Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress who is best known for starring in the title role on the television show Veronica Mars, and most recently, Elle Bishop on Heroes.
Bell, who is of Polish and Irish descent, was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, a suburb about three miles north of Detroit.
She went to her first audition at age 11 and won a dual role as a banana and a tree in a suburban Detroit theater's production of Raggedy Ann and Andy. She attended Shrine Catholic High School in nearby Royal Oak, where she took the starring role in the school's 1997 production of The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy Gale.
She also appeared in Fiddler on the Roof (1995), Lady Be Good (1996), and Li'l Abner (1998).
In 1998, the year of her graduation, she was named the yearbook's "Best Looking Girl" by senior class vote. The same year, she appeared in the locally filmed movie Polish Wedding.
