Shiri Appleby is an American actress and television director. She is best known for her leading roles as Liz Parker in the WB/UPN science fiction drama series Roswell (1999âÂÂ2002) and Rachel Goldberg in the Lifetime/Hulu drama series Unreal (2015âÂÂ2018). Her major film credits include A Time for Dancing (2000), Swimfan (2002), Havoc (2005), Charlie Wilson's War (2007), and The Devil's Candy (2015).
Appleby starred as intern Daria Wade in the final season of the NBC medical drama series ER (2008âÂÂ2009). She later protrayed Cate Cassidy in The CW drama series Life Unexpected (2010âÂÂ2011) and Lucy Lambert in the web comedy series Dating Rules from My Future Self (2012). Appleby also had recurring roles on the NBC drama series Chicago Fire (2012âÂÂ2013) and the HBO comedy-drama series Girls (2013âÂÂ2014).
Appleby's Israeli-born mother is of Moroccan Jewish descent, and her father is Canadian and of Ashkenazi Jewish descent; he is from Los Angeles. During her youth, her mother worked as a Hebrew school teacher, while her father worked as a tour guide at Universal Studios Hollywood. She grew up in what she says was a "middle-class" household in Calabasas, California and kept kosher in her home. She attended Hebrew school and had a .
Shiri Appleby graduated from Calabasas High School in Calabasas in1997. She attended University of Southern California from 1998 to 1999, where she studied English. After two years she got the starring role in Roswell and was working steadily, but while shooting Life Unexpected in 2010, Appleby started to work towards a psychology degree from the online University of Phoenix. It took her 14 months, while also working, to complete the degree in 2012.
Appleby began her acting career at the age of four, starting with advertisements for various products including Cheerios and M&M's. She began acting and taking acting classes because her parents were concerned that she was so shy and introverted. Her first advertisement was for Raisin Bran, but it was never aired. She made guest appearances on many television programs, most notably thirtysomething (1987), Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989), ER (1994), Baywatch (1989), ' (1995), 7th Heaven (1997), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), before landing her break-out role in the series Roswell (1999âÂÂ2002), where she tried out for the roles of Isabel and Maria before landing the leading role of Liz Parker.
Appleby has been featured in a number of music videos like Bon Jovi's video for "It's My Life" with Will Estes, and the 2004 video for the song "I Don't Want to Be" by Gavin DeGraw, opposite Scott Mechlowicz. She appeared in Sense Field's music video for "Save Yourself," which is part of the Roswell soundtrack and featured in the first season DVD box set. In 2006, she had a recurring role on the short-lived ABC drama Six Degrees as Anya, a young assistant in a relationship with a much older photographer. Later in the same year, she played Hildy Young in the new USA Network series To Love and Die, that began airing in late December 2008. She also participated in a short film called Carjacking directed by Dan Passman and co-starring Geoff Stults. In 2007, she appeared in the movie What Love Is alongside Cuba Gooding Jr., Matthew Lillard, and Anne Heche. Appleby participated in another short film Love Like Wind from Shaolin Film Productions. At the end of 2007, she appeared as Charlie Wilson's press secretary in the film Charlie Wilson's War, which stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. In 2008, Appleby had a recurring role on the 15th and final season of ER (her second time on the show), playing an intern named Daria Wade. In 2010, Appleby starred in The CW network drama Life Unexpected as Cate Cassidy, a radio talk show host whose daughter whom she gave up for adoption becomes a part of her life. The show was canceled after two seasons. In 2012, she starred as the main character of Dating Rules from My Future Self, which she also produced.
In 2013, she had a role in the Lena Dunham's Girls, an HBO series including a controversial "money shot" scene. She said the role allowed her to break out of a career where she was often typecast as being sweet. Appleby said that she was invited to read for a role when she was on the set of Girls because she was interested in directing and shadowed director Jesse Peretz. After a table read with the cast, she was offered a part.
In 2013, she was cast in the leading role in Unreal, a Lifetime series about the inner workings of a reality program (a show within a show), which premiered on June 1, 2015. It was produced by former The Bachelor producer, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, a former producer of The Bachelor, and writer Marti Noxon. Appleby said that she spent time with a producer to quiz them about the work as part of researching her role as a reality dating show producer. She said that one of the appeals of the show was that the central focus was not about her character being in a romantic relationship. The show received strong reviews and was picked up for four seasons. In 2016, Appleby directed her first episode of Unreal, titled "Casualty". She directed multiple episodes of the series. In July 2018, the series ended. In 2017, Appleby starred in Janicza Bravo's first full-length feature, Lemon, which debuted at Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. In 2021, Appleby had a cameo role in the last scene of Season 3 Episode 13 of Roswell, New Mexico, having directed an episode in each of the first two seasons of Roswell.
Appleby gave birth to a girl in March 2013. Appleby and chef and restaurateur Jon Shook, the baby's father, later married. Their second child, a son, was born in December 2015. In Hebrew, the word shiri means "my song" or "my poem" and it may simply mean "sing" (second person female imperative). Appleby said her parents said that when she was born, she was like a song in their hearts.
She has a scar above her left eyebrow that she got when a neighbor's dog bit her when she was young. Getting over her fear of dogs, she went on the show Emergency Vets, accompanying staff veterinarian Kevin Fitzgerald (she overcame another phobia in the same episode by holding a live snake, one of Fitzgerald's patients).
Films