1. Mena Alexandra Suvari is an American actress, producer, fashion designer and model.
44 Facts About Mena Suvari
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Mena Suvari rose to international prominence with her appearances as Angela in the critically acclaimed comedy-drama American Beauty, for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and Heather in three of the American Pie films.
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Mena Suvari played recurring roles as Edie on the fourth season of the HBO drama series Six Feet Under, for which she earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination, and Isabella on the second season of Chicago Fire.
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Mena Suvari portrayed Elizabeth Short in the anthology series American Horror Story: Murder House, and reprised the part in American Horror Story: Apocalypse.
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Mena Suvari has been a model for Lancome cosmetics and print ads for Lancome Paris Adaptive, as well as a long-time supporter and activist for the Starlight Children's Foundation and the African Medical and Research Foundation.
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Mena Suvari is the daughter of nurse Candice and psychiatrist Ando Ivar Suvari.
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Mena Suvari's mother is of Greek descent, while her father was an Estonian from Parnu.
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Mena Suvari began modeling with Millie Lewis Models and Talent as a preteen and soon after appeared in a Rice-A-Roni commercial.
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Mena Suvari was considering becoming an archaeologist, astronaut, or doctor when a modeling agency stopped by her all-girls school, Ashley Hall, to offer classes.
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Mena Suvari relocated to California and attended Providence High School in Burbank, graduating in 1997.
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Mena Suvari began acting with guest appearances in television series such as Boy Meets World and ER at the ages of 15 and 16, respectively.
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Mena Suvari appeared in a number of episodes of the show High Incident, and played a girl infected with HIV in a one-episode appearance in Chicago Hope.
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Mena Suvari made the transition to film with the role of Zoe in the 1997 independent coming-of-age drama Nowhere, directed by Gregg Araki and co-starring James Duval, Rachel True, Heather Graham, and Ryan Phillippe.
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Mena Suvari next appeared in the independent dramedy Slums of Beverly Hills, as a teenaged neighbor of a Jewish girl struggling to grow up in the late 1970s.
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Mena Suvari met Natasha Lyonne on the set of Slums, with whom she would later appear in the American Pie films.
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Mena Suvari subsequently played a teenager who commits suicide in the horror sequel The Rage: Carrie 2, and appeared as the daughter of an NTSB investigator in the disaster thriller NBC miniseries Atomic Train, although both productions were panned by critics.
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Mena Suvari subsequently reunited with Jason Biggs in the romantic comedy Loser, playing the love interest of a small-town, intelligent man.
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Mena Suvari then starred in the satirical comedy American Virgin, as the daughter of an adult film director who agrees to lose her virginity onscreen to spite her father.
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In Spun, an independent dramedy opposite Brittany Murphy and John Leguizamo about drug abuse, Mena Suvari played an addict and the girlfriend of a drug dealer.
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Mena Suvari subsequently appeared as a prostitute working in a New Orleans brothel in the small-scale drama Sonny, the directorial debut of Nicolas Cage co-starring James Franco and Brenda Blethyn, and starred opposite Colin Firth in the psychological thriller Trauma, as the neighbour of a man who awakens from a coma.
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Opposite Katherine Heigl, Mena Suvari starred in the independent comedy Caffeine, playing the staff of a London coffeehouse, and in the biographical drama Factory Girl, she played a friend and roommate of 1960s underground film star and socialite Edie Sedgwick.
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Mena Suvari made one-episode appearances in Psych in 2010, and in The Cape in 2011, and had a two-episode arc as the Black Dahlia in Murder House, the first season of the anthology horror series American Horror Story.
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Mena Suvari had a guest role in 2 episodes of American Horror Story: Murder House as Elizabeth Short, known as Black Dahlia.
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Mena Suvari returned to the American Pie franchise when she played for the third time her role of Heather in American Reunion, revolving around the original protagonists as they approach middle age and prepare for a summer reunion.
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Reviewers found the film to be a "sweetly nostalgic comfort food" for fans of the franchise, and with a worldwide gross of $235 million, American Reunion emerged as Mena Suvari's most-widely seen film since 2001's American Pie 2.
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The New York Times felt that the film "exemplifies how small judgments in pace, performance and soundtrack can transcend modest trappings", while The Washington Post remarked: "[Lena] Hall and Mena Suvari have a palpable chemistry, both musically and in their relationship".
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Mena Suvari continued to work steadily on television between films and throughout the decade; she obtained the regular role of a political consultant of a firefighter in the second season of the series Chicago Fire, and took on the leading role of a demon-hunter for hire in the eight-episode supernatural series South of Hell.
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Between 2016 and 2017, Mena Suvari made guest appearances in the television series Inside Amy Schumer, Justice League Action, and American Ninja Warrior, and starred in the made-for-television films I'll Be Home for Christmas and Psych: The Movie, where she reprised her guest-starring role from the series and basis of the film.
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Mena Suvari reprised her role as Black Dahlia in an episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse.
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In 2024, Mena Suvari had a main role as Detective Thompson on the Gala Film short form science fiction series RZR.
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Mena Suvari portrayed Jane Wyman in a supporting role in the 2024 biographical film Reagan.
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Mena Suvari is a model for Lancome cosmetics and print ads for Lancome Paris Adaptive.
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Mena Suvari has appeared in print ads for luxury accessories company Coach.
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Mena Suvari has appeared in commercials for Continental Sauces, Orange and Rice-A-Roni.
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Mena Suvari has been featured in several fashion blogs and magazines such as Seventeen, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Details, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Marie Claire, Nylon, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Tatler and Lucky.
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Mena Suvari is a frequent guest star at New York Fashion Week, among other fashion events.
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Mena Suvari was chosen as the most "patriotic" artist of 2000 by Entertainment Weekly, making allusion to her three consecutive films with the word "American" on their titles: American Pie, American Beauty and American Virgin.
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Mena Suvari has worked several times with the Natural Resources Defense Council, designing with the group a scarf line called ECHO, which was unveiled at Bloomingdales in Manhattan.
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Mena Suvari remarked: "I've always been into fashion and I wanted to design something to give to charity".
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Mena Suvari has played on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Starlight Children's Foundation, and is active in female empowerment issues, being involved with several charities whose cause is breast cancer, the "End Violence Against Women" campaign, and tours high schools as a "Circle Of Friends" spokesperson, encouraging teenagers to quit smoking.
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Mena Suvari is a long-time supporter and activist for the African Medical and Research Foundation, and has visited Africa to work on "small-income-generating and water-and-sanitation projects" with the organization.
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Mena Suvari married German-born cinematographer Robert Brinkmann on March 4,2000.
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In 2007, Mena Suvari began dating Italian Canadian concert promoter Simone Sestito, whom she met at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.
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On January 13,2012, Mena Suvari filed for divorce from him in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences and listing November 1,2011 as the date of separation.