Eliza Dushku Biography

Eliza Patricia Dushku was born December 30, 1980 in Watertown, Massachusetts, the daughter of Philip R. Dushku, an administrator and teacher in the Boston Public Schools, and ex-wife Judith "Judy" (née Rasmussen), a political science professor at Suffolk University in Boston.^[2]Albanian American and her mother is Danish American through both of her grandfathers and English American through both of her grandmothers Dushku's father is . Dushku attended Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, Mass and graduated from Watertown High School. She was raised a Mormon, the faith of her mother (though she is not actively practicing).^[5] She has three older brothers: Aaron, Benjamin (Ben) (born February 5, 1976), and Nathaniel (Nate) (born June 8, 1977, in Boston, Massachusetts), the last of whom is a model and actor. Her parents divorced when she was still an infant. Surrounded by brothers, she admits to being quite the tomboy when she was a little girl. Rumor has it Eliza has also studied dancing and singing and was often seen in children's theater, signing for the deaf. Now 20 years old, she already is considered a veteran of the large and small screen. Eliza has numerous starring roles in several acclaimed films. He began her movie career in the movie "That Night" at the tender age of twelve, playing Alice Bloom opposite Juliette Lewis. She has starred with such notable players as Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert de Niro as well Arnold Schwarzeneggar in such major motion pictures as This Boy's Life & True Lies, respectively. More film work from the nineties included the Hallmark TV movie Journey, the Paul Reiser flick Bye Bye, Love and Race the Sun. She began to get older roles, able to look a few years beyond her true age. After graduating from high school, the then-17-nearly-18 year old Eliza auditioned for television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and won the part of Faith, a Slayer much more troubled than Buffy. The role began in the fall of 1998 and was only supposed to be a short stint, but actress and character soon won over the cast, crew and audience. The role became a recurring one and continued throughout the 1998-1999 season (the third year of BtVS). She has since had guest starred on various episodes of both BtVS and its spinoff Angel. She steals every scene she is in. The movie Bring It On opened #1 in the box office in August 2000. Eliza received second billing as Missy, a tough tumbler turned cheerleader. The movie held strong at the box office, topped in the charts two weeks in a row, then staying in the top ten for a few months' time. Eliza will continue to grace the big screen for quite some time