CELEBRITIES

Kristen Bell

Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for CMT

BIO

Kristen Bell was born in Huntington Woods, Mich., in 1980. After graduating high school in Michigan, Bell attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

The actress got her start on Broadway with roles in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2001) and The Crucible (2002). Bell also dabbled early in occasional film and television work – Pootie Tang, American Dreams and Everwood, among other projects – until she landed the title role on the popular CW teen series Veronica Mars in 2004.

Currently, Bell lends her vocal talents as the highly mysterious “Gossip Girl,” on the hit CW series of the same name. The actress ended a five-year relationship with Kevin Mann in 2007 and is currently engaged to Punk’d prankster Dax Shepard. The pair got engaged over the holidays and Bell debuted her engagement ring at the 2010 Grammy Awards.

In November 2012, Bell and Shepard announced they would be welcoming their first child the following spring.