Los Angeles-bred Jewish actress Shiri Appleby
finds her way to Hollywood.

NAOMI PFEFFERMAN

Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

A

"I don't think of myself as a celebri-
ty," she says. "I think of myself as an
actor trying to get work."
In fact, Appleby has been working
since age 4, when her parents became
concerned about how introverted she
was in preschool. "After consulting
friends and teachers, they decided to
start taking me to acting auditions, to
see if that might bring me out of my
shell," she says.
Within months, young Shiri had
landed a Raisin Bran commercial; she
went on to guest star on TV shows
such as Doogie Howser, M.D. and the
Ed Zwick Marshall Herskovitz drama

ctress Shiri Appleby sits bare-
foot and cross-legged on a
brocade chair in her West
Hollywood living room, describing
similarities between herself and the
character she played on the hit teen
science-fiction drama Roswell.
"Liz Parker was a normal girl living
in a normal town, and something
crazy happened to her," the petite, 26-
year-old actress says.
Appleby could be describing her
own journey from a Calabasas, Calif.,
thirtysomething.
cul-de-sac in the Valley to Hollywood,
All the while, she rode her bike with
a
where she stars in Pizza My Heart,
neighborhood
children in the cul-de-
story
set
in
comic Romeo and Juliet
sac
and
attended
public school, United
two family-run pizza empires sched-
Synagogue
Youth
and Temple Aliyah
uled to air Sunday, July 24, on the
Hebrew
School
three
times a week.
ABC Family Channel.
The
actress
adjusted
to the process,
Although she lives close to the stu-
and
her
credits
piled
up
until she
dios in a Mediterranean-style home
chanced
to
watch
an
episode
of the
with French doors opening onto a
Beverly
Hills,
high
school
drama
sparkling pool, evidence abounds of
90210, around age 14. "I remember
her continuing connection to L.A.'s
thinking, 'High school seems like a
West Valley. Besides the antiques,
pretty great period of life, and I dOn't
there are numerous family photo-
want
to spend those years on a set,'"
graphs; a mezuzah her father, Jerry,
she
says.
affixed to her front door; pots of yel-
So on the brink of a lucrative career,
low roses her mother, Dina, a Hebrew
Appleby
turned her back on
teacher, helped her plant in the yard;
Hollywood
to attend Calabasas High
and a sunny kitchen in which her
and
to
hostess
part time at California
Sephardic mom is teaching her to
Pizza Kitchen.
cook in the Moroccan Jewish tradi-
She participated in cheerleading,
tion.
school
leadership and yearbook staff
On the High Holidays, Appleby
but
didn't
escape typical adolescent
returns to Temple Aliyah in Woodland
angst.
Hills, Calif, where she attended pre-
"I was very thin, and my girlfriends,
school and was a bat mitzvah.
whom the boys found really attractive,
just seemed to move differently than I
did," she says. "I wasn't necessarily the
Celebrity Shy
Given her "very grounded upbringing" girl the guys were fawning over. I
always had boyfriends, anyway, but at
in a modest two-story home, show
times I felt alienated."
business can feel overwhelming, she
says. Appleby — who is wearing a
simple black dress and no makeup —
New Challenges
avoids celebrity events unless required
Two
years after graduation, Appleby
to attend, can feel self-conscious
used
those feelings to portray soft-spo-
watching herself on TV and remains
ken
Earthling
Liz on Roswell, which
star-struck around celebrities.

-

explored teenage
alienation among
characters human
and extraterrestrial.
"I played a high
school girl who
likes a boy," she
says. "If I had
missed having
those genuine emo-
tions, it wouldn't
have been as real.
The success of
the show gave
Appleby a profes-
sional life, but it
also turned her per-
Shiri Appleby in "Pizza in My Heart"• "On the one
sonal life upside
hand, I have so much experience being a young Jewish
down.
woman. On the other hanch I don't want to specifically
Relationships with
play myself"
some of her child-
hood friends
Appleby — whose only Jewish
became complicated because of her
character
has been the sexual surrogate
newfound fame. And at 20, she was
—
does
not
mind that Heart and
suddenly required to do interviews,
other
roles
have
been non-Jewish.
"which was intimidating because at
"On
the
one
hand,
I have so much
that age you don't really know if you
experience
being
a
young
Jewish
have much to say," she recalls.
woman,"
she
says.
"On
the
other
a
new
set
of
chal-
Appleby faced -
hand,
I
don't
want
to
specifically
play
off
the
air
Roswell
went
lenges when
myself."
three seasons later, and she attempted
Rather, Appleby is experimenting
to transition from teen to adult roles.
with
different kinds of roles, trying to
Although she played a wholesome
figure
out what works best for her.
high school student in the 2002 film
As
for
show business ups and
she
branched
out
by
thriller Swimfan,
downs,
she
says, "You accept there will
portraying a prostitute in the gritty
be
periods
you're
not working, but you
a
sexual
surrogate
in
the
Undertow ,
try not to take it personally."
Passover comedy When Do We Eat?;
Her continuing connection to the
and a 23-year-old in Pizza in My
West
Valley helps, she adds, pausing
Heart, which she describes as Romeo
by
a
photograph
of her father and her-
and Juliet set in the world of pizza.
self
around
age
4.
"There's something
"I play a young woman who's gone
comforting
about
going
home and
off to college and returns home to visit
knowing that it's not so different; that
her family, the Prestolanis, and ends
there's still 'normality' out there."
up falling in love with a young man
from the rival company, the
Montebellos," she says.
Appleby says she identifies with the
character "as a young woman having
to explain to her family that she wants
Pizza My Heart will air on the
to become her own person and make
ABC Family Channel 7-9 p.m.
decisions for herself and for them to
Sunday, July 24.
trust her."

33

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❑

J14

7/21

2005

45

