Early success with the smash teen comedy “American Pie” (1999) and the Academy Award-winning Best Drama “American Beauty” (1999) took young adult and former teen model Mena Suvari by surprise. A 20-year-old acting novice with only a few guest television spots under her belt, Suvari suddenly had Hollywood’s attention virtually overnight, though she struggled a bit to find her way amongst offers of mainstream comedies and the darker, more offbeat independent films. Her onscreen performances belied any self-doubt, and over the following decade, the actress gave confident performances in several roles that were best described as fearless, including that of a woman whose inebriated judgment leads her to abandon a hit-and-run victim embedded in her windshield in the chilling and twistedly comic “Stuck” (2008). Mena Suvari was born on Feb. 2, 1979, in wealthy Newport, RI to her Estonian-American father Ando, a psychiatrist, and her Greek-American mother, Candice, a nurse. The couple relocated Suvari and her three brothers to South Carolina, where the boys enrolled at the prestigious Citadel Military Academy and the academic daughter dreamed of becoming a doctor or an astronaut until a chance visit by a modeling agency to her girl’s school changed her course.

She was signed by the Wilhelmina modeling agency in New York City and spent several years traveling up and down the East Coast to attend fashion shoots. When Suvari was 12, the family moved to California, where she landed her first TV commercials and guest spots on shows like "Boy Meets World" (ABC, 1993—2000), "ER" (NBC, 1994- ) and "Chicago Hope" (CBS, 1994—2000). She made her film debut with a small role in the third installment of Gregg Araki's Los Angeles-set teenage wasteland trilogy "Nowhere” (1997) and followed up with another decidedly unglamorous role in "Snide and Prejudice" (1997) as a young girl abused by her uncle Adolf in an odd take on the life of Hitler — played out through a schizophrenic man who believes he is the notorious Nazi leader. Continuing to land jobs, Suvari had a small role in the wry comedy "The Slums of Beverly Hills" alongside future “American Pie” co-star Natasha Lyonne before a string of high profile films in 1999 turned her into an overnight sensation. Her role as the suicidal best friend of a telekinetic time bomb in "The Rage: Carrie 2" was overshadowed by a co-starring role as a wholesome choir girl who wins the heart of amiable jock Oz (Chris Klein) in the surprisingly good teen romp "American Pie."

Touted as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982) for a new generation, the enjoyable film fell somewhat short of that claim, though Suvari's performance revealed a unique screen presence reminiscent of a young Jennifer Jason Leigh. Trumping her ensemble role in “Pie,” she followed up with a critically lauded dramatic role as an entirely different kind of suburban teen in "American Beauty." With her brilliant characterization of Angela — a delusional yet sophisticated amateur model whose manufactured sexual bravado misleads a husband in a midlife crisis (Kevin Spacey) — the actress proved that she had dark and emotional depths yet to be fully explored on screen. And her scenes straight out of Spacey’s fantasies – particularly of her nude and covered with rose petals – became the most iconic scene of the film and perhaps the decade. Suvari’s next role was alongside "American Pie" star Jason Biggs in "Loser" (2000), Amy Heckerling's college-set romantic comedy where she essayed an undergraduate with a persistent crush on her professor (Greg Kinnear). She next joined the ensemble of the black comedy "Sugar and Spice" (2001), as one of a group of close-knit cheerleaders whose fierce loyalty in the face of adversity leads to criminal behavior.

The film failed to miss its mark, bringing minimal audience turnout upon wide release. Suvari returned for an abbreviated role in the less-than-stellar sequel "American Pie 2" (2001) and continued to explore her interest in more offbeat material by portraying a speed freak in the derivative drug flick "Spun" (2002), which co-starred Jason Schwartzman, Mickey Rourke and Brittany Murphy. In 2004, Suvari reteamed with "American Beauty" screenwriter Alan Ball on the fourth season of his hit HBO creation, "Six Feet Under" (HBO, 2001—05), as a daring performance artist who strikes up a provocative relationship with series regular Claire Fisher (Lauren Ambrose). The same year, she shared an on-screen romance with Colin Firth’s recovering coma patient in the stylish psychological thriller “Trauma” (2004) which was mainly seen on U.K screens and in international film festivals.

The David Mamet stage play adaptation “Edmond” (2005), in which Suvari played a small but pivotal role as a prostitute, received unenthusiastic reviews and a limited release and Suvari was next seen by wide audiences in director Tony Scott's hyperkinetic pseudo-biopic "Domino" (2005), playing the assistant to a television producer in the chronicle of a model-turned-bounty hunter. She was an unexpected addition to the ensemble cast of the Queen Latifah vehicle “Beauty Shop” (2005), which was a moderate hit, and went on to a supporting role in the Jennifer Aniston comedy “Rumor Has It…” (2005), an ill-conceived sequel to the movie classic “The Graduate” (1967). Follow-up comedies “Caffeine” (2006) and “Standing Still” (2006) were not as successful and went almost directly to home video. Despite a detour into the straight-to-video zombie romp “Day of the Dead” (2008), Suvari was back to a critically-acclaimed performance in “Stuck” (2008), a darkly comedic thriller in which she played a high-as-a-kite nursing worker who hits a homeless man with her car and leaves him embedded in her windshield to die in her garage. The off film was released to a limited theatrical run in May. An unsuccessful adaptation of Michael Chabon’s “Mysteries of Pittsburgh” (2008), co-starring Suvari as the eccentric girlfriend of an aimless young adult, hit the festival circuit early that same year around the time that Suvari made a rare entry into the entertainment blogs for sporting a shaved head. No publicity stunt for a “Beauty Shop” sequel, Suvari undertook the dramatic makeover for a film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s erotic drama “Garden of Eden,” released in late 2008.

• You May Not Kiss the Bride (2010) (pre-production)
  
• The Garden of Eden (2008) .... Catherine Bourne
• Sex and Lies in Sin City: The Ted Binion Scandal (2008) (TV) .... Sandy Murphy
• Day of the Dead (2008) .... Sarah Bowman
  ... aka Day of the Dead: The Need to Feed (USA: DVD title)
• The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (2008) .... Phlox Lombardi
• Stuck (2007) .... Brandi Boski
• Brooklyn Rules (2007) .... Ellen
• Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ (2007) (VG) (voice: English version) .... Aerith Gainsborough
• Factory Girl (2006) .... Richie Berlin
• The Dog Problem (2006) .... Jules
• Caffeine (2006/I) .... Vanessa
• Orpheus (2006) (TV) .... Sue Ellen
• Kingdom Hearts II (2005) (VG) (voice: English version) .... Aerith Gainsborough
  ... aka Kingudamu hâtsu II (Japan)
• Rumor Has It... (2005) .... Annie Huttinger
  ... aka Rumour Has It... (Australia) (Canada: English title) (New Zealand: English title)
• Domino (2005) .... Kimmie
  ... aka Domino (France)
• Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005) (voice: English version) .... Aerith Gainsborough
• Edmond (2005) .... Whore
• Standing Still (2005/II) .... Lana
• Beauty Shop (2005) .... Joanne
• "Six Feet Under" .... Edie (7 episodes, 2004)