KaDee Strickland

Katherine Dee Strickland (born December 14, 1975) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Charlotte King on the ABC drama ''Private Practice'' (2007–2013).

Strickland began acting during high school. She studied acting in Philadelphia and New York City, where she obtained mostly small roles in film, television, and stage projects, among them ''The Sixth Sense'' (1999). Her participation in the 2003 Hollywood films '' Anything Else'' and '' Something's Gotta Give'' led to her receiving significant parts in the 2004 horror films '' Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid'' and ''The Grudge''. She was then referred to as "the pride of Patterson" and the horror genre's "newest scream queen", though her performances in both films received mixed critical reviews. In 2005, she garnered positive critical reviews for the romantic comedy '' Fever Pitch'', and she was a regular on the television show ''The Wedding Bells'' in 2007. She was subsequently added to the cast of ''Private Practice''.

Strickland has spoken against the emphasis placed on beauty in the Los Angeles acting community, in which she says her Southern U.S. background has helped to distinguish herself from other blonde actresses. She has spoken of an affinity for her strong female characters and a desire to avoid sexualizing or sensationalizing her self-presentation as a woman. She has also worked closely with RAINN after participating in a storyline in which her ''Private Practice'' character was raped.

Early life

Katherine Dee Strickland was born in Blackshear, Georgia, on December 14, 1975,Altamura, Mike
"Enchanting Southerner with Passion to Burn"
. EZ Entertainment. October 2004. Retrieved June 13, 2005. to Susan, a nurse, and Dee Strickland, a high school football coach, principal, and superintendent. Her nickname comes from her parents combining the "K" in her first name with her father's name (and also her middle name) to make "KaDee". She was raised in Patterson, Georgia, which she referred to as a "one-stoplight town", and she had a job picking tobacco on a local farm for eight years. When she was a child, Strickland watched the Woody Allen film ''Annie Hall'' (1975) and was "wanting to be in that place, and being completely taken with the energy of those people .. hewanted to be in it". During her childhood, she was well known locally as a member of the Strickland family and for her extracurricular activities and achievements; she was the Homecoming Queen in elementary, middle, and high school, as well as the student council president and a cheerleader. She never considered a career in the arts until her participation in a one-act play performed by students of her high school: "The minute I set foot on stage, that was it. Destiny took over. There were no other options. I felt like I fit my skin, I knew what I was here to do."

After graduating from high school, Strickland wanted to study drama at college in New York City, but her parents did not want her to live in such a large city so soon. She instead applied to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. During her studies there, she joined the Screen Actors Guild and considered using her given name as the first part of her stage name, before deciding she was "much too tomboy" for it. She took a part-time job as a waitress at a local restaurant and interned at a casting agency, where one of her tasks was to read lines at auditions for small roles in local film and television projects; the job landed Strickland her first film role. After graduating from university with a fine arts degree, she was schooled in New York City,Head, Steve
"Interview: KaDee Strickland"
IGN FilmForce. September 20, 2004. Retrieved June 13, 2005. and she moved to Los Angeles in late 2003. In 2006, she received the University of the Arts's Silver Star Alumni Award.

Career

Early work

Strickland's career began in 1999 with a brief appearance as a mourner at a funeral after-party in ''The Sixth Sense'', a two-line part that she received after impressing writer-director M. Night Shyamalan when reading lines for those auditioning for the film. According to Strickland, her role in the film helped her learn to temper her fake crying. The same year, she served as an extra in the independent film '' The Sterling Chase'', and appeared in a small role opposite Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie in James Mangold's drama '' Girl, Interrupted''.

When staying in Philadelphia, Strickland had opportunities to take part in other films in production in and around the city. Those included Rel Dowdell's '' Train Ride'', a date rape thriller filmed in 1998, but not commercially released until 2005 because of financing problems. She was also cast in the crime drama '' Diamond Men'' with Robert Forster and Donnie Wahlberg; it opened to sparkling reviews, with Richard Roeper of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' declaring it "a fantastic film, with a good cast". After she moved to New York City, Strickland appeared in Adam Bhala Lough's filmmaking debut, ''Bomb the System'', which received unenthusiastic notices from critics and was not shown outside film festivals until 2005.

Concurrent to her film work, Strickland acquired stage experience in productions such as ''A Requiem for Things Past'' in mid-1999, and John Patrick Shanley's ''Women of Manhattan''. She acted in a December 2002 episode of the television show '' Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' and made nine guest appearances on ''All My Children'', which enabled her to leave her waitressing job. In 2003, Strickland was cast opposite Eddie Cibrian in the pilot episode for an uncommissioned small screen serial adaptation of John Grisham's novel ''The Street Lawyer''.

Strickland appeared in two romantic comedy films in 2003. '' Anything Else'', written and directed by Woody Allen, featured her as the girlfriend of Jason Biggs's character (whom he snubs for Christina Ricci's Amanda Chase); she said it was a "dream come true" to work with Allen, of whom she is an "obsessive diehard" fan. The film was greeted with lukewarm reviews and dismal ticket sales, though Strickland later referred to it as her "big break"."10 Questions with KaDee Strickland"
. ''Wine X Magazine''. Vol. 5.5, February 2005. pg. 50–53. The second, '' Something's Gotta Give'' (starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton), was a major critical and commercial success, though Strickland's part in the film was brief. She played the girlfriend of Keaton's character's ex-husband (played by Paul Michael Glaser), a relationship involving age disparity that raised the eyebrows of Keaton and her daughter (Amanda Peet). The following year, she made brief appearances in the direct-to-cable independent film ''Knots'' and the poorly received satirical comedy ''The Stepford Wives'' with Nicole Kidman, playing a partygoer and a game show contestant, respectively.

