...
teacher. She has a sister who is younger by six years. Behrs moved to Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...
in 1989, where she was raised. She began performing in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
at the age of four, and played soccer while growing up. At the age of fifteen, she relocated with her family to Marin County, California
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
, in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
.
Behrs began attending Tamalpais High School
Tamalpais High School
Tamalpais High School is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises more than above Mill Valley....
in 2001, and was accepted into the school's highly regarded drama program. She studied at the American Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater is a large non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. A.C.T. was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Tech by theatre and...
in San Francisco, and went on to perform in the musical Dangling Conversations: The Music of Simon and Garfunkel, and the plays Korczak’s Children and Tony Kushner
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...
's A Bright Room Called Day
A Bright Room Called Day
A Bright Room Called Day is a play by American playwright Tony Kushner, author of the better-known Angels in America.-Synopsis:The play is set in Germany in 1932 and 1933, and concerns a group of friends caught up in the events of the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of Adolf...
. She was classically trained as a singer.
Behrs moved to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
in 2004 to study acting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. In 2005, she played Sandy Dumbrowski in a production of Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
at San Francisco's Ray of Light Theatre
Ray of Light Theatre
Ray of Light Theatre is a regional theatre company in San Francisco, California.The company produces a season of musical theatre from September to August each year. Its inaugural season was in 2001 in which the company produced You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown...
, and was named Miss Marin County in 2006. She began auditioning for roles in her senior year, and graduated in 2008 with a degree in critical studies
Critical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
. Behrs was awarded a Young Musician's Foundation Vocal Scholarship after graduating.
Career
Behrs landed her first film role in the direct-to-videoDirect-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
teen comedy American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, which she filmed in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
for seven weeks, beginning in March 2009. The film, the seventh in American Pie series, was released on December 22, 2009. She starred in the independent comedy Serial Buddies, about an inept group of serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
s, produced by TV personality Maria Menounos
Maria Menounos
Maria Menounos is a Greek-American actress, journalist, and television presenter known in America for her appearances as a correspondent for Today, Access Hollywood, Extra, and abroad for co-hosting the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece.-Early life and beauty pageants:Menounos, a...
. The film also starred Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
, Kathy Lee Gifford and Artie Lange
Artie Lange
Arthur Steven "Artie" Lange, Jr. is an American actor, comedian and radio personality best known for his tenures with the The Howard Stern Show and the comedy sketch series MADtv....
. Behrs shot the independent feature, Route 30, Too!, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
Chambersburg is a borough in the South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is miles north of Maryland and the Mason-Dixon line and southwest of Harrisburg in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Great Appalachian Valley. Chambersburg is the county seat of Franklin County...
in late 2010, playing an alien girl. She has also appeared in episodes of the TV series, NCIS: Los Angeles, and ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Castle
Castle (TV series)
Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season...
.
Behrs stars in the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
, 2 Broke Girls
2 Broke Girls
2 Broke Girls is an North American television comedy series that debuted on CBS during the 2011–12 television season. The first episode aired at 9:30 pm after Two and a Half Men on September 19, 2011. Later episodes followed How I Met Your Mother on Monday nights at 8:30 pm . The series was...
, produced by comedian Whitney Cummings
Whitney Cummings
Whitney Cummings is an American comedian and actress. She was formerly a cast member of the MTV television show Punk'd and currently stars in the NBC sitcom Whitney.-Early life:...
and Sex and the City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
producer, Michael Patrick King
Michael Patrick King
Michael Patrick King is an American director, writer and producer for television shows.-Life and career:King was born to an Irish American family in Scranton, Pennsylvania and was raised as a Roman Catholic...
. She plays Caroline Channing, an heiress from Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
, who is forced to become a waitress in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
diner, when her father is arrested for financial wrongdoing. Her character is a graduate of the Wharton School
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton was the world’s first collegiate business school and the first business school in the United States...
, and teams up with a cynical waitress named Max (Kat Dennings
Kat Dennings
Katherine Litwack , better known by the stage name Kat Dennings, is an American actress. Emerging with a role in an episode of the HBO dramedy series Sex and the City, Dennings has since appeared in the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Big Momma's House 2, Charlie Bartlett, Raise Your Voice, The House...
) in a business venture. Behrs auditioned for the part seven times. She was working as a nanny
Nanny
A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
and at the Geffen Playhouse
Geffen Playhouse
The Geffen Playhouse is a not for profit performing arts theater in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Originally named the Westwood Playhouse, UCLA purchased the property in 1993. UCLA's then chancellor, Charles E. Young, appointed Gil Cates Producing Director...
, a stage theater in Westwood, Los Angeles, when she got the role.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | American Pie Presents: The Book of Love | Heidi | Direct-to-video Direct-to-video Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television... |
| 2010 | NCIS: Los Angeles | Female Caroler | TV series, episode: "Disorder" |
| 2011 | Serial Buddies | Brittany | |
| 2011 | Castle Castle (TV series) Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season... |
Ginger | TV series, episode: "Slice of Death" |
| 2011 | 2 Broke Girls 2 Broke Girls 2 Broke Girls is an North American television comedy series that debuted on CBS during the 2011–12 television season. The first episode aired at 9:30 pm after Two and a Half Men on September 19, 2011. Later episodes followed How I Met Your Mother on Monday nights at 8:30 pm . The series was... |
Caroline Channing | TV series |
| 2011 | Chasing Eagle Rock | Deborah | |
| 2012 | Route 30, Too! | Alien girl |