Mena Alexandra Suvari Bio

Mena Alexandra Suvari was an Rhode Island native, born to Candice Thompson who was a nurse, as well as Ando Suvari (a psychiatrist). The father of her was Estonian and her mother was from Greek, Norwegian, and German descent. Mena was raised in a Rhode Island home that was constructed in 1870. She began to dream of becoming archaeologist. However, she moved to Charleston, SC where she then attended a nationwide modeling competition , which led to her being awarded a contract with Wilhelmina Models. Later, she moved to Los Angeles as part of the company's children's theater division WeeWillys. That was the point at which her acting career started. Her film debut came working with director Gregg Araki in the cult-classic Nowhere (1997) that was soon followed up by the blockbuster American Pie (1999), where she performed her own vocals, and the five-time Oscar-awarded American Beauty (1999) directed by Sam Mendes, in which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award as Best Supporting Actress. People Weekly magazine called her "All-American Girl" (1999) and Entertainment Weekly magazine named her the most patriotic artist in 2000. She was part of the blockbuster franchise , and was added to American Pie 2 (2001) and, a decade later, American Reunion (2012) to the list of. Amy Heckerling's romantic comedy Loser (1999) was her first film to reunion with Jason Biggs. She then continued to showcase her versatility as a costar in John Leguizamo in Jonas Akerlund’s cult-classic Spun (2002), and Jennifer Aniston in Rob Reiner’s Rumor Has It (2006) and Tony Scott’s Domino (2005).