Kristen Bell

Kristen Anne Bell is an American actress and singer born on July 18, 1980. She has built a broad career spanning television, film, and theater. Over her career, she has received two Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Award nominations. In 2025, she was featured in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She is widely recognized for her television starring roles and high-profile voice work in animated feature films.

Bell was raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Her mother, Lorelei Jo, worked as a registered nurse, while her father, Thomas Michael "Tom" Bell, was a television news director. Her mother is of Polish descent, and her father has German, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. Her parents divorced when she was six months old. During her youth, she chose to go by her middle name, Anne, until high school. Before high school, she attended Burton Elementary School before enrolling at Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak, where she participated in drama and music programs and starred as Dorothy Gale in a 1997 production of The Wizard of Oz.

Following high school graduation in 1998, Bell moved to Manhattan to study musical theater at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She left the university before graduating to take a professional Broadway role. She made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in the comedy musical The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 2001 and appeared in a Broadway revival of The Crucible in 2002. After relocating to Los Angeles, she secured guest appearances on television series and earned praise for her performance in the 2004 television drama film Gracie's Choice, alongside making her theatrical feature debut in the action thriller film Spartan.

Bell achieved her breakthrough in 2004 when she was cast as the title character in the noir drama series Veronica Mars. Her performance earned her a Saturn Award and critical acclaim, leading her to reprise the role in a 2014 film and a 2019 television revival. Following this success, she portrayed Elle Bishop in the superhero series Heroes, voiced the narrator in Gossip Girl, and starred as Jeannie van der Hooven in the Showtime comedy series House of Lies. She earned further recognition for leading roles in the NBC comedy The Good Place and the Netflix romantic comedy Nobody Wants This, receiving Golden Globe nominations for both and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the latter.

In addition to her television work, Bell developed a prominent film career. Her notable screen credits include Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Couples Retreat, When in Rome, Burlesque, Safety Not Guaranteed, The Lifeguard, The Boss, Bad Moms, A Bad Moms Christmas, Queenpins, and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie. She achieved major global recognition by providing the voice of Princess Anna in Disney's animated blockbusters Frozen and Frozen 2.

Beyond film and television acting, Bell has lent her voice and likeness to video games, including portraying Lucy in the Assassin's Creed franchise. She has also contributed voice roles to animated films such as Astro Boy and Zootopia. Her recent work includes being cast as the voice of Amy Rose in the upcoming film Sonic the Hedgehog 4.