From Birth To Stardom

Amy Acker is the rising star who portrays Winifred "Fred" Burkle on the WB network's cult hit, ANGEL. Amy Louise Acker was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Amy is the oldest of four children; one of her sisters is in college (2001) and her other sister and brother are in high school (2001). Amy's father is a lawyer in Dallas and her mother is a full time mom. Growing up Amy wanted to be a ballerina. She studied ballet, modern and jazz dancing for 13 years. But sadly after knee surgery in high school she couldn't dance anymore. So Amy started taking acting in high school during her sophomore year, and she loved it. Also in in the ninth grade, Amy began modeling.

She started Southern Methodist University in 1996.Amy is not a Methodist, but attended SMU because they were supposed to have a really good theater department. As part of her acting course at SMU, she was trained in weapons and certified in combat. Amy's first television role was in the Wishbone company, which was used solely for the PBS television show Wishbone. During her junior year,she modeled for J.Crew's Spring 1998 catalogue. Previous to that shoot, Amy spent 3 of her summers modeling in Japan. While in school she performed in many plays: Seta, Beast on the Moon at Stage West; Terry, Balm in Gilead; Isabella, Measure for Measure; Chorus, The Greeks; Christina, Fefu and her Friends; Anna, Apparent Wind. She performed with Undermain theater (UMT), during her senior year (1998-1999) at SMU, in the praised Therese Raquin which Amy was nominated for Actress in a leading role in 1999 Leon Rabin Awards. Whilst she was at SMU,she was in the TV movie "To Serve and Protect" as Melissa Jorgensen which was release February 14 1999. It was filmed in Dallas, Texas so it was close to home. She received her Bachelor in Fine Arts in Acting from SMU when she graduated in 1999.

After she graduated from SMU ,she went and worked at a Shakespeare theater for about eight months in Wisconsin called American Players Theater. There she played Hero in Much Ado About Nothing and Hilda in The Master Builder by Ibsen. After American Players Theater,she moved to New York for about eight months, wanting to still do theater. In July of year 2000 ,Amy was in the play Talc, which was part of the 11th edition of The American Living Room festival in Manhattan. Although originally Amy wanted to stay with theater,she ended up doing a couple of independent films (The Accident as Nina and The Energy Specialist) and a television pilot (MTV's Hell House). It was then Amy realized she wanted to also pursue an onscreen career. So she made a vocational decision and moved to down to Los Angeles, California in November of year 2000.

The transition was gentle for Amy because her agent was set up in both LA and NY. Furthermore Amy was glad that many of her SMU fellow graduates were in LA.When Amy first came to LA she roomed with a girl from American Players Theater. Before Amy auditioned for ANGEL she worked on the science fiction movie Groom Lake, with the acclaimed William Shatner, at the end of year 2000. Amy went in and read and after the final cut got the part. Originally "Fred" was suppose to be a three episode deal. She was still auditioning for work, and there were some possible pilots lined up. So when Joss Wheadon mentioned a possibility of her being a regular for ANGEL's third season, Amy needed to know quick. So they shot a test scene and sent it to the network for approval. It was approved and the rest is history. Amy would be a regular. ANGEL started shooting season three on July 10th 2001. During her free time Amy travels, reads, skis, does yoga, hikes and horseback-rides. And she is learning to play golf.For the summer of 2001 Amy visited her eldest sister in Paris. Like her character Fred she enjoys Mexican food. Amy still lives in LA.

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