Nina Arvesen (born May 16, 1961) is an American actress of Norwegian extraction, model, dancer, and businesswoman. Best known for her performances in American

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

s, Arvesen landed her two most prominent acting roles as

Cassandra Rawlins Cassandra Rawlins is a fictional character from the American soap opera ''The Young and the Restless''. She was portrayed by Nina Arvesen from March 3, 1988, to March 4, 1991. Hall was the character's maiden name. Storylines In the beginning, muc ...

on ''

The Young and the Restless ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, Wi ...

'' and as Angela Raymond on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

television series '' Santa Barbara''.

Career

Early life

Arvesen was born in White Plains, New York to Norwegian parents. Her father,

Jan Arvesen Jan Arvesen (3 March 1931 – 20 July 2000) was a Norwegian diplomat. He was born in Ås, Akershus, Ås, and took the cand.jur. degree in 1958. He started working for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1959. He was an attaché at the Uni ...

, was a Norwegian diplomat and was Norway´s ambassador to Mexico (1979-1985), to Costa Rica (1985-1991) and to Portugal (1996-1998). Her mother, Sidsel (pronounced "sis-sell") was an actress in Norway. Arvensen has two brothers; Jannik Arvesen who is a financial investment adviser in Norway, and Christian Arversen who works in film and special effects in Los Angeles California. Before working in the United States, Arvesen had her own talk show for three years in Norway and also worked as an actress in Egypt, Brazil, Costa Rica, Bermuda and Norway before moving back to the United States.

Career

Arvesen initially began her career during her teens as an actress, model, dancer and a classically trained pianist in Norway. After college, she made the decision to leave Norway in 1986 to pursue her dream of an acting career in the United States where she has appeared in several television shows, commercials and movies. According to Arvesen, American casting directors refused to accept her overseas acting credits. She eventually got her first U.S screen credit and

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

membership card after appearing in the 1987 movie Dragnet with

Dan Aykroyd Daniel Edward Aykroyd ( ; born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, comedian, producer, musician and writer. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1979). During his tenure on ''SNL'' ...

and

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

. After she stopped working in the various soap operas that made her famous, her career aspirations shifted from acting to work modeling for television commercials, print ads and popular magazines. Arvesen went on to launch and create her own production company, The Arvesen Group. ''

Soap Opera Digest ''Soap Opera Digest'' is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional in ...

'' called Arvesen one of "TV's Most Beautiful Women" in their March 21, 1989 publication, which had over 1 million subscribers at the time. Arvesen currently owns and operates her own dance studio in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, after retiring from movies and television.

Charity work

Besides being the Master of Ceremonies of more than one

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is a pediatric treatment and research facility located in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1962, it is a 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit medical corporation which focuses on children's catastrophic diseases, pa ...

's annual fund-raising events, Arvesen has been involved with the

Make-A-Wish Foundation The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in the United States that helps fulfill the wishes of children with a critical illness between the ages of and 18 years old. Make-A-Wish was founded in 1980 and headqua ...

and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (

JDRF JDRF is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that funds type 1 diabetes (T1D) research, provides a broad array of community and activist services to the T1D population and actively advocates for regulation favorable to medical research and approval o ...

Filmography

References

External links

*
Nina Arvesen YouTube channel

comprehensive Fan club page for Nina Arvesen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arvesen, Nina 1961 births Living people People from White Plains, New York American people of Norwegian descent American soap opera actresses American film actresses School of American Ballet alumni American television actresses 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses