L i b r a i r i e . . .

M a x i m . . .

G i r l f r i e n d  o f  t h e  D a y . . .

Date of birth:
December 30, 1980

Hometown:
Boston

Vital stats:
5'5"

Child star:
“I was 10 years old when I started [acting], which is crazy. I didn’t know at all that I wanted to do this.”

Where you’ve seen her:
As bad-girl vampire slayer Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and in the movies That Night, This Boy’s Life, Bring It On, The New Guy, and City by the Sea. Look out for her this fall in the new Fox TV series Tru Calling, in which she plays a morgue worker who relives days in order to prevent crimes. In the meantime, you can catch her on the silver screen in the creepy thriller Wrong Turn.

Split personalities:
“In a film you play a character a minimum of three months and then you’re off to be somebody else, and since I have a raging case of ADD and like to be all over the place and jump into a role, I like movies more than TV.”

The secret of her success:
“Everything just sort of dominoed. Things just keep happening right after another. I never really think about where I’ll be in five years. I’m just waiting for things to happen. I’m doing my best and being myself, and it seems to have worked so far.”

Deaf jam:
Eliza, who was brought up in a Mormon household, used to do volunteer work signing for deaf children at the Watertown Children’s Theater in Boston.

Fall girl:
“I wasn’t ever the kid who hoped to be Punky Brewster. I wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer. I went to one audition with my brother when I was 10. I tripped and fell, and they said, ‘You!’ I just went along with it.”