Major film roles

Strickland's first lead role came when producer Doug Belgrad saw the dailies of her scene in ''Something's Gotta Give''. He cast her opposite Johnny Messner and Morris Chestnut in the jungle-set horror film '' Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid'', the sequel to ''Anaconda'' (1997). Strickland played an accomplished research scientist who travels to Borneo as part of an expedition team searching for a species of plant rumored to have life-extending properties. She said she initially did not want to follow a Woody Allen film with a "''snake'' movie", but that she changed her mind because the hero was a female Southerner who was not "a complete idiot" or "a chick in shorts about to get whacked". Though its box office revenue tripled its production budget, ''Anacondas'' did not perform as well as its predecessor, and most reviews panned the project. The cast received positive comment from ''Variety'' magazine and the ''Chicago Sun-Timess Roger Ebert, but a critic for the ''San Diego Union-Tribune'' said the film was "so stupidly plotted and badly acted, it becomes unintentionally funny", and described Strickland and her co-stars' work as "garden-variety bad". Other reviews focussed on the attractiveness of Strickland and her castmates; ''Slant Magazine'' said "he film ispopulated with anonymous, attractive plastic people from the Los Angeles talent pool." During the same period, ''The Florida Times-Union'' referred to her as "the pride of Patterson".

Strickland's next project, ''The Grudge'', was another horror film. In Japanese director Takashi Shimizu's U.S. remake of his film '' Ju-on: The Grudge'' (2003), Strickland played (in a role originated by Misaki Ito) a Tokyo-based American businesswoman whose relatives emigrate from the U.S. Strickland received the role through a casting session with producer Sam Raimi, who picked her based on her work in footage for the then-unreleased ''Anacondas'', and her willingness to work away from home for extended periods. She said that Japan and Japanese cinema had always fascinated her, and that she wanted to be "a part of that world" in which filmmakers communicate the story via action rather than dialogue; she also highlighted the importance of being "able to explore being in the wrong place at the wrong time without being a sex object/damsel in distress." ''The Grudge'' was a number-one U.S. box office hit and quickly became one of the year's most profitable films, but reviews were lukewarm. ''The Charlotte Observer'' wrote "the cast is drab and lifeless", and earned "nothing but demerits". Strickland's presence in ''The Grudge'' and ''Anacondas'' led horror fans to name her " heirnewest scream queen", but she said that when deciding what film to do next, she did not focus as much on genre as she did on good characters, scripts, and directors, which she said "don't come around that often."Davies Brown, Phil
"KaDee Strickland Interview"
. Horror Asylum. November 12, 2004. Retrieved June 13, 2005. For the scene in which her character hides under her bed covers, Strickland received a 2005 Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice Movie Scary Scene.

In late 2004, Strickland embarked on what she called "the craziest job I've ever had": a role in the Farrelly brothers film '' Fever Pitch'', a baseball-themed romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon (Strickland's ''Anything Else'' co-star) and based on the Nick Hornby book. Strickland said it was "a blast" to play "such a maniac", particularly after playing emotionally traumatised characters in ''Anacondas'' and ''The Grudge''. On the film's 2005 release, she received praise from ''PopMatters'' magazine, which described her as "irrepressible" in her role, and from MSNBC, which said she and JoBeth Williams "sometimes rescue he picturefrom its plodding moments". The film raised Strickland's profile further, though its critical response was mixed and it performed moderately at the box office. Strickland appeared as a lawyer and love interest in the film '' American Gangster'', which stars Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington in 2007.Yuen, Royce
"Exclusive Interview with KaDee Strickland, Star of The Wedding Bells"
. BuddyTV. April 6, 2007. Retrieved July 8, 2007. In 2008, she played Jillian Cartwright in the film ''The Family That Preys''.

Work in television

In early 2005, Strickland was cast in the pilot episode for the fact-based ABC television series ''Laws of Chance''. It was based on the career of Kelly Siegler, a highly successful Houston, Texas-based assistant district attorney. Strickland, whose co-stars in the pilot included Frances Fisher and Bruce McGill, said she was "really excited to have the opportunity to portray this phenomenal lady", but the series was dropped from development a few months later. Strickland was also cast in the independently financed 1950s-set film ''Walker Payne'' as laid-off stripminer Jason Patric's love interest; in a review of the film at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, ''Variety'' wrote that Strickland was "elegant". In late 2005, she joined the cast of '' The Flock'', a crime drama featuring Richard Gere, Claire Danes and singer Avril Lavigne about a federal agent assigned to track down a missing girl and a paroled sex offender (played by Strickland). Strickland said it was important to participate in such a story because she felt members of society need to consider and be responsible for their views on the sex offender counterculture, which she says " sactually not counter at all, it's very real, very next door to you."

Strickland's first aired television project as a cast regular was the David E. Kelley-produced series ''The Wedding Bells''. According to her, she wanted to be in the series because "the subject of love and commitment is something to me that I want to walk into every day. It's a lot better than dead bodies."Gray, Ellen. "'Bells' role comes easy to KaDee Strickland". ''Philadelphia Daily News''. March 6, 2006. The show began airing on the Fox Network in March 2007, and it was canceled the following month. The ''Baltimore Sun'' called it "awful in ways that make the word 'awful' seem inadequate ..he cast isnot a bad one at all, but just terrifically ill-served by the material." She joined the cast of the ''Grey's Anatomy'' spin-off ''Private Practice'', which began airing in September 2007; and portrayed Charlotte King, chief of staff at the show's local hospital and a doctor specializing in urologic surgery, and later sexology. In 2016, she joined the series '' Shut Eye'' as Linda Haverford, the wife of lead character Charlie (played by Jeffrey Donovan). It was cancelled on January 30, 2018 after two seasons.

Music video

In 1996, Strickland appeared briefly in the music video for Oasis

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